A pretty Alfa Romeo Spider, seen in Beijing in 2015. The good Alfa was a bit dusty but otherwise in a fine shape, painted in yellow with a black top, a black leather interior, and gray-silver wheels. It also had a very old blue 京A license plate.
The ‘Type 916’ Alfa Romeo Spider and GTV coupe was manufactured from 1993 until 2006 with facelifts in 1998 and 2003. Our yellow car is an early post-1998 facelift example. Amazingly, Alfa Romeo officially sold both the GTV and the Spider in China, starting in 2001. Price started around 660.000 yuan, which was steep for the times. But Alfa Romeo still managed to sell quite a few cars and over the years I have seen about a dozen.
The Spider was available with various engines. The smallest was a 1.8 and the largest a 3.2 V6. The four-cylinder 2.0 Twin Spark model sat in the middle of the lineup. Output was 153 hp and 187 Nm, good for 0-100 in 8.4 seconds and a 215 km/h top speed. Gearbox was a 5 or 6 speed manual, sending horses to the front wheels.
The interior was in a fine condition with smooth leather seats, leather upholstery on the doors, and some shiny trim on the center stack. Sadly, the original radio was replaced with a cheap after-market unit.
The Type 916 GTV and Spider were designed by Enrico Fumia at Pininfarina.
Blue 京A license plates are not the same as black 京A license plates. The blue ones were issued to the very first batches of privately registered cars in Beijing, as opposed to cars registered to companies or the government. So this Alfa was one of the first private cars in town. And what a car to start with!
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