Scrapyard Gem: 2008 Alfa Romeo Spider 2.2 JTS

Alfa Romeo departed our shores after the final 164s and Spider Veloces were sold here as 1995 models, then returned for the 2015 model year with the 4C. Thanks to its position in the mighty Stellantis Empire, the current American-market Alfa Romeo lineup looks quite a bit like the Italian-market one, but we missed out on some interesting machinery during our Alfa-deprived 1996-2014 period. One of those cars was the 2006-2010 Spider, and I found a discarded example in an Italian/French specialty breaker's yard near Leeds, England during a recent trip.

Sherburn Motor Spares is located in Sherburn-in-Elmet, on the former site of the factory where Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers were built during World War II. They specialize in Italian and French cars, which means the place overflows with vehicles we didn't get on our side of the Atlantic. I've written about a 1999 Alfa Romeo 166 and a 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S that reside there, and now it's the turn of the Brera's convertible sibling.

I couldn't resist buying this stunning "International Van of the Year 2008" emblem from a Citroën Dispatch at Sherburn Motor Spares; it now lives on the door of the breaker box in my garage. £3 well spent!

"Spider" is a term originally applied to an arachnid-ish horse-drawn carriage and is applicable to any convertible-top automobile today, but Alfa Romeo didn't hesitate to use it as a model name in its own right when it came time to built a sporty convertible on a platform originally devised by Saab for use beneath GM and Fiat machinery. As it turned out, the only production cars using that platform ended up being Alfa Romeos.

Giorgetto Giugiaro handled the design of the Brera coupe, while Pininfarina did both the styling and assembly of the Spider.

As you'd expect, reviewers thought both cars looked great.

Just over 12,000 2006-2010 Spiders were built.

The U.K.-market Spider was available with front- or all-wheel-drive and a choice of three petrol and two diesel engines (yes, a diesel Alfa Spider!). This car has the base 2.2-liter JTS straight-four petrol engine, which was a direct-injected unit based on GM's Ecotec engine block. Output was 182 horsepower and 170 pound-feet.

This one had donated some body parts by the time I arrived on a freezing Yorkshire morning, but it appears to have been in reasonably good condition upon arrival.

It appears that these cars can sell for decent money in good condition with solid MOTs, which is encouraging for an Italian car with an original MSRP of £21,555 ($39,877 in 2008 U.S. dollars, or $59,005 in 2024 dollars).

Ganz bald (quite soon).

Sensations sponsored by Spider.