Brera (Type 939) 2005 - 2010

The Brera is named after the artistic suburb of Milan, the home of Alfa Romeo and debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 2002.

Following positive feedback in Alfa Romeo announced that they would build a production version of the concept in 2005.

21,786 units of the Brera were made and 12,488 of the convertible Spider version which makes them a low volume car and subsequently a fairly rare site on UK roads, there are less than 500 on the road in this top specification that you are looking at.

The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro  and was built in the Pininfarina factory in Turin.

The Brera won many fans for its stunning looks and won many styling awards, The Top Gear team of Clarkson, May and Hammond were particular fans describing it as "pornography" in 2008 and staying that "you can't be a true petrolhead until you have owned an Alfa Romeo"

I had always wanted a Brera since I first saw the concept photos from the Geneva Motor Show in 2002, this was equipped with a Maserati V8, the production versions launched in 2005 had either a 3.2 V6 or a 2.2 both petrol, 2.4 and 1.9 diesel versions followed but I couldn't bring myself to buy a diesel Alfa.
There was also a 1750 turbo version introduced in 2009 but these are extremely rare.

I bought my car during lockdown in 2020 having seen it on a dealer website in Kent, once I had driven it I decided to do the sensible thing and think about it over the weekend and call the dealer back on Monday.
Imagine how I felt when I called back on Monday to be told he had sold the car on Saturday after I had driven it!, however the dealer called me on the following Tuesday to say that the guy that had bought it wanted to bring it back as he couldn't get his kids in the back, shock horror!, anyway they couldn't agree on a price so that didn't happen.

I then started scouring the car websites to see if he had listed it privately and eventually found it on the last site that I looked on, I made an appointment to go and see it and brought it home with me that afternooon, it had got away once and it wasn't going to happen again.

Since buying the car, I have made some minor modifications while still keeping it as stock as possible:

The wheels were refurbished in a high gloss anthracite finish.

Calipers repainted in yellow.

New rear exhaust section and Ulter Sport / Ascari back boxes.

There are still many things on my to do list!

I only use the car for pleasure, events and shows now although it was a daily driver for at least the first 3 years when it was a company car judging from the mileage covered.

My car is a 2008 SV facelift version, these later cars had the more ergonomic and much nicer visually leather seats, a darker grey dashboard and a few other minor mods.
SV was the specification level "SkyView" which meant that there was an electric sliding blind covering the full length panoramic roof, all Breras had the glass roof but it was covered over in the lower spec versions

It was factory fitted with the bigger 18" horseshoe alloy wheels, updated front brakes with 4 pot Brembo calipers and Bluetooth connectivity.

I regularly take the car to shows, including Simply Italian at Beaulieu, Festival Italia at Brands Hatch, Auto Italia at Brooklands, Classic Alfa at Goodwood and many of the local shows and owners club events up and down the country.
In summer 2023 at the Camberley Car Show, my car was chosen from over 300 others as the winner in the "Best Modern Car" category