V6 Brera S: Alfa Romeo Style With Prodrive Handling Know-How For The Price Of A Mito

It’s a busy week for Team CT; some of us are in Austria to drive the BMW M3 and M4, while others are heading over to Italy for the launch of the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Mito Quadrifoglio Verde. The latter trip has got us thinking about Alfas, and particularly, the Brera. Its utterly stunning looks promised much, but it never really stacked up as a driver’s car.

The UK-only, limited-run ‘S’ changed all that. Motorsport experts Prodrive developed the car over a year, specifically optimising the handling for British roads. The work included adding Eibach springs and bespoke Bilstein dampers, and ditching the standard Brera’s heavy four-wheel drive system for a front-wheel drive setup.

The result is a dramatically changed car. The loss of the four-wheel drive transmission cuts the Brera’s lardy weight figure down 100kg to 1532kg, giving a decent boost to performance, while the suspension alterations liven up things accordingly, making the Brera much more of a sports car. Of course, 1532kg is still a significant figure, so it’s more swift than properly quick: the 256bhp 3.2-litre V6 hauls the coupe from 0-62mph in seven seconds, down from 7.2.

The Brera was never a particularly big seller, making these coupes quite rare. The V6 S is rarer still, with only 250 made. As such, there are never many on the used market. This 2008 example is one of only a handful for sale in the UK, but it looks promising. It’s only done 30,000 miles, has a full Alfa Romeo service history, and is up for £14,995 - about what you’d pay for a brand new Mito. Not bad.