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Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider Veloce 2000 | The Legend Goes On
THE LEGEND GOES ON
Edited by Remigio Camilla / Photos by Audun Braastad
When in 1962 Alfa Romeo first revealed the Giulia 1600, it immediately garnered huge consents, not only among the fans of the brand. With an elegant and sporty line, extremely characteristic and unusual stylistic elements for a four-door sedan, deeply interesting from any side you were looking at it, nothing was made by chance but everything – even the smallest details – had been studied and designed to immediately transmit personality, power, speed. Its sloping front with four headlights, of which the larger external ones gave it grit and a peculiar charm, the groove that ran along the whole side at the base of the windows up to the slightly hollow truncated tail, the latter another strongly characterizing element, were a great news for the time on a production car, especially if sedan, when most of the cars used to have a more reduced rear end. However, not only the line but also its mechanics with a powerful engine combined with an innovative chassis, which made the Giulia 1600cc the fastest sedan on the market, created so much interest in the Giulia itself, so as to outline two advertising slogans became famous: “The car drawn by the wind” and “The family car that wins races”.
Initially its powerful engine is fitted on the Coupe designed by Bertone and which will change from Giulietta Sprint to Giulia Sprint and on the Pininfarina Spider which from Giulietta Spider will become Giulia Spider. The following year, in 1963, thanks to the young designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, Bertone created the new Giulia GT coupe, which over time will become an icon among small sports coupes, today a highly coveted model by vintage cars collectors no matters the version and the available engine. In 1964 the open-top variant of this model was unveiled as well, the Giulia GTC where the C stands for Cabriolet, always designed by Giugiaro but this time produced by Zagato.
This version, despite being very elegant and refined, was received with mixed coldness, perhaps because being a convertible it was not a proper Spider and overall because its line lost that typical sportiness of the GT.
As had already happened with the Giulietta, the task of designing the new Giulia Spider was entrusted to Pininfarina, who took inspiration from the stylistic studies carried out in the previous decade with the Super Flow prototypes designed by Aldo Brovarone. The line of these prototypes as seen in plan had a nearly symmetrical rounded front and tail, as for its profile, the front and the tail had a sloping and elusive line running down and which turned downwards in a mirrored way. Furthermore, Brovarone had introduced a scratch that ran along the entire side making it very dynamic. The studies on these prototypes, in 1959, led to outline the Spider Super Sport which in 1961 would bring to the prototype of the Giulietta Spider Speciale Aerodinamica, a perfect “Cuttlefish Bone”. Perhaps to reinforce this idea it is presented completely painted in white. The latter prototype will become the basis for creating the new Giulia Spider which, precisely for what has been said, will be called Cuttlefish bone and this definition will remain stuck forever and still in use today to distinguish it from subsequent truncated tail versions.
Aldo Brovarone will obviously work on the new model with the collaboration of Franco Martinengo, through the constant supervision of Battista Pininfarina who seems having made an important contribution especially in the realization of the “Piano di Forma” and the “Mascherone” and was also the last car he personally followed. In fact, his death came a few weeks before the presentation at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show.
At the time of its debut the new model is presented as Giulia Spider 1600, but immediately and in order to advertise it, they organized a competition for finding a simple and incisive name. It’s in this very moment that the famous DUETTO denomination is born and which unfortunately lasts for a short time, since it already belonged to a chocolate snack produced by a confectionery industry, which had filed its name at the Court of Milan thus having the rights over it. There are only 190 specimens that can boast this designation, but among enthusiasts it will remain in the history of Alfa Romeo to indicate this very model.
The Giulia Spider Veloce 2000 of our article belongs to Alexander Stark, a serious vintage cars lover, especially if they’re Italian, struck by the Biscione since his childhood and in particular by the Giulia Spider. His story has literally bewitched us and made us understand how deep the connection with a particular model can be.
Some might say that I was cursed from the very beginning, others would consider me blessed. For me, my story with cars, and in particular Italian ones, has enriched and defined my life.
When I was born in October 1979, I left the Oslo hospital with my parents’ Alfa Romeo Alfasud 1200. In kindergarten I painted the Alfa Romeo logo, my clothes were full of buttons with the emblem of the city of Milan and with my father, typographer and graphic designer from Vienna moved to Norway, I took part in numerous meetings with the local Alfa Romeo Club over the 80s and 90s. One could say that I was infected with the passion for cars before I was even born.
In 1985 I remember going to a car dealership with my father as he took a silver-colored Alfa 33 QV and even more vivid in my memory is a bargain Alfa Romeo Spider, in Giallo Posillipo, which he brought home in 1989, two weeks before my sister was born. At the time, of these two events, what I was most interesting in was that of the Spider, of course. While my father pursued his passion for racing in the mid-90s, the yellow Spider was sadly sold.
Of course, my childhood and youth have been defined in many ways by Italian cars. Reading about them, learning to drive on one of them and having worked during summer months at an Italian dealers, dreaming and eventually owning some of my dream cars. Without a doubt, even my best friends today share the same passion for classic cars.
As a boy, borrowing my father’s Alfa Romeo 164 3.0 V6 for a trip with friends from Oslo to Copenhagen, spending time on the racing track, cheering for my dad’s team competing with the Alfa Romeo 75 3.0 V6, or spending the whole period of my military service in northern Norway, always reading and dreaming of owning and driving Alfa, Maserati and Ferrari, the dream and memories of the Alfa Spider have never completely vanished. This dream helped me choosing when I started buying my first car at 20 years old, a 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4. It was quite similar to that of my childhood and it served me and my girlfriend, now my wife, for two years of young love. Over the years I got married and had children and improving my situation I was able to make some of my dreams come true. I owned Porsches, a 928, a 996 Targa, a Panamera and a Cayman, but despite how beautiful and precise German cars were, they never aroused the same feelings in me. Italian cars still do this and the cars I own now include a Maserati Merak SS, a Biturbo 425, a Quattroporte S and a Ferrari 348 Spider. More recently I have also been able to add a Maserati Mistral and a Ghibli GT. I consider myself lucky for being able to drive and even own some of my dream cars and if I can, I will continue to add others to the list, as long as I live. But regardless of the car I drove, the yellow Spider that my father brought home in 1989 has always been a point of reference and joy.
For this reason it is difficult to describe the happiness I felt when a friend told me that the car was for sale. It was in 2017, almost 25 years after my father sold it. In the past years it only had three owners and everything have been left intact: the stickers of the club gatherings in which my father and I had attended, even my bright yellow driving gloves lost when I was 10 were still in the glovebox! Soon me and my father realized that we had to buy that car, this time together, to continue its legacy with our family.
I am now 40 years old and my father is 70. The legend goes on!
Alexander’s splendid Spider in Giallo Posillipo is a second series and cannot be called “Osso di Seppia” (cuttlefish bone), or Duetto for the aforementioned reasons. Its line has been shortened by 13 centimeters in favor of the truncated tail typical of the sports cars of the era. This version was presented at the 1969 Turin Motor Show and will adopt increasingly powerful engines up to 2000 cc and 131 HP with the Spider Veloce designation to distinguish it from the 1300/1600 Junior versions. Looking at the rear profile and comparing it with that of the Cuttlebone fish, we can see how the back was not simply cut, but also raised. The tail profile now tends to follow the trend of the front fenders in an almost symmetrical way. In the previous model the shape of the tail profile was very curved and sloping downwards and symmetrically followed the curvature of the front hood. The rear mirror now features new rectangular headlights with a horizontal shape, the bumper is new as well, made of a single steel blade with a rubber band, instead of the one divided into two parts with the central space dedicated to the number plate. This first version with a truncated tail will be confirmed over time as the most successful and appreciated for its slenderness, lightness and for the elegance of its line, it is no coincidence that this solution, although revisited, will be taken up on its latest generation.
The front bumper is new too, which has always been divided into two parts and is now made in a simplified way, always through the two parallel chromed steel blades that enclose the black rubber band and at the same time the optical unit for the indicators and lights. In the cuttlefish bone model the two parallel chrome blades gave rise to the air intake, according to the classic Alfa schemes. Centrally, the classic Alfa shield is now placed lower and wider, with only three horizontal strips. In this way, even the small nose that connected the Alfa logo with the sloping front has disappeared. It will be the last version to maintain this type of setting, given that the following versions will stylistically lose the connection to the two side air intakes to the Alfa shield, in favor of a decidedly more full-bodied bumper, especially for the new safety regulations.
On the inside, the newly designed dashboard is characterized by two circular instruments, no longer united in a single eyelid, but each with a single one that gives an even more dynamic and sporty look. The three typical circular instruments remain in the center of the dashboard which also enhances the character of the car. On this version the dashboard is completely covered in soft anti-reflective material, without the sheet metal part painted in the same color as the bodywork, a solution that tied it more to the past. In the latest versions, the three circular instruments will be united under a single eyelid with the tachometer and odometer involved in a simplification certainly more economical for the production process, but which will make you lose much of the typical Alfa charm and attitude.
We’d like to thank Alexander Stark who with emotional story has involved us in his great passion for Italian sports cars – especially Alfas – wishing the best for continuing the legendary legacy with his Giallo Posillipo Spider Veloce that over time is going to become a “Norwegian Legend”.
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