Spider Junior; Series 2 - Alfa Romeo 1966 to 1994 Spider Faq

it certainly isn"t any less comfortable than other makes or models with more conventional
layouts, and may in fact be more comfortable over long trips.

Spider Junior

In Europe, Alfa made a lower-cost, smaller displacement Spider available from 1968 through
1972. Called the "Spider Junior„, it differed primarily in engine displacement. The Junior was
fitted with the same basic engine originally fitted to the 750/101 Giulietta series the 105 replaced.
Displacing roughly 1300 cc"s, the engine"s output was about 30 hp less than its Giulia-engined
brother. The car was also somewhat more basic than the 1750 and 2000 Spiders, most notably
deleting both the headlight covers that came standard on European Spiders and the interior center
console.
The Junior was created mainly as a response to Europe"s very different tax structure on
automobiles. Vehicles there, especially in Italy, are taxed on a steep sliding scale usually based
on engine displacement. Although it is unclear to this author exactly where the cutoffs lie, it
would seem that there is (or at least, was) a major one at 1300 cc"s, and another at 2000 cc"s.
These taxes meant that while a certain class of people could probably afford to buy an Alfa, they
couldn"t afford to keep it very long. Introducing a 1300 cc variant of Alfa"s 105 line allowed Alfa
to fill this niche and broaden its market.
As with the later Series 2a in America, Juniors are noticeably less powerful than their bigger-
engined brethren, but still recognizably Alfa and still quite a lot of fun to own and drive.
Because of the different tax structure in the US, the lower cost of fuel, and the typically longer
distances Americans drive their cars, Juniors were never officially imported to this country.
Some made it over anyway, but because of their smaller engines and lower performance are
usually worth substantially less than big-engined cars of the same model year.

Series 2

Around 1970 Alfa made a major alteration to the Spider's appearance by "chopping off" the
boattail. This would be the only real alteration in the car's appearance in Europe for the next
twelve years. People who own Series 2 or 2a cars can still see the boattail lines by standing
directly behind the car... a distinct "broad shoulder" impression is given, and the lines obviously
once came to a point. As noted above, Alfa didn"t import any cars to North America in 1970,
and, since most Spider production went there, there probably aren"t very many 1970 Spiders
anywhere. Contemporary automotive press reports criticized the 1969 SPICA-equipped cars for
having "flat spots„ in their power curves, and this, in addition to radical changes in California
emissions laws occurring at this time, was probably the cause of the "famine„.
In the front, the Series 2 cars" center grille was made smaller, and the number of "crossbars„
decreased from eight to five. In Series 1 cars the bumpers were so small and lightly built they led
to speculation that "bumper„ must have translated into "expensive, extremely fragile decoration„
in Italian. The Series 2 bumpers were made at least somewhat more functional, and integration
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