At the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Alfa Romeo unveiled the 8C Spider, a roadster version of the Competizione coupé concept presented in 2003. The Spider concept was built by Carrozzeria Marazzi. Production of the 8C Spider was confirmed by Sergio Marchionne on September 25, 2007. It was announced that the Spider would be built in a limited production run of 500 units and would cost around US$227,000 (€165,000), considerably more than the coupé version.

The production version was unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. Production of the 8C Spider began in 2009, in Modena, with Maserati in charge of manufacturing the cars as with the coupé. While 500 cars were originally to be produced, only 329 Spiders in total were produced due to the impact of the Great Recession. 35 of the 329 Spiders were destined for the United States. In the United States the 8C Spider had a base price of US$299,000. In the October 2011 issue of Evo (magazine) the 8C Spider won the title of the 'Best Sounding Car'.

Alfa Romeo claims that the 8C Spider's top speed is 290 km/h (180 mph), which makes it slightly slower than the coupé version. The brakes on...