1992 Alfa Romeo Spider on 2040-cars

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Scrapyard Gem: 2008 Alfa Romeo Spider 2.2 JTS

Alfa Romeo departed our shores after the final 164s and Spider Veloces were sold here as 1995 models, then returned for the 2015 model year with the 4C. Thanks to its position in the mighty Stellantis Empire, the current American-market Alfa Romeo lineup looks quite a bit like the Italian-market one, but we missed out on some interesting machinery during our Alfa-deprived 1996-2014 period. One of those cars was the 2006-2010 Spider, and I found a discarded example in an Italian/French specialty breaker's yard near Leeds, England during a recent trip. Sherburn Motor Spares is located in Sherburn-in-Elmet, on the former site of the factory where Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers were built during World War II. They specialize in Italian and French cars, which means the place overflows with vehicles we didn't get on our side of the Atlantic. I've written about a 1999 Alfa Romeo 166 and a 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S that reside there, and now it's the turn of the Brera's convertible sibling. I couldn't resist buying this stunning "International Van of the Year 2008" emblem from a Citroen Dispatch at Sherburn Motor Spares; it now lives on the door of the breaker box in my garage. GBP3 well spent! "Spider" is a term originally applied to an arachnid-ish horse-drawn carriage and is applicable to any convertible-top automobile today, but Alfa Romeo didn't hesitate to use it as a model name in its own right when it came time to built a sporty convertible on a platform originally devised by Saab for use beneath GM and Fiat machinery. As it turned out, the only production cars using that platform ended up being Alfa Romeos. Giorgetto Giugiaro handled the design of the Brera coupe, while Pininfarina did both the styling and assembly of the Spider. As you'd expect, reviewers thought both cars looked great. Just over 12,000 2006-2010 Spiders were built. The U.K.-market Spider was available with front- or all-wheel-drive and a choice of three petrol and two diesel engines (yes, a diesel Alfa Spider!). This car has the base 2.2-liter JTS straight-four petrol engine, which was a direct-injected unit based on GM's Ecotec engine block. Output was 182 horsepower and 170 pound-feet. This one had donated some body parts by the time I arrived on a freezing Yorkshire morning, but it appears to have been in reasonably good condition upon arrival.

2020 Virtual Geneva Motor Show Editors' Picks

There may not have been an actual Geneva Motor Show this year, but there were still loads of car reveals that happened the week that the show would have happened. So we still wanted to highlight what our favorites of the would-be show. Our list of cars seemed to match the theme of the reveals, too, highlighting over-the-top supercars and forward thinking electric vehicles. Scroll down to see our favorites. Fifth Place: Aston Martin V12 Speedster - 21 points Managing Editor, Greg Rasa: Astons are works of art, and this one's ready for the Louvre. The design nods to Aston history are nifty. It looks like a jet fighter, except those have canopies. Not sure what 186 mph would be like in this, but don't try it in summer when there are bugs. Contributing Editor, Joe Lorio: Admittedly, this one is a little silly. A $950,000 sports car with no roof? A 700-hp two-seater with no windshield? But the offerings at the Geneva auto show have always tilted toward absurdity, and Aston’s V12 Speedster is endearingly outrageous as a fighter plane for the street. Third Place (Tie): Volkswagen ID.4 - 26 points Senior Producer, Chris McGraw: I don't have much to say about this other than I am a huge fan of more EVs coming to the market, which is why two-thirds of my picks are electric, including the ID.4. Producer, Alex Malberg: Any new fully-electric crossover is a vote for me. The fact it doesn't look terrible and VW will be including AWD later are bonuses.  Third Place (Tie): Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA - 26 points Road Test Editor, Zac Palmer: Hard to argue with the logic of this one. The Giulia Quadrifoglio is already the best driver in this class of hot sedans, so why not extend the lead with a special model. That wing is Type R levels of high, and I completely approve. Associate Editor, Byron Hurd: Love this car. Love it, love it, love it. It's beautiful, aggressive and fast. I'd take it over an M3 or C63 any day. As cool as the GTAm is, though, I'd rather stick to the four-seat GTA. Something about a four-door car with two seats just doesn't really work for me. I haven't alienated ALL of my friends quite yet. Second Place: Hyundai Prophecy - 35 points Senior Editor, Green, John Snyder: I get whiffs of the Genesis Coupe from this sleek concept. I like the focus on form, with interesting details to discover if you look for them. West Coast Editor, James Riswick: Does it look like a Porsche? Sure, but Porsches look neat.

Alfa Romeo celebrates 110th anniversary with 79-page e-book

For its 110th anniversary, Alfa Romeo wanted to host a summer bash at its renovated Museo Storica Alfa Romeo in Arese, Italy. Coronavirus nixed that, so part of the Plan B syllabus is a 79-page e-book that plucks all sorts of fascinating details from even before the automaker's birth as A.L.F.A., which stood for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, and the fecund history since. The work can be considered more than a dive into Alfa Romeo history because of Alfa Romeo's reach for much of its existence. The 1914 Aerodinamica by Castagna built on an Alfa Romeo 40/60 HP chassis predates Buckminster Fuller's Dynmaxion by 20 years. Enzo Ferrari raced for Alfa Romeo or with Alfra Romeo support for 19 years, the driver's seat also occupied by legends like Juan Manuel Fangio, Tazio Nuvolari, and Alberto Ascari. Nuvolari drove the Bimotore — a car with one V8 in front of the cockpit, another V8 behind — to a top speed of 209 miles per hour in 1934, and raced the car alongside Louis Chiron, the same Frenchman Bugatti would later name a car after. Alfa Romeo's tech prowess impressed famed tinkerer Henry Ford so much that in 1939 Ford said, "When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat." And it's hard to believe Ian Fleming hadn't heard of the 1900 C52 Disco Volante concept from 1952 when conjuring a name for Emilio Largo's motor yacht for his 1961 book, "Thunderball." There's plenty of Alfa-centric trivia, too, like an employee coming up with the idea for the automaker's logo while waiting for a train, the origin of the quadrifoglio, intended as a good luck charm for all the three drivers in the 1923 Targa Florio but only paying off for one, and how Nicola Romeo inscribed his name in history. The stories carry up to the present day Giulia GTA and coming Tonale crossover, with a cameo by FCA design chief Ralph Gilles to boot. The book is a quick read, so check it out, or just scroll through lots of photos documenting 110 years of Italian automotive history. Related Video: