'80 Spider

["Bain, Bill" <Bill.Bain@domain.elided>]

The bad: 

The 1980 and 1981 Spiders are considered by many to be the nadir of
Alfa's road-going works of 115 automotive art, largely because of the
infamous single butterfly plenum used to feed air into the cylinders,
along with the smog pump and the fact that the SPICA pump was pretty
maxxed out in its ability to meet the stringent emissions standards.
The single butterfly cars tended to burn valves due to the unequal
airflow into the middle cylinders compared to the outside ones (too much
air in the middle = lean mixture = burnt valves).  IF  I recall
correctly, at the Nashville convention an 1980 Spider was dyno'ed and
put out about 80 or so HP.

The good: 

It's still an Alfa.  If it's complete and not been messed with, it's a
bit of an oddity since so  many owners got fed up with the whole intake,
etc. and used either Webers or an earlier SPICA setup.  If it's survived
this long, it may have had little use and if it's in good shape, it's
still a blast to drive even if it's not as peppy as its sisters of other
years.

Bill Bain 
AROC Atlanta 
'83 Spider 
'87 Milano 
formerly a '81 Spider 

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