Day To Day In An Alfa Spider - Alfa Romeo 1966 to 1994 Spider Faq

physically put underneath the car without clearance problems, but, aside from the body damage
problem listed above, this size tends to have an unacceptable amount of sidewall flex when fitted
to stock wheels. There is also the factor of speedometer error when fitting non-stock tire sizes.
(However, Alfa"s gauges are so well known for error one hardly expects any of them to be all
that accurate in the first place.)
Any recommendation of this sort should always be taken with a grain of salt. That said, in my
opinion, if you are using your car as a tourer and don"t do a lot of high performance driving,
185/70-14s should do you just fine. However, if you like to "toss it about„ a bit, or own one of
the higher powered models, an upgrade to 195/70-14 is probably in order. For the people who
want to really get the most from their chassis, it would probably be a good idea to perform a
"plus-1„ upgrade and go to 195/60-15s. This is probably the biggest wheel/tire combination you
can fit to the car, and there will almost certainly be compromises in low-speed steering effort and
ride comfort you may not be happy with. Tires of this size probably should not be fit at all to the
earlier cars without some form of frame stiffening.
However, tire sizes seem to be a lot like spark plug choices as much a matter of taste and
opinion as anything else. Think about what you do with the car, what you want to do with the car,
and always remember that it is a design more than 30 years old, and may not respond as much or
as well to really gonzo tire choices.
Otherwise, owners of Series 1, 2, 3, and 4 cars should realize that, as the saying goes, There"s No
Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Modifying your Spider to go faster or turn better will usually result
in adverse effects to driveability, ride comfort, and durability (not necessarily all at the same time
though). If you feel the compromise is worth it, go right ahead! Spiders have always been three
clicks shy of race cars anyway, so turn the wick up and have a blast. But be aware that the most
effective modifications are not easily made, and can cost quite a lot of money.

Day to day in an Alfa Spider

One of the best pieces of advice that can be given about owning an Alfa for any length of time is
GET TO KNOW THE CAR. Drive it around a lot, especially when you first get it (this shouldn"t
be tough the cars practically beg to be driven). Learn what noises your car makes and doesn"t
make. Drive it with the top up as well as down. Get used to it.
From that point on, PAY ATTENTION. Cars are not like people they don"t fix themselves. If
your Spider starts doing something out of the ordinary, then something is wrong. It doesn"t
matter how small a glitch it is if it begins making a new noise, or starts a slight vibration, or
gets a new smell, these are signs that should be examined quickly. As with any car, a certain
amount of redundancy is built in to a Spider"s systems. Just about any one thing can fail and still
allow the car to be driven for miles. But, left unchecked, these small problems can turn into very
big problems, and then, like cancer, spread and effect other systems of the car. If something is
strange, get it looked at. If something is broken, GET IT FIXED.
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