Alfa Romeo Brera Fanatic Creates One-Off 159 Hatch

An Alfa Romeo fan in South Africa decided to paste the rear end of a Brera to the rest of a 159 sedan, ending up with the world's first-ever five-door hatchback version of the latter. Carscoops discovered the build, which is all but complete except for a rear windscreen, which is particularly tough to source at the bottom of Africa.

The man who commissioned the build is Brendon Scholtz, a gearhead who likes to push the boundaries of custom projects. Scholtz started by observing that the lines of the 159 and Brera are similar, which evolved into a digital rendering. As any decent gearhead would, Scholtz purchased a scrapped Brera so one of these beauties wouldn't be unnecessarily damaged. The 159 was in good mechanical condition because it would become the primary donor vehicle.

Why? In a post, Scholtz says he's building the car he wished Alfa Romeo did.

Scholz employed the services of a local fabricator, who cut both cars down the middle of the rear fender to make the two bodies fit. Only the sheet metal and glass from the Brera were carried over, which means it's 100% 159 underneath. It still uses the same 3.2-liter naturally aspirated V6 and all-wheel-drive system as the 159. That means 256 horsepower and 237 lb-ft of torque.

As you can imagine, it took a lot of work. While the cars matched easily enough in profile, the Brera's lower roofline required some work to match up with the 159. Once the metalwork was done, the car was reassembled and painted the same red of the 8C supercar with a black roof. Scholtz kept the Brera's side mirrors and the 159's multi-spoke alloys.

He still plans on lowering the car, fitting some side skirts and a roof spoiler, but as it stands now, the car is already quite spectacular. The Brera may have worked if the Italians had the foresight to offer it as a five-door hatch meets wagon.