Alfa Romeo Spider (The Star of The Graduate Film)

My 1975 Series 2 Alfa 2000 Veloce Coda Tronca ("Kamm tail")

The original 1966 car was called the "Duetto" Spider and had a 1600cc engine, but the one pictured has the more powerful 2000 engine (and the name Duetto had been dropped by then, due to Alfa Romeo being sued by a food manufacturer who made a biscuit of the same name)

The 2000 Veloce was the highest performance of the spiders with a top-speed of 125 mph and 0-60mph in less than 9.0 seconds, but all of them had the beautiful, punchy four-cylinder twin cam-shaft alloy engine which sounded like it was going far faster.

The Spider was in production, with very few major changes, for longer than almost any other car (with obvious classic exceptions such as the Beetle), with a production run of over 25 years. The Porsche 911 has been produced for much longer and is still going strong, but back in the early 1970 had similar power and specifications to the Spider, whereas now the 911 has several times as much power. At the end of it's run, the Alfa was little changed, apart from cosmetically, from the original.

The classic design was by Pininfarina who also manufactured the car - Alfa Romeo just supplied the engines and other parts, until the series 4 cars which were made by Alfa Romeo.

The 1600 "Duetto" was only made from 1966 to 1967 and then the Duetto name dropped, but the similar 1750 Veloce and 1300 Junior continued until 1969

Engine: 1600cc
Power: 108 bhp (80kW)
Torque: 105 lb ft (142 Nm)

Engine: 1779cc
Power: 116 bhp (87kW) or 130 bhp for the US market
Torque: 137 lb ft (186 Nm)

Engine: 1290cc
Power: 88 bhp (80kW)

There are a few variants. The original Duetto quickly became known just as the Spider (meaning convertible sports car... well actually that's a simplification. The name Spider comes from sporty Italian horse-drawn carriages, on which the young boy-racers of the day installed tall thin wheels, so they would ride higher and avoid getting splashed with mud - from a distance, these looked like spiders)

A cheaper variant came out later, with a 1300cc engine, called the Junior, and the engine of the Spider grew to 1750cc then 2000cc. Early cars had carburetors, later replaced with fuel injection and less power, to meet the US emissions laws. The early Series 1 cars had what is now called a "boat-tail" which was long and elegant, but prone to accident damage and rust so later Series 2 cars including all of the 2000cc cars, had a cut-off, shorter tail, which is more practical. Other variations were the replacement of the beautiful chrome bumpers with plastic, covering the chrome grill. Later the bumpers were restyled for the series 3 cars and a plastic spoiler attached to the boot (trunk) The last few years of production these rather unattractive add-ons were replaced with modern painted plastic bumpers and the spoiler removed - this was the series 4.

I have owner two of these wonderful convertibles:

1975 Series 2 - Alfa Romeo Spider (chrome bumpers and a short "Kamm" tail)

1985 Series 3 - Alfa Romeo "Graduate" Spider (plastic bumpers and a spoiler on the boot)

Engine: 1779cc (1970-1973)
Power: 131 bhp (98kW)
Torque: 138 lb ft (187 Nm)

Engine: 1290cc - Junior (1970-1973)
Power: 103 bhp (76kW)
Torque: 101 lb ft (137 Nm)

Engine: 1962cc (1971 to 1981)
Power: 126 bhp (94kW)

Top-speed: 125 mph
0-60mph: 9.0 seconds

Engine: 1570cc (1972 to 1981)
Power: 108 bhp (81kW)

The Aerodinamica or "Duck Tail Spider" was made from 1982 until 1989 and while the plastic bumpers did detract from the original classic shape did allow this very special car to continue in production until the restyled Series 4 came out for the last few years until 1993

Engine: 1962cc (1982 to 1989)
Power: 126 bhp (94kW)
Torque: 131 lb ft (178 Nm)

Top-speed: 125 mph (approx)
0-60mph: 9.0 seconds (approx)

The Series 4 version of the car lost the bumpers and spoilers from the previous model replaced with more attractive body-coloured bumpers.

Engine: 1962cc (1990 to 1993)
Power: 124 bhp (93kW)
Torque: 122 lb ft (166 Nm)

Top-speed: 125 mph (approx)
0-60mph: 9.0 seconds (approx)