by Giancenzo Madaro
At the 1969 Turin Motor Show, held from 29th October to 9th November, the Alfa spiders were presented with an extremely important design modification: the rounded tail that had given rise to the "Osso di Seppia" nickname had been "amputated." (Osso di Seppia, or "cuttlefish bone" was a name given to the round-tail spider in the factory after the round tail styling of its coach work.)
In the trade at the time it was rumored that the Pininfarina stylists were suffering from an attack of "Kammitis" (the German Professor Kamm had been claiming since the mid-thirties that lopping of car tails led to healthier drag coefficient, Cd, figures). The press release stated that "with the modification of the truncated tail, this car presents a profile that is the fruit of the most recent study and testing carried out in the wind tunnel at the Turin Polytechnic" (the large wind tunnel belonging to Pininfarina, which allows tests to be carried out on full sized cars, was not opened until November, 1972). Taking the official declarations at face value, it appears that the short tail was adopted for sound aerodynamic reasons but, despite the fact that it was designed with great care, it was undeniably discordant with the frontal section of the car, which remained rounded in style.
However, putting aside purely personal opinions on the aesthetic merits of the restyling, the short tail and the other modifications carried out at the same time created what was, in effect, the second series of the Alfa spider.
The mechanical basis was fundamentally the same as used in the previous models, the 1300 and the 1750, so much so that the official code number for the two models remained unchanged: 105.57 for the 1750 and 105.91 for the 1300 Junior.
The adoption of the Kamm tail reduced the overall length of the car by 5.1 in (130 mm), from 167.3 to 162.2 in (4250 to 4120 mm); the rear overhang was reduced from 42.0 to 37.5 in (1065 to 953 mm) and now precisely matched that of the front overhang. The capacity of the luggage compartment was increased thanks to the greater vertical space provided by the new boot line. The new capacity declared by the manufacturer was 10.6 cu ft (300 litres) -- Alfa never provided a figure for the first series, but it was calculated at around 8.1 cu ft (230 litres) ...
Without wishing to offend Professor Kamm and his theories of aerodynamics, despite the amputation of the tail the second series spiders did not demonstrate any substantial differences as far as performance or handling were concerned.