Electel Blogspot

An interesting 1996 Alfa Romeo concept car with a Retro feeling was the Nuvola (Wikipedia entry here ).  It was designed under the direction of Centro Stile Alfa Romeo director Walter de' Silva , who was responsible for the outstanding 1997 Alfa Romeo 156 sedan design.   He eventually became head of the Volkswagen Design Group. Thanks to the need for automobile designs to be tested in wind tunnels for reasons of aerodynamic and fuel consumption efficiency, car shapes during the 1990s often assumed curved appearances in contrast to 1970s angular shapes.  The Nuvola was no exception, as the images below indicate. Gallery Factory image of Nuvola's front quarter.  Bring a concept car meant that it had no real need for a proper bumper.  The wheel design strikes me as silly, but similar themes have been common.  At least they reinforce the rounded/curved design theme. Rear quarter view, same source.  Again, no bumper.  The tail lights atop the rear fe...

I recently posted about the 1995-vintage Alfa Romeo Spider convertible.  Its companion coupé was the GTV, sold during model years 1995-2005.  The Wikipedia entry for these cars is here .  It mentions that the stylist was Enrico Fumia , then employed by the Pininfarina firm. The Spider entered production a few months before the GVT, but I don't know which model was designed first. My comments on the basic design can be found at the link above.  Here I focus on the design of the passenger compartment greenhouse and how it relates to the rest of the car. Gallery A for-sale 1996 Alfa Romeo Spider showing the character line that wraps from the sides around the convertible top's cover.   Note that its side angle is echoed by the side cut line of the rear bumper assembly. Side view. Side view of a for-sale 1996 GTV.  The passenger compartment greenhouse extends as far as the aft edge of the rear tires.  This alters the side character line found on the Spider...

In 2018 while touring north-central Italy, I came across this car during a lunch break.  A little Googling allowed me to identify it and refresh my memory of it when the design was new. As the title of this post states, it is an  Alfa Romeo Spider , likely a 1995 or 1996 model.  Wikipedia indicates that the stylist was Enrico Fumia who was working at Pininfarina.  This Spider (pronounced like the English word "speeder") series was marketed model years 1995-2006 and experienced a minor grille facelift during that period.  There also was a coupé version, the GTV. The Spider has a 100-inch (2540 mm) wheelbase, but its overall length is 168.7 inches (4285 mm), the latter dimension similar to that of the early, classic Porsche 911.  This suggests that the car potentially had reasonable proportions.  But the styling makes it seem stubby, rather than graceful or purposeful. Gallery German publicity photo. Probably a factory image of a 1995 model.  The g...