First post for a while, thought I'd ease into things by starting with an old piece about the Alfa Spider, based on notes made just after it's launch at Geneva in 2006.
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I would like to think of myself as a reasonably moderate, progressive individual; but there are things about which I remain resolutely unreconstructed. Such as convertibles, I just don't see the point. At all.
They're machines for being seen in, not driving: why would someone pay a premium for something that's heavier yet flimsier (comprising both performance and handling), less practical and – as a general rule – uglier? Also, speaking as a heterosexual male, you also tend to look like a bit of a ponce (and now over forty, even more so), although I gleefully note that the more tanned & chiselled you are, the more ridiculous you look (there is a god). To my mind Dale Winton is the archetypal convertible driver; which is fine if he's your role model....
The open top driving experience itself is overrated: who wants to be buffeted and windchilled, really? Judging by the number of devices devoted to addressing such issues on contemporary convertibles (screens, air scarves, etc), not even the owners of such vehicles.
In my book the only acceptable convertible is one that started out as a bare bones, stripped out, focussed driving machine, such as a racing car, where being roofless is a byproduct of pursuing minimal cross-sectional area (& therefore drag) and the 'convertible' aspect consists of little more than a hole let into the upper surface as a grudging concession to basic ergonomics.
As well as being a better vehicle dynamically, the coupé sister is generally the looker too. Did anyone appreciate how huge the TT's arse was until the roof chopped off? The sweeping roofline was the perfect counterpoint to this. The frankly odd looking (chinless & dumpy) Z4 has been transformed by the addition of a roof (now all they need to do is fix that elongated yet chinless snout). Even the rare-as-hen's-teeth MX-5 Coupé is prettier than the original. The Cayman?.... OK, may be it's the exception that proves the rule.
But then I saw the new Alfa Spider. Wow. Here's something worth bending the rules for. The Brera never quite did it for me; in particular it's always seemed a little beetle-browed, bordering on the Neanderthal. I realised that the roofline and chunky C-pillar were the culprits but failed to anticipate just how much of a difference removing them would make; incredible.
At a stroke, something squat and lugubrious is rendered lithe and pert. On the Brera, the rear fender line is carried through from the beltline and, along with the shoulder line, tailgate shutline, and rear screen, converge on the rear badging; neat, but it does make it look like a hatchback rather than a coupe. On the Spider, the form in the rear fender and deck is well judged without being too much, no doubt helped by making the headrest fairings part of the interior by dint of colour coding. We assume the lip spoiler to be functional, but so well integrated is it that it'd be admissable on purely aesthetic grounds.
Were I to own one, I would move somewhere where the quality of both the neighbourhood and climate allowed me to leave it parked with the top down, and such that I approached it from the rear (too much information?...)
