Spider tail lights (+164) Euro/US

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Funnily, the 1991 Spider (non-Veloce) I am looking at also has different tail lights. I didn't notice a difference in the back-up lights, but seller said that the tail lights had a different color so he could always tell when he was driving behind his wife (kinda reminds you of that scene in "Chinatown" where Jack Nicholson breaks the glass of one tail light of a car so that he can better shadow it in nighttime traffic). When I looked closer, I noticed that one turn signal was "pixelated" (the left one, I think) while the other one was not. I took it as a sign that the one of them had been replaced at a later date with an incorrect part. I doubt that the lights were intentionally mismatched, but they could be unintentionally mismatched by the factory on a small series of cars. I once heard an unverifiable story about a 'Sud that came with a different profile cam on the two opposing cylinder banks. This '91 has 004707 as the last six digits (serial #) of the VIN.

Relating this to my observations about the 164, I have noticed that the central reflective panel on the rear lid with the backup lights differs on 91 (through 93?) US market from the European spec 87- models and the US 94- models. The '91 US backup light is white rather than pixelated red/white. The differences are confirmed by different part #'s on the parts CD I bought from AlfaBill. The Euro design definitely looks more slick. I am guessing that the reason for the white backup lights is that some states may have had a requirement that lights have a covering in a particular color (here, white or clear) rather than a requirement that a light emit a particular color. It is my understanding that some state motor laws have been rewritten within the '90's to define the color of the light emitted rather than the color of the covering, not only for backup lights but also for other lights (E36 BM* #-series were reported to come with amber, not clear front corner lights for this reas!
on).

This could be one reason for having clear/white backup lights on '91 US Spiders. Recent automotive lamp clusters usually have time stamps on them. They look like a number in a circle. Say, the number is 1, that means 1991 (or 2001). Around the number is a circle with twelve slices. If three of the slices have a dot in it, then it was produced in the third month of that year. This knowledge is often helpful in identifying if a vehicle has been involved in an accident.

Hope this helps,
Sonny 1991 164S, Baltimore

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