CarBrandLogos archive · Alfa Romeo · 1966

Alfa RomeoSpider

Twenty-seven years of the same open two-seater, and it never quite dated.

Photo: allen watkin from London, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Alfa Romeo history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Alfa Romeo Spider, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

1956 Alfa Romeo 3000 CM Superflow IV fvl

Origins

Pininfarina's last design for Alfa Romeo's roadster was signed off by Battista Pininfarina himself, working with Aldo Brovarone, shortly before his death. The car appeared at Geneva in 1966 to replace the Giulietta Spider, with a rounded boat tail, a full-width grille and a shape so smooth that the Italian press nicknamed it the cuttlefish bone. A public competition supplied the name Duetto.

1956 Alfa Romeo 3000 CM Superflow IV fvl · Rex Gray · CC BY-SA 2.0

1956 Alfa Romeo 3000 CM Superflow IV rvr

Design and engineering

Mechanically it was Giulia underneath: front-engined, rear-drive, all-alloy twin-cam four, five-speed gearbox and disc brakes all round, which made it quicker and better equipped than the British roadsters it was sold against, and rather more expensive.

1956 Alfa Romeo 3000 CM Superflow IV rvr · Rex Gray from Southern California · CC BY 2.0

1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Quadrifoglio Verde , rear left

In production

Then Dustin Hoffman drove a red one through The Graduate in 1967 and the car's American future was settled. The United States became its principal market, and it was for American rules that Alfa kept adapting it: the tail was cut into a Kamm form in 1970, bumpers grew through the decade, fuel injection arrived to meet emissions law, and a rubber spoiler was added in the 1980s before a final Pininfarina revision tidied things up again.

1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Quadrifoglio Verde , rear left · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

Production ran from 1966 to 1993, through changes of ownership from Alfa Romeo to Alfa Lancia Industriale and finally to Fiat Auto, always assembled by Pininfarina. Twenty-seven years is a very long life for one body shell, and by the end the car was an antique being sold to people who wanted precisely that.

Chapter 5

The 916 Spider that replaced it in 1994 was front-wheel drive and looked nothing like it. The original is still the car people picture when they hear the name.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1966–1993

Body

2-door roadster

Technical specification

The Spider, in detail.

Production: 1966–1993
Class: Sports car
Body style: 2-door roadster
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Designer: Aldo Brovarone and Battista Pininfarina at Pininfarina
Assembly: Italy: Grugliasco, Turin; Italy: San Giorgio Canavese (Pininfarina)
Manufacturer: Alfa Romeo (1966–1986); Alfa Lancia Industriale (1987–1991); Fiat Auto (1991–1993)