Alfa Romeo - Brera concept

For now, only one Alfa Romeo Brera exists. It's the latest embodiment of all that the design studio, concept car builders and engineering trouble-shooters Gruppo Italdesign Giugiaro are capable of - the people who bought us the original VW Golf, Alfasud, Fiat Panda, Maserati 3200GT and, ahem, Daewoo Matiz, amongst plenty of others. As well as being a motorised advert for the company's talents, the Brera is a near-production-ready test of the public's reactions to the prospect of Alfa Romeo offering a direct rival to the Porsche 911...

The highlight of the Brera's visual treats is its incomparably startling bodywork, crafted entirely from carbon fibre. It's a low, very wide 2+2 coupe, painted in the loudest imaginable shade of metallic scarlet. At each corner are whopping 20-inch 'telephone dial' wheels sporting Michelin run-flat tyres, near-bald at the back because Giorgetto Giugiaro's son Fabrizio has been practising his doughnutting technique in the car.

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