Alfa Romeo GTV & Spider

Coupés became popular again in the 1990s. But Alfa Romeo, pre-eminently the brand of sporty and beautiful cars, did not offer a coupé. This changed in 1995 with the introduction of the beautiful GTV and Spider.

Alfa Romeo GTV and Spider in various versions

Request to Pininfarina
I used to think that big car brands worked with a tight schedule: 'this model must last this long, so the successor has to be ready at such and such a time'. But perhaps that approach is somewhat too Dutch. In any case, things went and go very differently for the Italians. Alfa Romeo, for example, had already stopped producing the Alfetta GTV in the mid-1980s. Around that time Alfa Romeo also became the property of Fiat. The brand continued to produce the Spider, and although that roadster had been thoroughly modified three times in the meantime, the model was originally from 1966. So they approached Pininfarina in the late 1980s with the request to make a design proposal for a new GTV. Unlike Fiat, which chose the in-house exterior design for the Coupé, Alfa Romeo opted for the Pininfarina design. For the interior it was the other way round: the Milanese brand chose its own design, which is attributed to Walter de Silva. However, that name will be discussed later. Now it's all about another design talent: Enrico Fumia.

Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV and Alfa Romeo Spider 'Type 4'

Fumia's style
Enrico Fumia (1948) is already successful at a young age: he wins the design competition Grifo d'Oro Bertone (from the renowned design house Bertone) at the age of 18, and his first design for the front of a car is put in production. In 1976 he joines Pininfarina, where in 1987 he starts designing a completely new GTV. That in itself is an interesting fact, but it becomes even more fascinating if you place that masterful design within Fumia's oeuvre. For in 1981, he designes the Audi Quartz concept, a compact coupé with double round headlights on both sides that lie deep in the bodywork, with a sharp fold underneath that also forms the boundary between the front bumper and the front wings (fenders) and which extends behind the front wheels. Very similar to what he does later with the GTV.

Audi Quartz, Alfa Romeo GTV and Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo

At the rear of the Quartz we see a flat light bar across the full width of the car. Fumia applies the same to the Fiat Brio Coupé concept that he designs in 1981, the Alfa Romeo 164 that comes on the market in 1987 and... oh yes, the GTV. In 1988 he creates a rounder version of that lightbar on the Ferrari F90, a secret project of which six are made for the Sultan of Brunei. A design sketch from Fumia shows that he also considered a light unit that ends in a point on the outsides for the GTV, somewhat similar to the lightbar on the F90. However, that design doesn't make it. The proposal that does make it, is made ready for production by the Alfa Romeo team, under the guidance of the above-mentioned De Silva. He apparently found Fumia's designs very inspiring, because the 164 Protéo concept he drew has many features of the aforementioned models. Although off course De Silva worked within the tradition of Alfa Romeo and that rear lightbar was also somewhat in fashion at the time.

Audi Quartz, Fiat Brio Coupé, Alfa Romeo 164, Alfa Romeo GTV, Ferrari F90, sketch for the GTV, Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo

GTV and Spider
What I wrote about the GTV in the previous paragraph, also applies to the Spider. If you say "Alfa Romeo GTV and Spider" in one breath, the enthusiast knows right away that you're talking about the models from the 90s. Before that, the GTV was a very different model from the Spider, as you can see in the pictures above. The GTV and Spider from 1995 (code name 916) share a lot, except of course the roof. Yet there are more outward differences: the back of the Spider is less high and runs rounder, which makes the car just a little more elegant than the GTV. The successor of the Spider kept its name, but the GTV was replaced by the Brera. These days we have come off even worse than in the 1980s: not only do we have to do without a GTV, even a Spider no longer comes from the Alfa Romeo factories. These days almost nothing comes out of those factories anyway, but still, a Spider is not even for sale. In 2019 there seemed to be talk of a new GTV, but not much later that model had already disappeared from the planning.

Alfa Romeo Brera & Spider and Pininfarina Alfa Romeo Dardo

Dardo and 2uettottanta
The GTV lasted until 2005, the Spider until 2006. The successors were not Pininfarina designs. The design house made an attempt to extend the cooperation with the Milanese in 1998 with the Dardo concept. A glance at that "dart arrow" that could have become a new Spider is enough to see where they got their inspiration from. But Alfa Romeo declined it with thanks and went to work with Giugiaro, who designed the Brera – which Pininfarina was then asked to build for Alfa. In 2010 Pininfarina took the initiative again with the concept car 2uettotanta, in honor of the 80th anniversary of Pininfarina and the centenary of Alfa Romeo. The first model Spider was also called Duetto ('duet', because two-seater) and 'ottanta' is Italian for eighty, hence the name 2uettotanta. That concept car also never became a production model and that is really a missed opportunity. The 2uettotanta is not only of a timeless beauty that even surpasses that of the GTV and Spider, the design also refers very nicely to the rich history of the Spider, but is at the same time a contemporary and individual design. Anyway, I stray, this piece is about the GTV and Spider. Long story short: I think both are beautiful cars, and I enjoy adding them to my virtual collection of classics. And they push aside all my rational nature. How much would a GTV be as a second-hand car?

Alfa Romeo Spider 'Duetto' and Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 2uettottanta

Enrico Fumia in front of one of his designs for the GTV, the rear sides of the GTV & Spider and a sketch for an Alfa Romeo supercar that I made in 2002, inspired among other things by the GTV/Spider