1966 Alfa Romeo Spider - Spider 1600

Early Duetto from the first year of production

109 hp from 1.6 litres

Attractive colour combination

Extensive history

In 1966, Alfa Romeo finally brought the successful Tipo 101 series to an end with the Giulia Spider. While the saloon and coupé versions of the new Tipo 105 had already arrived in 1962 and 1965 respectively, the open version made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in the spring of 1966. It was now simply called the Spider – and initially, enthusiasm was somewhat thin on the ground. Pininfarina’s design certainly knew how to divide opinion.

Beneath the bodywork was familiar Alfa Romeo engineering, with twin-cam four-cylinder engines of 1.3 or 1.6 litres. A public competition was held to find the new Spider a proper name, with the rather unremarkable “Duetto” eventually emerging as the winner. The name disappeared again with the arrival of the 1750 version in 1967. That same year, a young Dustin Hoffman rather reluctantly drove the somewhat older Anne Bancroft home in The Graduate, while Simon & Garfunkel supplied “Mrs. Robinson” for the soundtrack. No advertising agency in the world could have dreamt up better publicity, and suddenly the Spider was a star. It remained one well into the 1990s, when the fourth and final generation, still based on the original 1966 design, was finally discontinued.

This Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider left the production line on 19 April 1966 and was sold through an Alfa Romeo dealer in Bagolino on 9 May. It spent its first decades where a Spider was probably best suited anyway: in Italy. Until 1985 it was based in Turin, before moving to the province of Vicenza, where it remained until 2008.

In 2013, its journey finally took it across the Alps to Austria and into the hands of its present consignor. He did not, however, tuck the Alfa beneath a cover and wait for better weather. Instead, the Spider regularly took part in classic-car rallies, accumulating precisely the sort of miles it had been built for. A FIVA Identity Card provides further documentation of the car.

Even future open-air motoring has already been catered for. A new soft top comes with the car, although there is no particular urgency to fit it: the one currently installed remains in good condition. The driver’s seat could use a little attention, although it is the sort of cosmetic blemish one never sees from behind the wheel.

Today, this early 1600 Spider can look back on a long Italian history, more than a decade in Austrian ownership and plenty of rally miles actually driven.