Official: Maserati will build the Alfieri

Maserati has made it officially official that its gorgeous Alfieri concept previewed earlier this year will go into production.

Following months of speculation about the concept car, set to rival Jaguar's F-Type, the company confirmed that both it and the Maserati SUV will actually appear on a road near you in the future.

You can expect to see the Alfieri production car between 2016 and 2017, sporting either a V6 or V8 turbo engine powering the rear wheels, as seen in the Ghibli. Of course, you'll know all about this, because Top Gear's Paul Horrell told you as much as early as last summer (read the full scoop here).

Frankly, this is excellent news, aptly delivered in the year of Maserati's centennial celebration. "It is the year of the Alfieri," explains Maser CEO Harald Wester, "an amazing concept car built to mark the Centennial, named after our founder.

"It is the year in which customers and fans celebrate our glorious past, enjoy a present in which the product range is wider than ever, and look eagerly forward to the launch of the Maserati SUV, to be followed by the Alfieri, as the concept car goes into production," he added.

If you're listening, Maserati, we wouldn't mind one bit if you swapped the production priorities of those two around, and built the Alfieri first. We're pretty sure the TopGear.commentariat would agree, too...