Alfa Spider

There can be no mistaking an Alfa Romeo Spider (рис. 21). The delicacy of its lines and its unique character could not have come from any other car-maker. Nor would any other manufacturer ever consider making essentially the same sports car for no less than 27 years. Sports cars are normally a genre reserved for the cutting edge of car design.

The truth is that Alfa Romeo never really needed to replace the Spider. It was always an intensely likeable car and it gained a passionate following of devotees, especially in America. In the early 1980s, when sports cars were almost universally dropped from other car-makers' price lists, the Alfa Romeo Spider pretty much had the ground all to itself.

Few people could have realised the little Alfa sports car would become such a classic when it was launched in 1966 as the Duetto (duet), a name selected from hundreds of entries in a nation-wide competition. Alfa Romeo even gave away a new car to the lucky winner of the contest.

The Duetto used the advanced mechanicals from the Giulia saloon, including the 1570cc engine in its most powerful (109 bhp) twin-carb state-of-tune, plus a five-speed gearbox and all-round disc brakes. It was very advanced

for 1966. With its unmistakable long, flat, rounded tail, the Duetto was judged by the mo­toring press to be an outstanding sports car.

In Britain at least, it was rather too expensive to make much impact, as it cost almost as much as an E-Type Jaguar.

After just one year, the engine was changed for a new 1779cc engine with 118 bhp on tap and the old Duetto name was dropped in favour of the Alfa Romeo 1750 Spider Veloce. In 1968, a short-lived 1300 Spider Junior was also launched, although that model is little-known outside Italy.

Visually, the biggest change to the Spider came in 1970 when the car's delicately rounded rump was re­placed with a harder and arguably prettier ^‘Kamm’ style cut-off tail. A year later the engine was in­creased in capacity once more, to 1962cc, and output leapt up to a punchy 132 bhp. The early 1970s was un­doubtedly the Spider's heyday: it was quicker, pret­tier and purer than at any other time in its life.

Then it all fell apart. In Britain, it was de­cided that converting Spiders to right-hand drive was uneconomic and official imports ceased in 1977. If purchasers were keen enough, they could still buy a Spider through specialists

Рис. 21

Bell & Colvill, who would even convert it to right-hand drive if wished, but it was always a marginal product. Then US law decreed that rubber impact bumpers and catalysts had to be fitted. Soon after, in 1952, the Spider's glorious twin-carb engine was stultified by fuel injection, blunting its power down to a pale 115 bhp.

In this fashion, the Spider lasted right up un­til 1990, when Alfa Romeo boldly decided to give the Spider one last lease of life with a major re-style by Pininfarina. The central bodywork remained the same except for some plastic sill covers, but the front and rear ends were heavily revamped. Most significant were the wrap-around body-coloured plastic bumpers front and rear, and the re-shaped boot and rear wings. The engine was modernised with electronic fuel injection, variable valve-timing and a catalytic converter. In­side, the interior was considerably reworked. With this last breath of fresh air, the Spider lasted for two years; Alfa Romeo did not pull the plug on its most coveted model until 1993.

It's amazing that the Spider proved so long-lived. Pininfarina's styling was controversial even when the car was new and, by 1970 the influential American magazine, Road & Track, was already describ­ing both the shape and the ergonomics as " outdated". It always had a bucketful of the usual Alfa quirks, such as the gear lever which sprouted from the dash­board and worked in a near-vertical plane.

Yet the Spider's appeal was remarkably durable. Spurred on by one of the most celebrated film appear­ances ever for a car, when Dustin Hoffman swept Katherine Ross off her feet in The Graduate, the American market became the Spider's mainstay during the bleak 1970s. Around 90 per cent of all Alfa Spiders were sold in the US during this time. From 1955, the base model Spider was even called the Graduate in America.

Typically Italian in style and in its uncompro­mising engineering approach, perhaps the Spider's best point was its silky sweet four-cylinder twin-cam en­gines. Like all sports cars, the Spider was a victim of advancing legislation, developing performance-blunting fuel injection and catalysts in response to American demands. It never lost its essential charm though. Indeed, in engineering terms it always remained firmly rooted in the 1960s.

Despite its admirable handling, refinement and ride being overtaken by other sports cars, the Spider remained convincing. Performance was lively and the sound from the exhaust was distinctively Alfa. There were wonderful design touches and the feel was of a very special car.

That means that it inevitably became a desirable classic. Despite the oft-repeated stories of rampaging rust and delicate engines, there is no shortage of en­thusiasts who appreciate the Spider's finer qualities. There is no shortage of people who remember The Gradu­ate either. The Spider is simply too stylish to avoid being a fashion statement as well as a great sports car.

With the memory of its legendary Spider still fresh in the mind, Alfa Romeo presented, in 1994, an all-new Spider. However, it shared only the name with its ancestor, as it was radically different in concept and design. Front-wheel drive is the biggest differ­ence and the new car's modern styling sets the pace for rival sports cars. The new Spider promises a great future for Alfa Romeo's venerable sports car tradition.

As the company's 1980s advertising slogan boasted: " The magic lives on..."