Alfa Romeo Spider 916 as a youngtimer without illusions

Park the Spider 916 next to any modern convertible and wait half a minute. Someone will come. That wedge-shaped, swooping line with a sharp cut across the flank—a signature of Pininfarina's Enrico Fumia—is thirty years old and still looks like a sketch that escaped the atelier before it was calmed down. That's good news. Too bad that under that line lives an engine with a variator that rattles like a bag of nails when cold and a timing belt that, if you ignore it, turns an expensive Alfa into an even more expensive sculpture.

Buying a Spider 916 is not buying a car. It's a relationship purchase where you pay and he decides when to reward you. If you understand that up front, you're getting one of the best-looking affordable roadsters on the market. If not, you get a lesson.

Front-wheel drive in a roadster body — sin or genius?

Purists greeted the 916 with a raised eyebrow. Roadster withfront-wheel drive? Platform shared with Fiat Tipo and Alfa 155? Yes, that's right. The chassis is derived from the Fiat Type Two architecture, with a transversely mounted engine sitting up front. The mass distribution of the four-cylinder is approx60:40 in favor of the front axle, and the V6 version is even more pronounced — the nose is heavy and you can feel it.

But there is a catch that the competition of that time did not have:multilink rear axle. Alfa has attached a sophisticated rear suspension to the low-cost, front-wheel-drive platform that gives the Spider the sort of fast cornering stability you wouldn't expect from a front-wheel-drive car. It doesn't drive likeMazda MX-5— doesn't have that rear-end play or clean response. It drives like a fast, heavy, tough coupe with the roof cut off. Different philosophy, not worse.

Engines are a story in themselves. Basic2.0 Twin Spark 16Vgives an eye150 hp and 187 Nm at 3,500 rpm— sufficient, elastic, with characteristic double spark plugs per cylinder. The top of the offer is3.0 V6 24Vfrom the Buso family with220 hp, later and 3.2 with 240 HP. That V6 is one of the most beautiful sounds mass production has ever made — at 4,000 rpm it turns the tunnel into a pipe organ. But it is also the most expensive to maintain, which we will discuss in a moment.

What breaks: variator, belt, rust and electricity

Let's start with the sound you'll hear on every Twin Spark you look at.Variator(cam phase regulator) on a cold start it rattles. A slight clatter that goes away after a few seconds is normal and does not necessarily mean the end. Persistent, loud rattling that goes on means the variator is going — it's a replacement250–450 euroswith work and it is smart to do it together with the belt.

Timing belt is the most important item of the whole car. AtThe Twin Spark is changed every 60,000 km or every 3-4 years, as soon as possible, and that is not a suggestion but a condition of survival. The codeV6 Buso enginethe work is much more complicated — access requires disassembly and time, so the cost of servicing a belt with a water pump and tensioners can exceed600–900 euros. Treat a V6 without a documented belt replacement as a time bomb.

Rustis another front. Look for it on the rear fenders above the wheel, on the door sills, around the hood hinges and — most importantly — on the lower edge of the windshield frame and around the trunk lid. The soft cloth roof on the 916 is manually and mechanically simple; check the rear window for fogging and leaky seams.