What's all this about?

It's the sensational Alfa Romeo Cuorerosso concept car, being unveiled by the Italian firm at the Paris Motor Show this week.

Go on, tell me it's a 10,000hp EV.

It's not, actually. Alfa has confirmed it still intends to cater very firmly for keen-driving enthusiasts as we move into an increasingly electrified automotive age, but the pushback on the public take-up of EV sales Europe-wide has seen the firm clearly state it will be taking a 'multi-energy approach' to its cars going forward. That means EV, PHEV, HEV, MHEV and maybe, just maybe, ICE.

So if you look closely at the exquisite front wings of the Liquid Ink Red Cuorerosso, you might notice the fabled quadrifoglio verde performance emblem of Alfa Romeo. And the company invites us to consider the concept car with a 2.9-litre V6 hybrid powertrain, plus Q4 all-wheel drive and a carbon propshaft. Yep, 2.9 V6: the sublime engine from a Giulia Quadrifoglio, effectively.

Amazing! Any other details?

A few. Although Alfa won't explicitly say the Cuorerosso will make production, we know enough hard-point data about it to suggest the company is being coy. So the concept is 4,700mm long, 1,980mm wide, 1,331mm high and is possessed of a 2,930mm wheelbase. It's a four-door, 2+2 GT with rear 'suicide' portals, and in the arches are forged 'Teledial' alloys sitting over Brembo carbon-ceramic stoppers. The car also has steer-by-wire and a coefficient-of-drag figure of just 0.28Cd, while the whole confection weighs just 1,750kg. For something this big and with, presumably, upwards of 510 turbocharged, hybrid-assisted horsepower, that's scant mass.

Inside is so much red your eyes don't know where to look next, as well as futuristic but minimalist 'telescope' dials that can merge into one unit in selected view modes. Drive settings include Cruise, Sport and Quadrifoglio (hurrah!), and there's a lot of sustainable materials used in the upmarket cabin. Shame about the steering yoke, though. Harrumph.

Go on, then - translate 'Cuorerosso' for me. Is it like the Maserati Four-Door?

You've got it in one. But then, you have to admit, Cuorerosso sounds a heck of a lot more elegant than 'Red Heart'. Albeit the latter term is brutally straight-to-the-point. Fingers crossed this beauty does, in some way, presage some sort of semi-attainable production Alfa with this amount of sheer desirability baked into its fluid form...

Matt Robinson - 11 Oct 2026