[alfa] Spider Series Number

["Albert Jacob" <ajacob@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon,

By now you've read the round tail, square tail, black tail, smooth tail bit
that Ray posted.  I'd never heard this before.  Very clever!  Rules-of-thumb
are wonderful things.  I still catch myself muttering
lefty-loosy-righty-tighty.......

If you do not have a fair amount of "grounding" in the subject it may not make
complete sense.   I should start out by saying that the Factory never made any
such distinctions so all this is strictly a matter of identification ease and
convenience.  Also there are endless detail differences and some relatively
major features that bleed from one series to the next--for instance Spica fuel
injection (1&2), Bosch fuel injection (2,3&4) and engine displacement.  I'm
also talking mostly US models.  Timing of changes for Euro models is somewhat
different.

1966-1970 Roundtail although there where no '68 or '70 US cars, aka Boattail,
aka Osso di Sepia, aka Duetto(early 1600cc w/ Webers), aka 1750 Spider(later
1750cc w/ Spica Injection for the US market only).  Dustin's car. The one to
go for if you're a style-over-substance-man, which I evidently am.  My
personal favorite.

Squaretail 1971-1982, aka Coda Tronka.  Many detail changes mostly involving
fuel injection/emissions over 11 long years. Stainless steel (up to 74) vs.
heavy rubber bumpers afterwards.  1750 in '71, the rest are 2000s.  Many
consider your '82 to be the best of the series because it was the last year of
the 'classic' styling and first year of Bosch fuel injection.  Just as many or
more prefer the lighter (prettier??) stainless steel bumper cars. The first
Alfa I ever drove was a cream colored '82 being sold in Austin by Bob Fernald
in 1983.  Although it was then almost new, the PO had fitted ss bumpers from
and earlier car and Webers.  What a great car.  I was hooked forever.  Anyone
know what became of it?????

Blacktail 1983-1990, aka Aerodynamica 2.0  Basically an '82 spider with
'updated'  front and rear styling.  (Of course the '82 was, itself, an updated
Duetto which was an updated......)  Some loved it some didn't.  It is hard to
argue with sales success relative to the others though.

Smoothtail 1991-1994 Again basically an 82 spider upon which another restyle,
largely regarded as much more successful, was executed.

There are Digesters who have forgotten more than I'll ever know regarding the
4 series distinctions. Hopefully this is not more than you wanted to know.

Regards,  Albert Jacob
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided