Road Test
Alfa Romeo Spider 2.2 JTS
Test date 02 May 2007
Price as tested £25,374
For Looks, hood-up refinement, stylish interior
AgainstPoor body rigidity, weight, price
Alfa’s new Spider is derived from the Brera coupé, yet in many ways the open-topped design better suits the platform’s short wheelbase. Three engines are available: a 2.2-litre four-cylinder petrol, a 2.4-litre turbodiesel and a 3.2-litre V6 with four-wheel drive. Prices start at £25,995 and rise to £32,700 for the 3.2 JTS fitted with the Qtronic automatic gearbox.
Having road tested the 3.2-litre V6 Brera, this time we’ve gone for the entry-level 182bhp 2.2 JTS four-cylinder petrol, mindful that performance is often less important in convertibles than it is in coupés. So do the Alfa Spider’s talents extend further than its exquisite style?
The Brera was Guigiaro-designed and its styling themes underpin the look of modern Alfas. But although the new Spider shares the Brera’s platform and frontal styling (indeed, all the panels back to and including the doors), the Spider has actually been designed by Pininfarina and Alfa Centro Stile.
One car, two styling houses. And why not? It’s not the first time: in the 1950s, Pininfarina designed the Giulietta Spider, derived from the Bertone-designed Sprint coupé. And the Giulietta’s rear haunches are echoed, says Alfa, by haunches over the rear wheelarch of today’s Spider, which Pininfarina builds in Turin, alongside the Brera.
Alfa also handed development of the hood to Pininfarina. It is a five-layered fabric affair, with five steel and aluminium hoops providing the support. It folds or erects in around 25 seconds at the touch of a button, automatically latching and unlatching to and from the car’s header rail.
The roof mechanism adds only around 60kg to the weight of the Spider over the Brera. But then the Spider is a tad shorter, has only two seats and does without the Brera’s glass roof. Worse news is that removing the roof has cut torsional rigidity by more than half. How much will you feel it on the road?
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