Alfa Romeo 158 Alfetta Kit Car Costs $10k Excluding Donor Mazda MX-5 Miata

159 is the name of the evolutionary model, which features a redesigned rear suspension and side-mounted twin superchargers. The straight-eight engine develops 425 horsepower at 9,300 revolutions per minute, which is hugely impressive for 1.5 liters of displacement and an archaic carburetor.

In addition to impressive results on the track and similarly impressive specifications on paper, the Alfetta is bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful in its curvaceous simplicity. All these elements combined to capture the imagination of Wheeler Dealers host Ant Anstead, who created a kit car with an MSA-approved roll bar and underpinnings from the Mazda MX-5.

There’s a pre-launch offer going on right now with a special price of 7,499 pounds sterling, excluding the donor vehicle, which works out to $10,015 at current exchange rates. The kit features “key components required for the build,” and the first of 10 kits will be delivered in the first quarter of 2021.

Before you ask, the answer is no. A replica of the Alfetta with the drivetrain from a Miata isn’t a road-legal car in the U.S. even though the SEMA law says otherwise. Three of the reasons you won’t be able to drive this single-seater fellow on public roads are the lack of blinkers, headlights, and taillights.

The kit car's dedicated website – lovingly named Tipo 184 – doesn’t offer a lot of details about the parts and installation instructions. Be that as it may, the Wheeler Dealers host has uploaded pictures of a tube frame, a seat and a headrest, painted body panels, wire wheels, shocks, a four-spoke steering wheel, a radiator, a windshield, the fuel tank, and the exhaust header.

The latter component is the most interesting of the lot because it’s half fake. More to the point, four of eight pipes connect to the four-cylinder engine of the donor vehicle while the remaining four aren’t doing anything at all.