One of the most emotive car names in the history of the car, the Alfa Romeo Spider, is about to disappear from Australian showrooms. Production of the classic sports car has already ended after nearly 50 years. The last Alfa Romeo Spiders are now on sale.

"The Alfa Romeo Spider has been, since the first Alfa Romeo with the Spider name saw the light of day in 1955, the very essence of a sports car," says Kevin Wall, the General Manager of Alfa Romeo in Australia. "The latest generation of the Alfa Romeo Spider has a special resonance for Alfa Romeo in Australia as it is the car that brought Alfa Romeo back to this market in 1998 and it provided the sales success which was the launch pad for the 156 and all the models that followed and, therefore Alfa Romeo's successful return to Australia."

The last Alfa Romeo Spiders in Australian Alfa Romeo showrooms are priced from a recommended retail price of $49,990 driveaway for the Alfa Romeo Spider JTS to 3.2 litre-powered Spider V6 at $75,500. All share the prerequisites of a classic Alfa Romeo sports car, stylish, timeless good looks and a high level of standard equipment, as well as performance that makes every drive an experience. The chance to buy the Spider's hard top brother, the GTV, has now passed. The last new Alfa Romeo GTV was sold in November.

The first outing for the Alfa Romeo Spider name was in 1955 at the Turin Motor Show when the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, designed by Pininfarina, was launched in the first of two series. The first Spider had a four cylinder twin cam engine like today's Spider JTS, but its 49 kW was long way from the 121 kW in today's four cylinder Spider, let alone the 176 kW in the Spider V6 3.2. In a sign of things to come, this first Spider was particularly successful in the USA and did much to firmly establish Alfa Romeo and its Sports cars in that market. This car saw 14,300 cars find owners, plus 2,796 of the more powerful Veloce version.

The first model to be called purely "Spider" was launched in 1957 with a 2.0 litre 85 kW engine and was based on the Alfa Romeo 2000 sedan, which gave this new open top Alfa Romeo long, flowing lines and a more spacious interior than its smaller Giulietta siblings. In 1962 engine size was lifted to 2.6 litres and 108 kW in a re-styled car which like its predecessor was styled by Touring. This car was the first Spider to offer a 2+2 seating arrangement and the twin headlight set up.

In 1961 The third generation Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider was launched providing a minor re-style, of which the most obvious feature were the rear fins that ran down the body to the rear lights, along with a redesigned hood that could be hidden completely from sight when folded. Just 12 months after the launch of this car, the all-new Giulia Spider and Spider Veloce were launched at the Monza race track. Power was lifted to 68 kW and 85 kW for the Veloce version from the new 1600 cc engine.

The Giulietta Spider was replaced in 1966 by the car that became for many the definitive Alfa Romeo Spider, the Duetto. It was the last car designed personally by Battista Pinin Farina, the founder of the Pininfarina styling house. It contains a range of styling motifs that not only made it a definitive Alfa Romeo, but also which provided elements that can be seen in today's Alfa Romeos, such as the side scallop that was seen first in the Duetto and now in the Alfa 147. This is the car that became known for its so-call "cuttle fish bone" shape, tapering to a point at both the front and rear.

Officially the Duetto name disappeared just 12 months later when the call for more power saw the launch of the Spider 1750, which was identical to the Duetto except for its larger engine, more power and a higher top speed. The domination of the US market is show by the fact that nearly half of this generation, in production from 1967 to 1969, crossed the Atlantic. The call for a an affordable Spider was met in 1969 with the launch of the 1300 Junior, which retained the classic Duetto styling, but with a 1300 cc engine, made the joy of owning an open top Alfa Romeo available to an entire new market.

In 1969 both the Spider 1750 and the 1300 Junior were replaced by a new car with the same names, launched at the Turin Motor Show in November of that year. The major changes were at the rear, with a new square cut tail (hence the name "Coda tronca" of short-tail, replacing the cuttle-fish nickname) which made the car shorter, but markedly boosted boot size. At the other end of the Spider with a re-styled grilled and steep racked windscreen. In 1971 the 1750 was supplemented and then replaced by the 2000 Veloce, which ran in three versions to 1982. Nearly 40,000 of this generation of the Spider were built and over half went to the USA. Power ranged from 96 to 98 kW. From 1972 to 1981 there were four generations of the Junior version of the Spider, first with the 1300 cc engine and then with 1.6 litre engines.

In 1983 the Spider was substantially re-styled and the Junior was replaced by the Spider 1600, identical to the 2000, except for the engine and equipment levels. This model ran until 1986 when it was restyled again and then in 1990 Pininfarina was commission to do a final re-style on the car its founder had originally designed. This saw a return to cleaner, sleeker lines, elimination of appendages such as a rear wing that some people felt marred the lines of the car and a redesigned nose. This car ran until 1994.

The original Spider had a total production run of 124,105 units.

Meanwhile the GTV name first saw the light of day on a performance version of the Alfetta GT in 1976, with a 2.0 litre engine compared to the normal car's 1.6 litre power unit. Sitting on a shorted platform from the Alfetta, the GT and GTV were designed by the man destined to become one of the most influential car designers of all time, Giugiaro. It was very much the definition of a 2+2 sports coupé.

In 1977 this car, the GTV, became the basis for one of the ultimate tuned versions of an Alfa Romeo, when the 1600 cc engine was replaced by the 2.6 litre V8 from the Alfa Romeo Montreal, providing performance not bettered until the arrival of the GTV V6 3.2 in 2003. In 1979 all versions of the Alfetta 2+2 adopted the GTV name and in 1980 became the version which is most sort after: the GTV-6, when it debuted the V6 engine that is the basis for today's 3.2 litre V6 engine found in every model in the Alfa Romeo range and one of the classic engines of all time. In 1984 the V6 grew to 3.0 litres. GT/GTV production ended at 136,275 units.

In 1991 Alfa Romeo displayed the Proteo at the Geneva Motor Show, a wedge shaped sports car with a hard top roof that could be easily removed to transform a coupé in to an open top car. Sitting on the Alfa 164 platform, it debuted a lot of features that would become very familiar such as a front transversely installed V6 but, in this case, driving all four wheels.

Four years later, again at the Geneva Motor Show, the new Spider and its GTV sibling were revealed after collaboration between the Alfa Romeo Styling Centre, the designers of the Proteo, and Pininfarina, the designers of the original Spider. The aggressive wedge shape was retrained, along with the bullet hole headlights and the grille shaped by the new moulded bonnet. The V6 engine was joined by the Twin Spark engine in 2.0 litre and 1.8 litre form. For specific markets there were also 2.0 litre turbo and turbo V6 variants.

This first variant of the new Spider/GTV was - just - more popular in its Coupe top form, with 30,330 Spiders built compared to 36,759 GTVs.

In 1998, this was the car that returned Alfa Romeo to Australia which provided the basis for the launch the whole Alfa Romeo range. It was also the first fruit of the union between Alfa Romeo and Fiat and is, therefore, also seen as the car that rebirthed the brand worldwide.

This car was given a minor revision in 2000 and a major revision in 2003, when it received a new front end, along with the Twin Spark 2.0 litre engine - the 1.8 litre version continued in Europe - replaced by the 2.0 litre JTS engine. At the top of the range the 3.0 litre V6 was replaced by the 3.2 litre engine debuted in 156 V6 to make the Alfa Romeo GTV the fasted ever production Alfa Romeo.

While Alfa Romeo has used its sedans for the majority of its motorsport, this generation of the GTV has been used, in the Alfa GTV Cup Trophy, for a Europe-wide one make series. This car had an uprated engine, stripped interior and light-weight body.