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nicola123
Utente Medio
Toscana
156 Messaggi |
 Inserito il - 28/03/2007 : 00:54:16
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Su di una rivista inglese di auto storiche di Aprile 2007 (Practical Cars) c'e' un 'confronto' tra 'vecchiette' e 'giovincelle' di diverse marche, tra cui quello di una Alfa Spider 1971 e 2002.
Allego articolo (in Inglese, Spiderman poliglotta puo' tradurre !!!) e le foto dell'articolo.
n.
P.S. Naturalemente quando hanno fatto il servizio in Inghilterra, pioveva !!!
Immagine:
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Have you ever wondered why convertible cars,
especially ltalian ones, always seem to be called
Spiders? There's a distant association with a light horsedrawn
phaeton called a spider, which did look vaguely
arachnid thanks to its spindly construction and manylegged
folding roof. 5o now you know, but I bet you'd
be surprised if you knew some of the other handles this
pretty little car nearly got stuck with.
Alfa Romeo struggled with a suitable moniker for
Battista Pininfarina's new design, which was simply called
the 16OO Spider to start with. This name was shared with
the outgoing 1600 5pider (like the little Ciulietta James
Fox resprays in The Day of the Jackal) so they asked the
public and got a tremendous response - well over i OO,OOO
suggestions in the space of two months. But would you
have bought an Alfa Acapulco, Al Capone, Edelweiss,
Lollobrigida, Pizza, Shakespeare or Stalin?
One clever chap came up with Duetto, simply meaning
'duet' and referring to the two-seater format. Yet despite
going to all that effort, Alfa binned the name after only a
couple of years when the new 175occ version of the Ciulia
range (Berlina, or saloon, Sprint and Spider) appeared. In
Italy the original round-tailed car was nicknamed the 'osso
di sepia' or 'cuttlefish bone', a name that will make sense to
budgie fanciers everywhere.
That rounded rear was lopped off in 1970 when the
neat Kamm-tail version appeared and formed the basis for
allfuture Spiders as spoilers, safety bumpers, body-kits
and finally another rear-end smoothing job took the car to
its 1991 curtain call - quite a lifespan for any vehicle.
Today's Spider is a very nicely-restore d 1971 1750
model in left-hand drive. lt's a U5 import with a rare
aftermarket targaroof , which keeps the
rain off but doesn't change the basic
character of the little Alfa.
The driving position is dominated by
the huge and very handsome steering
wheel, with a horn blade set into each of
the three spokes at just the right distance
for impatient ltalian thumbs. Yet despite
the Mediterranean origins, there's
enough adjustment for tall drivers and it's
easy to imagine this being a comfortable
car on long trips.
People say the 1750 incarnation of the
famous twin-cam is the best compromise
between cubic capacity and overall
sweetness. lt has a nice mixture of
induction roar and exhaust rasp, and
it pulls well, keen for you to hang on to
each of the five gears. The steering is
light and direct, and the suspension is far
from the bone-cracking set-up you get in
some roadsters. lt does everything well -
even the brakes are good. The real fun is
to be had by thrashing it and lettingthat
twin-cam sing. Creat for summertime
evening blasts, but perhaps you'd feel
cruel using it all year round.
Not so the new car. After all, why
choose a modern car if not for regular
use? Alfa's new Spider and its hard-top
equivalent (called the CTV) made quite
a splash when they debuted in 1995, and
still looked dramatic ten years later when
the plug was pulled. With that diagonal
slash, one could imagine the horizontal
swage of the Duetto Spider and the
Fifties Disco Volante tilted forward to
suggest greater speed.
Creater speed there certainly was. The
1992 Alf a 155 introduced a new twincam,
twin-spark engine which sounds
traditionally Alfa-esque, but was in fact
a Fiat block with a new Alfa-designed
head. New heads also appeared on the
V6 that first arrived in the late Seventies,
now with twin cams per bank and a total
of 24valves. One change that really got
the Alfisti spitting out their spag bol
was the Fiat Tipo's transverse-engined,
front-drive floorpan. Front-wheel drive?
In an Alfa Spider? Welcome to the Nineties. Anyway,
orevious models like the Alfasuds and the hotter 33s had
shown that FWD Alfas could still be fun. But there's one
other important difference between the 'new' Spider and
the Duetto-related ones. The Duetto shared bits with the
'lO5-series saloon and GT, but it was only ever meant to
be a soft-top, hence plenty of in-built stiffness. The 'new'
Spider, on the other hand, is basically a'new' CTV with a
roofchop. Stiffeningwas added, but not enough.
Exceptionally zealous fans will claim that the flexible
chassis improves roadholding, but in common with other
Nineties convertibles created from tin-top siblings (think
Saab 9OO andg-3 family), it's far from ideal. On the road
it's actually not an issue unless you hit potholes. The
car we're trying today has nicely-weighted steering and
large tyres which together with the rather short-but-wide
stance of the car give a reassuringly planted feel.
That distraction is hiding under the bonnet, which
is a pity, because it's almost as nice to look at as it is to
listen to. This is a 3.0-litre Y6 24-valve Spider Lusso, the
top of the range. Have you heard that Alfa V5s make a
particularly good noise? Even in modern, cat-strangled,
fuel-injected installations, they're so musical it's tempting
just to pull over and play tunes on the engine. 5o we do.
The engine has another trick. Bury your right foot at
anything approaching l5OOrpm in any gear, and the car
smoothly gathers pace. We started in sixth gear at 2omph
and we'd hit well over lOomph inside a mile of disused
runway. More room? 15Omph should be yours, hood up.
Perhaps best of all, you can enjoy the symphony from
one of the best interiors seen in a (relatively) affordable
car in recent years. lt's not hard to see the attraction.
APRIL 2OO7 PRACTICAL CI.ASSICS
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Modificato da - nicola123 in Data 28/03/2007 01:00:27
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moroclass
Duettista junior
Toscana
11532 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 28/03/2007 : 08:58:19
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Spiderman
Duettista junior
Estero
12467 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 28/03/2007 : 10:19:43
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Citazione:
Messaggio inserito da nicola123
P.S. Naturalemente quando hanno fatto il servizio in Inghilterra, pioveva !!!
Naturalmente! Invece, se l'avessero fatto a Berna, sarebbe stato lo stesso  |
Loud pipes save lifes
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luciano
Utente Master
Lazio
4780 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 03/04/2007 : 23:01:19
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| Una bella America con paraurti cromati. |
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motogigio73
Utente Master
Campania
5103 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 03/04/2007 : 23:07:33
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| bella la america ,la seconda.....bah |
Luigi
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spiderfrek
Utente Master
Emilia Romagna
9024 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 04/04/2007 : 10:13:15
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E' un confronto che non ci stà a dire nulla, non è possibile confrontare due auto come queste.
Sono diametralmente opposte! |
  ® ALFAPALLEGGI RAGNOSI®
Il Sole, il vento, il Duetto...Il Duetto è lo Spider, tutto il resto....Solo la voglia! |
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Frank
Utente Master
4234 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 04/04/2007 : 13:06:35
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| Quoto!!! |
Frank
GTJ 1972
Spider Junior CT 1971
1750 berlina 1971
GTV TS 16V 2002
166 2.5 V6 24V Busso
"Tutto quello che non c'è o non si trova, bisogna inventarselo!"
Socio n.796 |
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Autodelta
Utente Master
Marche
3333 Messaggi |
Inserito il - 06/04/2007 : 18:03:16
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E' interessante dal lato "evolutivo".
Certo il semplice raffronto non è nulla di interessante. |
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Confronto tra Alfa Spider 1971 Vs 2002
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