ALFA ROMEO SPIDERS

Alfa Romeo is a company with a long and rich history, so we will need to skim very quickly over the background to get to the 105/115 Series Spiders which are the subject of this feature. The company can trace its roots back to 1906, when the Societa Anonima Italia Darracq was founded to assemble and sell French Darracq cars in Italy. The new company struggled to sell products that were old-fashioned and not robust enough for the market, but was reshaped as the Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili in 1910 to create its own cars – the Alfa name was born. In 1915 Nicola Romeo invested in the company, buying it outright in 1918 and renaming it Alfa Romeo in 1920.

Alfa Romeo was a major force in racing during the 1920s and 1930s, with operations run by a certain Enzo Ferrari. Commercial success was more elusive however, the company’s high-end road cars not generating enough sales or profits. The situation was even worse after WW2, when Alfa Romeo found itself with bombed out factories and large, luxurious road cars that were entirely unsuited to the post-war reality.

Their answer was the new 1900 saloon from 1950, a unitary design that moved the company from the large car sector into a medium size one that offered better potential for mass sales. This model lasted until 1958, and was available with coupé and convertible bodies too, courtesy of coachbuilders such as Touring, Zagato and Pininfarina. In 1958 it was replaced by a new upmarket saloon, the 2000.

The larger cars need trouble us no further today, because it was the continued search for ever higher volume sales that has direct relevance to the