Alfa Romeo becomes Disco Volante with design twist

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- To show its styling prowess, an Italian design house has taken an Alfa Romeo and tried to show how a famous car that it created back in 1952 might look today.

The result is the Alfa-Romeo Disco Volante, as seen outside the gates of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance here over the weekend. It comes from the firm that made early Lamborghinis, Ferraris and the Aston Martin made famous by Sean Connery in the early James Bond movies, the DB-5.

Basically, it's a new body put atop the chassis and engine of an existing model, the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. As beautiful as the original Alfa was, the Volante attracted a lot of attention at the big car show here Sunday, including a walkaround by car fanatic Jay Leno.

Alfa Romeo is the Italian car brand owned by Fiat, which runs the Chrysler Group in the U.S. The brand, made famous as maker of the roadster that Dustin Hoffman drove in The Graduate, is expected to make a return to the U.S. in the new future.

Louis de Fabribeckers, head of design for Carrozzeria Touring, says the resulting car is "more than a concept. "It's street legal." Three have already been claimed, and another five are for sale.

The car's body will be built in Milan, Italy, from aluminum and carbon fiber, de Fabribeckers says.

He says many famous cars involved custom coachbuilders. While the underpinnings of the car will remain Alfa Romeo -- a brand of Fiat, the same company that runs Chrysler Group in the U.S. -- the body will be entirely new -- except for the windshield.