£7,250
The Alfa Romeo Spider is one of the most iconic two-seater sports cars in the world, largely thanks to that film. However, schoolboy fantasies aside, the pretty little Spider has an awful lot to commend it: a delightful rear-wheel-drive chassis, a lively and powerful twin-cam engine, a beautifully balanced chassis and one of the nicest interiors of its generation were always going to endear it to the petrolhead community.
The Alfa Romeo Spider is one of the most iconic two-seater sports cars in the world, largely thanks to that film. However, schoolboy fantasies aside, the pretty little Spider has an awful lot to commend it: a delightful rear-wheel-drive chassis, a lively and powerful twin-cam engine, a beautifully balanced chassis and one of the nicest interiors of its generation were always going to endear it to the petrolhead community.
The owner bought this left-hand-drive example six years ago with the intention of slowly renovating it before exporting it to his holiday home in Europe. With future reliability and usability in mind, he spared no expense in restoring it to the condition you see here today.
However, his plans have now changed and he has decided to sell to enable someone else to enjoy the vehicle. That the new owner will almost certainly be able to take advantage of the fact that the car’s reserve price is considerably lower than the restoration costs alone is something he is trying not to think about…
The bodywork has been the subject of a full restoration at Veloces of London Ltd, the renowned Alfa Romeo specialists. The work was as comprehensive as you would expect, and included extensive welding – including a new boot floor – at a cost of more than £1,500, followed by a full respray that set the owner back almost £5,000. The finish is superb and bears even the closest scrutiny, although it’s disappointing to see that there is a crack in the paint on the leading edge of the bonnet, and a couple of rust bubbles on the nearside sill and one wheelarch. That said, rectification would be a simple matter and shouldn’t cost more than a few hundred pounds. Some restoration photos are to be found in the Gallery.
The car also benefits from a new mohair hood and windscreen, plus a genuine replacement centre rear spoiler sourced at great expense from the USA. Sadly, the two outer rubber sections of the spoiler have shrunk over the years, leading to the mismatch in height you can see in the photographs!
The Spider sits on newly refurbished wheels shod with good Michelin tyres.
The interior is easily the nicest we’ve ever seen on an eighties Spider, being almost factory fresh. In fact, forget that; this is way, way better than anything that ever came out of the Alfa Romeo factory in the eighties.
It has been fully retrimmed in butter-soft black nappa leather, finished with white piping. The work has been done to an extraordinarily high standard, as might be gauged by the fact that the chosen black carpet is more usually used in high-end Porsche models. The dashboard was also refurbished and the cowl retextured before being painstakingly reassembled. The whole job cost him around £2,850 but was, we think, worth every single penny.
All of the electrics seem to work with the exception of the wipers (which worked at the MOT a short while ago, but refused on the day the car was driven to us; a spare, untested motor is in the boot) and the reversing lights.
The 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine, which breathes through a stainless-steel exhaust system, is reported to be in good health after having been the subject of a £2,000 service in October 2016 at Veloces of London Ltd, after which time it has travelled less than 300 miles. The full service included the replacement of the rear antiroll bar bushes and a weeping rocker cover gasket, some electrical fettling, and sorting out the kind of niggles that any old car accumulates. A short test drive did not reveal any 2nd gear problems.
The underneath of the car is sound and clean and looks utterly solid. That’s quite unusual.
Please visit the Gallery section of this listing where you will find a number of invoices and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has an impressive restoration history. (We are awaiting a couple of invoices for the paint and trim)
It also comes with the correct handbook and an impressive factory workshop manual in a lever-arch binder. The online MOT history shows no advisories or other problems in the last two years since the remedial work was carried out.
The cockpit of an Alfa Romeo Spider has always been a rather nice place to spend time, and never more so than in this case; the interior is simply sublime and every penny of the nigh-on £3,000 bill was wisely invested.
The mechanicals are equally impressive and, given the investment of a few hundred pounds, the coachwork could be too. The unusual colour suits the car’s lines beautifully and raises it head and shoulders above the more common red and silver examples; this, combined with the high-quality interior, makes for a car that can more than hold its own in even the most exalted company.
With the prices of excellent, early Alfa Romeo Spiders having reached £20,000 some time ago, the £9,000 we expect this to go for seems like a paltry sum. (It certainly does to the owner, who accepts that he is unlikely to recoup anything like the full cost of the restoration work he commissioned…) And, as ever, the reserve is set at an even lower point than this, so someone might get the biggest bargain of 2018 so far!
Viewing is always encouraged, and this car can be seen here at Patina HQ in Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.
If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car, AnyVan for transporting it, and Footman James for classic car insurance.
