ELVIRA TELLS

Juliet Spider, the "Miss"

19 October, 2017

"Finally one of the most attractive novelties of the German exhibition: the brand new Giulietta with Pinin Farina's bodywork. Here is a real masterpiece!" (Giovanni Lurani, journalist)

Max Hoffman, Alfa Romeo's official importer for the US market, convinced Alfa to prepare a Spider to launch on that market. Attracted by an initial order for 600 cars, Alfa's management turned to two coachbuilders at the same time: Pininfarina and Bertone. For this authentic challenge, with which Alfa Romeo was also looking for space on the European market, the prototype made by Pininfarina's stylists coordinated by Carlo Martinengo was finally chosen.
It has to be said, however, that the Bertone prototype was just as beautiful, but far too "advanced" to be produced in large numbers as Hoffman requested.
Set up on the flatbed of the Sprint but with reduced wheelbase, the Giulietta Spider enjoyed considerable success on an international scale.

When it was presented, in an almost definitive version, at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October 1955, Giovanni Lurani, journalist and gentleman driver, described it in the magazine Auto Italiana:
"At last one of the most attractive novelties of the German exhibition: the brand new Giulietta with Pinin Farina's bodywork. Here is an authentic masterpiece! The slim car with bodywork according to the most modern dictates of coachbuilding art and fashion and the shape of the convertible (Thunderbird type) was painted white with black seals. A complex of extreme elegance, shorter wheelbase chassis, slender and streamlined line, tapered and very low nose with original and guessed bumpers; anti-reflective features with black leather trimmings, every detail simply perfect. This car, even more so when, as it is to be hoped, Alfa Romeo will decidedly modify the bottoms of its chassis and lower the pedals, will be unrivalled in terms of comfort, elegance, practicality and class, it will be a "best-seller" not only in Italy but also across the border and overseas".
The Giulietta Spider, in those first 600 examples, was initially destined only to North America and put on sale at the price of 3,230 dollars.

In May 1956, the magazine Quattroruote published a short article with this title: "Who wants the Spider Giulietta, buy it in New York". Polemically it was pointed out that in America it cost less than it would have cost in Italy: 1,825,000 old lire.
Despite the years, the "Signorina" has not aged, it remains one of the masterpieces of the bodywork and still retains a strong personality confirming the Alfa Romeo tradition.

Elvira Ruocco, historical memory of Alfa Romeo, thanks to her more than twenty years of experience at the Alfa Romeo Centro di Documentazione Storica, has become part of the Museum team and in the column "Elvira Racconta" she will share curiosities and anecdotes that you may not know or remember. We will retrace the legendary history of Alfa Romeo with her.