With Alfa Romeo midway through its centenary year, Italian coachbuilder Zagato is adding to the automaker’s centenary celebrations with the world premiere of a new concept sports car at this month’s 2010 Villa D’Este Concorso d’Eleganza.

Dubbed the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa, the concept model is said to pay homage to special Alfa TZ models of the past. No other details were released on the car, but with the show just around the corner (April 23-25), we won’t have to wait long to find out what it’s all about.

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The first official photos of Stile Bertone’s Alfa Romeo Pandion were leaked on the internet today ahead of the concept sports car’s world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.

Named after a species of raptors which is more commonly referred to as the sea hawk, the Pandion was designed to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s 100th anniversary.

Even though the designers of Stile Bertone would probably disagree, we can’t help but note that we found a few styling similarities between the Pandion and last year’s BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept model including the front fascia, the far-reaching use of glass on the doors and to a lesser extent, the overall shape.

But being a product of Italy and all, the Pandion appears -at least from these photos- to be a much better car to look at than Adrian van Hooydonk ‘s overly-complicated design.

Details on the Pandion remain scarce, though it is said -but not yet officially confirmed- that the lightweight concept model uses the same platform and V8 engine as the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

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After an bevy of factory spy shots and more recently, a squabble with the current and former employees of the Italian firm’s Milan plant that led to a last minute decision to drop the ‘Milano’ name, Alfa Romeo has finally published the first official image of its new compact hatchback that will replace the 147 and compete in the all-important C-segment in Europe.

Even though there have been rumors about the use of the ‘Giulietta’ name, the Italians have yet to announce something official.

However, there’s still some time left to choose a name as the compact hatch won’t be fully revealed until the Geneva Motor Show in March 2010.

The 147′s replacement, which will be made only as a five-door model, is based on the Fiat Group’s new C-Evo platform that will also be used in future Chrysler and Dodge products.

Measuring in at 4,350mm in length, 1,460 mm in height and 1,800 mm in width, with a wheelbase of 2,630mm, the new compact hatch is slightly longer, taller and wider than the current 147. It also features a boot capacity of 350 liters.

When it arrives in Alfa’s showrooms in spring next year, the hatch will initially be offered with a choice of two petrol and two diesel engines, all turbocharged.

The range will include the 1.4-liter TB and 1.4-liter TB Multiair petrol units with 120HP and 170HP respectively, and the 1.6-liter JTDM and 2.0-liter JTDM diesels with 105HP and 170HP respectively.

Later in the year, Alfa Romeo will introduce a sportier version wearing the “Quadrifoglio Verde” (four-leaf clover) badge to compete against the VW Golf GTI and Renault Megane RS. The QV will be powered by a 1.7-liter (1,750cc) four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine delivering an output of 235 horsepower.

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We were hoping that Alfa Romeo would introduce the production version of the 240hp MiTo GTA concept at the Frankfurt show but the Italians decided to start off with something a little less spicy in the form the sporty Quadrifoglio Verde model. The “four-leaf clover” MiTo is powered by Alfa’s revolutionary new 1.4-liter MultiAir turbo engine that cranks out 170HP or 15 more ponies than the turbo engine of the 1.4L TBi model.

Power is transferred to the front wheels through a newly developed “C635″ six-speed gearbox.

Alfa claims a 0 to 100km/h (62mph) sprint time of a little over 7 seconds with an extra-urban cycle (that means highway) fuel consumption of just 4.8 lt/100 km (49mpg US) and CO2 emissions of 139 g/km.

To further improve handling Alfa equipped the MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde with its Dynamic Suspension system that has been co-developed with Magneti Marelli. The system comprises of four electronically controlled shock absorbers, five accelerometric sensors, a control unit and an interface for the three different settings (Normal, All Weather and Dynamic).

A sporty Alfa wouldn’t be complete without the visual upgrades so the Italians fitted the Quadrifoglio Verde with 17-inch alloy wheels finished in satin titanium that is also used for the headlight and tail lamp frames as well as for the wing mirrors.

The hot hatch’s interior is further enhanced by the different fabric used to upholster the seats, the dashboard and the white lighting on the instrument panel.

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The first Alfa Romeo 8C Spider production car to be seen on the move in Britain will participate at next weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Spider will be joined on the hill by several famous motor racing cars from Alfa’s historic museum collection in Arese, Italy, including a 1924 P2 Gran Premio which won the first World Championship in 1925 and the 6C 3000 CM that was driven to second place by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1953 Mille Miglia.

 The Italian firm which is a year shy of its 100th anniversary, said that it will also bring along two special concept cars, the wedge-shaped 1968 Alfa Carabo featuring hydropneumatic-powered gull-wing doors and multi-coloured one way glass windows, and the 1978 Najavo study.

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As part of a new UK market promotional campaign for the new MiTo sport hatch, Alfa Romeo has launched a new online racing game that allows users to drive the subcompact model at 10 different venues on 10 different web sites. While we can’t say that we were impressed by the arcade-style game, you might want to take a shot at it as Alfa is offering several prizes, including a new MiTo worth near £12,000 for those that score the best overall time.

Over the nine week duration of the promotion, top racers will be eligible to win one of 90 iPod touch units or one of 180 iPod nanos, while at the end of each week, those that reach the top of the national leaderboard will receive a Nintendo Wii. The ultimate prize is of course the brand-new Alfa MiTo 1.4 16V Lusso which cost £11,936 in the UK.

Source: MiToRally