 
The picture showing the 17" Azev type E rims was taken at Dovrefjell National
Park in Norway.
The one with the 18" Zender Sienas was
taken in Oslo. This also shows the 30 mm
lowering and 10 mm spacers on the back wheels. |
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M Y S P I D E R
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WOAW! – I thought the first time I saw it –
THAT’S THE CAR I WANT! It took me a couple of
years to get one, but
when I finally got over to the dealer and sat in my Spider
for the first time, I realized that it was the coolest and
most sexy piece
of toy I had ever laid my hands on!
 It stood there all bright and shiny, and the interior was
smelling like a thousand Italian cows – good, that is 🙂
The exceptionally beautiful Pininfarina design was painted in
titan silver-gray metallic, – and to top it off, I had ordered
the complete "Lusso" treatment, – air-con, Momo leather
seats and the "blue style" package interior with
color matching electric roof. The wheels was 17" Azev "E"
rims fitted with Dunlop SP8000 245/35 tyres. It was truly
love at first sight!
Later I had to replace one of my rims due to poor
Norwegian roads. It seemed difficult to get hold of just one
of
the Azev rims, so I decided to go all the way! 4 new
18" Zender Siena
rims especially made for Alfa, fitted
with
Nokian NRZi 225/40 was ordered. Woaw… it looks
spectacular and the Nokian handles somewhat better than the old Dunlop.
 I
thought that the Sienas left too much space in the back
wheel archers, so I’ve added 10mm spacers on both sides and it looks perfect! I’ve also
lowered it about 30mm with the Eibach Pro-kit sport
springs. Combined with the 225/40/18 wheels, it now feels
glued to the road – although it suffers a bit in comfort on
sharp bumps. (Bogstadveien anyone? 🙂 Guess you can’t have it both ways…
The GTV/Spider has an exceptional design, so don’t go and
overdo it in the styling department. A couple of things that
it definitely deserves though, is the aforementioned 30mm lowering
combined with 18" wheels. Other details that I’ve had
done, is replacing the standard orange – and pretty cheap
looking – side indicators with white ones.
I’ve also had the side
mirrors painted. They originally come in matte black, probably
to fit with the black windscreen frame.
The
GTV mirrors are painted though.
 The standard sound system
is absolutely shit and just had to be replaced. I now got the
Sony CD/radio
CDX-L400X which has a silver
and red front, – matching both the silver mid-consol and the
red hazard button above the slot perfectly. Together
with an 800W amp, it delivers open road music through a new
set of full-tone speakers + tweeters, – and a real
sub-woofer (not the extremely poor sub originally fitted). All in the Xplod-series from Sony.
Like I said, I bought the Spider foremost because of the exceptional
and award winning design, but I soon discovered that I had
bought something a lot more! Suddenly I understood terms
like "driving pleasure", and "the Alfa Romeo
legend". What a driver’s delight! It seems I’m always
trying to come up with poor excuses to take it for a spin.
What more can I say, – I can’t get enough of the pure sight
of it and I’m still looking at the
reflection in the shopping windows when I’m waiting for the
green light. But beware – it’s a real head-turner, and definitively not for those who want to travel
incognito 🙂
Alfa Romeo Spider
– Model: 2.0 Twin Spark "Lusso"
– Year: 1999
– Engine: 2,0l/155 bhp (114 kW) 16V
– Speed: 215 km/h
(the needle aaaalmost touched the 220 mark on my way to the
airport recently 🙂
– Acceleration 0-100: 8,4 secs (2 adults +
20kg)
– Color: Titan silver-grey metallic (#559 Grigio Eclisse)
Extra equipment
– Rims: 18" Zender Siena
– Tyres: Nokian NRZi 225/40
– Metallic paint
– El. auto air-condition w/pollen filter
– El. roof
– Momo leather seats (blue-grey)
– Momo "Blue Style" interior:
Color matched velour carpeting, dashboard, leather doors and canvas roof
– Painted side mirrors
– Sparetyre-compressor w/foam
– Wind-stopper
– Eibach Pro-Kit sport springs (30mm lowered)
with 10mm spacers on the back wheels.
– KN-performance airfilter
– White side indicators
– Sony
CDX-L400X CD/radio, 800W amplifier driving 2 full-tone speakers, 2 tweeters and a
sub-woofer. All from Sony’s Xplod-series
Standard
equipment:
– ABS breaks
– Front fog lights
– Tilt steering wheel (height/length)
– "Alfa Code" engine lock
– Remote central lock in key (radio freq.)
– El. windows (colored)
– El. antenna
– El. mirrors w/heat
– Leather steering wheel and gear knob
– Light under the doors
– "Alfa Romeo" sill liner
– Anti Fire System (FPS)
– 2 x airbag
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