Italians routinely call the long-running Alfa Romeo Spider, made in four series between 1966 and 1993, “Duetto”… Despite this word never appearing anywhere on either the car or the related promotional material.
To understand why, we need to go back to the 1966 Geneva Motor Show.
The newest Alfa Romeo sports car, set to replace the previous Giulia Spider, was presented at the Swiss show as “Spider 1600”. Given nobody at Alfa Romeo had yet decided its name, the Milanese company came up with a publicity stunt: Over two months, everyone could send a letter to Alfa Romeo suggesting a name for the new Spider. One winner would then be extracted among those that suggested the chosen name… And the lucky one would get a brand new Spider.
Alfa Romeo was overwhelmed by the initiative’s success: around 140.000 letters arrived at its Milan headquarters, and more than 8000 different names were suggested.
Many of those suggestions made reference to Battista “Pinin” Farina, as the world-famous designer had died in April that same year, making the new Alfa Romeo the last design he oversaw.
The not-so-easy task of choosing one word among thousands fell to a small panel of judges presided by the…
