As well as literally dozens of companies producing fibreglass copies the world over, an official AC Cobra Mk IV has been manufactured from 1953 by Autok-raft, which is the only company legally entitled to use the AC name.

cacyиof its lines and its unique character could not have come from any other car-maker. Nor would any other manufacturer ever consider making essentially the same sports car for no less than 27 years. Sports cars are normally a genre reserved for the cutting edge of car design.

The truth is that Alfa Romeo never really needed to replace the Spider. It was always an intensely likeable car and it gained a passionate following of devotees, especially in America. In the early 1980s, when sports cars were almost universally dropped from other car-makers’ price lists, the Alfa Romeo Spider pretty much had the ground all to itself.

The Duetto used the advancedДmechanicals from the Giulia saloon, including the 1570cc engine in its most powerfulИ(109 bhp) twin-carb state-of-tune, plus a five-speed gearbox and all-round disc brakes. It was very advanced for 1966. With its unmistakable long, flat, rounded tail, the Duetto was judged by the motoring press to be an outstanding sports car.

Few people could have realised the little Alfa sports car would become such a classic when it was launched in 1966 as the Duetto (duet), a name selected from hundreds of entries in a nation-wide competition. Alfa

Romeo even gave away a new car to the lucky winner of the contest.

In Britain at least, it was rather too expensive to make much impact, as it cost almost as much as an E-Type Jaguar.

After just one year, the engine was changed for a new 1779cc engine with 118 bhp on tap and the old Duetto name was dropped in favour of the Alfa Romeo 1750 Spider Veloce. In 1968, a short-lived 1300 Spider Junior was also launched, although that model is little-known outside Italy.

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Visually, the biggest change to the Spider came in 1970 when the car's delicately rounded rump was replaced with a harder and arguably prettier ‘Kamm’ style cut-off tail. A year later the engine was increased in capacity once more, to 1962cc, and output leapt up to a punchy 132 bhp. The early 1970s was undoubtedly the Spider's heyday: it was quicker, pret-

tier and purer than at any other time in its life.

и бАFig. 16. Alfa Spider

drive if wished, but it was alwaysДa marginal product. Then US law decreed that rubber impact bumpers and catalysts had to be fitted. Soon after, in 1952, the Spider’s glorious twin-carb engine was stultified by fuel injection, blunting its power down to a pale 115 bhp.

Then it all fell apart. In Britain, it was decided that converting Spi-

ders to right-hand drive was uneconomic and official imports ceased in 1977. If purchasers were keen enough, they could still buy a Spider

through specialists Bell & Colvill, who would even convert it to right-hand И

In this fashion, the Spider lasted right up until 1990, when Alfa Romeo boldly decided to give the Spider one last lease of life with a major restyle by Pininfarina. The central bodywork remained the same except for some plastic sill covers, but the front and rear ends were heavily revamped. Most significant were the wrap-around body-coloured plastic bumpers front and rear, and the re-shaped boot and rear wings. The engine was modernised with electronic fuel injection, variable valve-timing and a catalytic converter. Inside, the interior was considerably reworked. With this

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last breath of fresh air, the Spider lasted for two years; Alfa Romeo did not pull the plug on its most coveted model until 1993.

It’s amazing that the Spider proved so long-lived. Pininfarina’s styling was controversial even when the car was new and, by 1970 the influential American magazine, Road & Track, was already describing both the

Сshape and the ergonomics as “outdated”. It always had a bucketful of the

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usual Alfa quirks, such as the gear lever which sprouted from the dashboard and worked in a near-vertical plane.

Yet the Spider’s appeal was remarkably durable. Spurred on by one of the most celebrated film appearances ever for a car, when Dustin Hoffman swept Katherine Ross off her feet in The Graduate, the American market became the Spider’s mainstay during the bleak 1970s. Around 90 per cent of all Alfa Spiders were sold in the US during this time. From

и 1955, the baseбАmodel Spider was even called the Graduate in America.

Typically Italian in style and in its uncompromising engineering approach, perhaps the Spider’s best point was its silky sweet four-cylinder

twin-cam engines. Like all sports cars, the Spider was a victim of advancing legislation, developing performance-blunting fuel injection and catalysts in response to American demands. It never lost its essential charm though. Indeed, in engineering terms it always remained firmly rooted in the 1960s.

Despite its admirable handling, refinement and ride being overtaken

shortage of enthusiasts who appreciateДthe Spider's finer qualities. There is no shortage of people who remember The Graduate either. The Spider is simply too stylish to avoid being a fashion statement as well as a great sports car.

by other sports cars, the Spider remained convincing. Performance was lively and the sound from the exhaust was distinctively Alfa. There were wonderful design touches and the feel was of a very special car.

That means that it inevitably became a desirable classic. Despite the

oft-repeated stories of rampaging rust and delicate engines, there is no И

With the memory of its legendary Spider still fresh in the mind, Alfa

Romeo presented, in 1994, an all-new Spider. However, it shared only the name with its ancestor, as it was radically different in concept and design. Front-wheel drive is the biggest difference and the new car's modern styling sets the pace for rival sports cars. The new Spider promises a great future for Alfa Romeo’s venerable sports car tradition.

As the company’s 1980s advertising slogan boasted: “The magic lives on...”

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Текст 7 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE

No other car in history has mobilised more people than the Volkswagen Beetle (fig. 17) – and yet it almost never made it into production. When the Allied Forces evaluated the prototypes at the end of World

СWar II, it was considered too crude, ugly and underdeveloped for produc-

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tion. Sir William Rootes even said that it “does not meet the fundamental requirements of a motor car”. Necessity prevailed and the Volkswagen – or People’s Car – was given life.

и saving stampsбАscheme. Two prototypes were completed by October 1936

The Beetle’s origins can be traced back to 1934, when Ferdinand Porsche began work on Adolf Hitler's dream of a Volksauto. This was to be a four-seater, air-cooled car to cost less than DM1000 (around £50/$250). However, the car couldn't be bought for cash, only through a

and, after further development, a factory was opened in 1938 to build the ‘Kraft-durch-Freude Wagen’ – the “Strength through Joy” car. Production never really began, since the war required that the factory was turned over

to making the Kubelwagen – a military vehicle with the same mechanical basics.

Д И

Fig. 17. Volkswagen Beetle

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After the war, Major Ivan Hirst was given the task of rebuilding the factory, which had been destroyed by Allied bombing. Among the ruins was found the remains of a KdF Wagen. The military advised that this should be produced

as a means of supplying local light transport. So a production line was set

Сup – in appalling conditions at first – and supplies flowed to all of the oc-

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cupying forces.

It was felt that the Volkswagen, as it was now called, stood a chance

as a regular production car -it was cheap and simple, ideal for those austere post-war years. Exports to France and Russia began in 1946 and civilian orders were being fulfilled within two years. British control was handed over in 1949 and VW became a manufacturer in its own right.

severeиGerman winters. Unusually for the time, it had four-wheel independent suspension by torsion bars. The simple steel bodywork bolted on top and because of its shape, it was nicknamed the ‘Beetle’ by the Americans.

The basis of the Volkswagen was a backbone chassis/platform with a rear-mounted,бА1131cc, fiat-four engine, which was air-cooled to cope with

The early Volkswagens had split rear windows and very austere trim with no chromework. Export models were slightly more luxurious and technically more sophisticated. Early ‘split window’ Beetles are now treasured collectors’ pieces.

one hand. Hebmuller never really recoveredДfrom a serious factory tire in the year of its launch (1949). It suffered financial problems and production ground to a halt after only 696 had been built.

No Beetle is more highly prized than the convertible. Volkswagen sanctioned only two official conversions. The first was a 2+2 version, manufactured by Hebmuller. The sills, bulkhead and rear were all strength-

ened, so it felt very rigid. The original windscreen was retained, though the

side windows and engine lid were new, and the hood could be raised with И

The second convertible Beetle was a full fourseater, created by Karmann of Osnabruck, which became the definitive item. Rigidity was

addressed by adding members under the sills and around the doors, which pushed the weight up by 901b (40kg). Externally it was identical to a Beetle below the waist (except for re-positioned semaphore indicators) but there were new winding front and rear windows and an elegant fabric hood with glass rear window, which grew larger as the years passed. The hood stacked up high behind rear seats. Production of the Karmann Cabriolet ceased as late as 1980.

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The first major change to the saloon occurred in 1953, when the rear window became oval-shaped and the engine increased in size to 1192cc, pushing power up from 25 bhp to 30 bhp. The Beetle got into its stride from now on, becoming the definitive ‘people's car’ of Germany – and the world – notching up million after million sales, pouring out of factories

Сacross the globe.

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By the time the rear window changed again to its more familiar rectangular shape in 1957, sales in America were soaring. They were up to

64,000 that year and eventually peaked in 1970 at over 582,000 units. The Beetle'sиsuccess was partly spurred on by an inventive advertisement campaign which played on the contrast of the Beetle’s unchanging appearance versus Detroit's chaotic annual revisions. The Beetle was also widely viewed as the most reliable car around.

GraduallyбАthings became a little more sophisticated, as the engines grew in size, the gearbox gained synchromesh, automatic transmission became optional and the improved 1302 Beetle came on stream. Volkswagen, however, never lost sight of the attributes which endeared it to its owners: simplicity, value and reliability. Instead it created more up-market variants on the same basic floorpan like Karmann-Ghia’s lovely coupe, a 1500 saloon and the 411 range.

On 17 February 1972, the Beetle passed the magic milestone of 15,007,034 units produced, overtaking the record set by the Ford Model T.

That made it the most popular tar inДhistory and its total is unlikely to be exceeded by any other single model. The Toyota Corolla’s claim to have caught the Beetle is only believable if all the very different versions of the Japanese car are added together.

Even after German production ceased in January 1978, the Beetle continued to be made at factories in countriesИlike Brazil and Mexico, where Beetles are still being churned out at the rate of almost 500 a day. The current total exceeds a staggering 21 million cars.

The popularity of the Beetle has never waned. It is still viewed with tremendous affection and owners are often loyal to the point of fanaticism. This is reflected in fairly high prices for Beetles sold as classics, especially the convertibles.

The Beetle also sired a whole series of crazes. The first of these was the American fad for racing off-road. A wide variety of ‘sand rails’ were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and a sub-culture of performance tuning parts sprang up. This in turn led to the great dune buggy explosion, ignited when Bruce Meyers put a fibreglass body tub on a Beetle floorpan.

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