1959 Alfa Romeo 2000 - 2000 Spider Touring

One of only 3,443 two-litre Spiders built

Beautiful design by Carrozzeria Touring

Delivered to New York through Max Hoffman

Complete restoration from 2016 to 2025

Matching numbers

When Alfa Romeo introduced the 2000 in 1958, the marque had just undergone a remarkable transformation. With the Giulietta, the maker of outrageously expensive sports cars had become a manufacturer for a much broader public. That did not mean Milan was ready to abandon prestige altogether. For those who simply felt a Giulietta was not quite enough car, there was the 2000.

Alfa designed the saloon itself, while the convertible was entrusted to Carrozzeria Touring. There, the large chassis was dressed according to a proven recipe: clean lines, restrained chrome and that effortless elegance Italian coachbuilders of the period apparently mastered in their sleep. The body was built according to Touring’s famous Superleggera principle, with thin aluminium panels stretched over a delicate tubular framework. Elaborate, expensive and just right for an Alfa.

Under the long bonnet was an old acquaintance. The two-litre four-cylinder with twin overhead camshafts traced its basic design back to the 1900 and produced 115 hp in the Spider. There were five gears, while braking was initially still entrusted to drums. The 2000 Spider was therefore less an uncompromising sports car than a fast Gran Turismo for two. The sort of car one would rather take to Portofino than to the next hill climb.

Naturally, such pleasure did not come cheaply. Accordingly, numbers remained modest. Only around 3,400 Spiders were built by 1962, before the outwardly similar but more powerful 2600 took over with its new six-cylinder engine.

The 2000 thus remained an Alfa from a brief period in between. Already a modern Gran Turismo, yet technically still deeply rooted in the great old Alfa school. Perhaps that is precisely where its appeal lies. A Giulietta was more nimble, the later 2600 more accomplished. But few wore their elegance quite as effortlessly as Touring’s Spider.

According to the accompanying Certificato di origine, this 2000 Spider Touring was built on 26 February 1959 and, less than a week later, sold on 3 March to Alfa importer Max Hoffman in New York. Its first journey therefore took it to the legendary man who helped introduce post-war America to Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW and Alfa Romeo.

From New York, the Alfa soon made its way to where an open Italian was probably better suited anyway: California. It remained on the West Coast into the 1970s, with later traces placing it in Arizona. Decades in the dry American Southwest had one rather pleasant side effect: the body survived the years in remarkably sound condition.

In 2016, the American chapter came to an end and the Spider arrived in Austria. Here began what would ultimately become a nine-year project. The Alfa was completely restored from the ground up, with no expense spared. Extensive documentation records just how much work went into the process.

In 2025, the time had finally come. After nine years of work, the Touring Spider received its Austrian individual type approval and was allowed back onto the road. The result speaks for itself. And, for once, even saves us the grand words.