Re: Pininfarina Spider

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@domain.elided>]

Bob Schartz, new Alfa owner (congratulations!), writes:

> As a recent new owner of a 1986 spider graduate which I love I am somewhat 
> ignorant to some of the alfa history. I read in an earlier issue someone 
> referring to their spider as a pinforina spider. is this any different from 
> other spiders?

No -- all Alfa Spiders from 1966 to 1994 were designed, and to some
degree assembled by, Pininfarina.  (The Giulia and Giulietta Spiders
were as well, but that's a different piece of history.)  The "house of
Farina" was one of Italy's preeminent styling firms and coachbuilders, a
tradition dating from the time when premiere automakers built chassis
and engines, and prestige coachbuilders placed specialized, in some
cases unique, bodywork on the running gear at the request of wealthy
owners.  During the Fifties, the company used the founder's family name,
Farina; this name was changed in 1966, coincidentally the year that Alfa
introduced the first car with the basic styling and structure that your
'86 is based on, to Pininfarina, as "Pinin" was the founder's nickname. 
This, however, may help explain why some Pininfarina-designed cars --
such as my 1974 Spider -- carry a badge bearing a stylized F, and not a
P.

Most sources consider the first Farina-bodied progenitor to the 1966
Alfa to be the Super Flow, introduced at the Turin Auto Show in 1956. 
Over the next few years, variations on the Super Flow (itself considered
similar in appearance to the contemporary Ferrari Super Fast) appeared
at motor shows -- the Super Flow 2 at Paris in 1956, the Spider Super
Sport in Geneva in 1959, and the Giulietta Spider Speciale in Turin in
1961.  (Dates and spellings from David Sparrow and Adrienne Kessel's
"Alfa Romeo Spider," Osprey Books, 1995, ISBN 1-85532-523-3; you can
order this and other Spider histories on line from
http://www.sfautomobilia.com if you're so inclined -- and I have no
connection with them other than the coincidence that their URL happens
to begin with my initials, and they have some money that used to be
mine).  

Much of the construction of your Spider was performed at the Pininfarina
works; I can't lay hands on a reference that outlines exactly what was
done by Pininfarina and what was done by Alfa, but oral tradition
somewhat sensibly says that the bodywork was assembled by Pininfarina
and shipped to the Alfa factory in Arese, where the mechanicals,
interior and trim were attached and the car finished.  Certainly not the
cheapest way to build a car, but it adds to the charm.

One source of potential confusion when you refer to a "Pininfarina
Spider" (at least in the U.S>) is that the Fiat Motor Company, in the
early 1980s, elected to import their Spider and X 1/9 cars into the U.S.
under the name assocated with the designer and coachbuilder that had
made those two respective vehicles.  Since Pininfarina had styled the
Fiat Spider (and Bertone the X 1/9), "Pininfarina Spider" may, in the
U.S. at least, refer to the Fiat-derived convertible.  

In addition to the Sparrow/Kessel book mentioned above (which is mainly
an attractive color picture-book of various European Spiders in
attractive locations, with a capsule history at the beginning), you
might enjoy Richard Bremner's "Alfa Romeo Giulia Spiders and Coupes"
(Motor Racing Publications LTD, 1992; ISBN 0-947981-59-4), which is much
richer in information, and includes a wealth of photographs from the
Alfa Romeo archives.  That latter book is also on the recommended
reading list of anyone who has been following the "Best GTV" thread, as
it also outlines some of the running changes to the various years from
1966 to 1974.  It costs twice as much as the Sparrow/Kessel book, but it
documents two models, after all...

- --Scott Fisher

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