(photo courtesy of clive bullian) like the porsche 911, the alfa romeo spider had an extremely long production run relatively unchanged. produced from 1966 thru 1993, the final year of production of the spider was almost like buying a brand new true 1960’s true italian sports car…. er, strike that… you actually WERE buying a true 1960’s sports car, and how cool was that ?? by the time the series 4 was produced, alfa romeo decided that in order to update the exterior, ground flairs and plastic bumpers were they way to go…. but still a very pretty car. i only wish that like porsche, alfa romeo decided to continue refining and updating the spider instead of scrapping it and unleashing the abomination they replaced it with, which was to purists, a spider in name only.

this alfa romeo duetto spider was spotted near forest grove, oregon and even though i was driving a lowly series 3 spider graduate, the duetto driver gave my a hearty and enthusiastic wave. you have to love alfa enthusiasts, as they are friendly, down to earth and sincere in their love of these relatively slow but fun to drive and charming italian cars.