1969 Alfa Romeo Spider 1750

The Giulia Sprint coupé that became the 1750 GTV was Giorgetto Giugiaro's, drawn for Bertone when he was barely out of his twenties — a shape so resolved it ran for fourteen years with almost no change. The 1750 arrived in 1967 with a larger 1779cc version of Alfa's alloy twin-cam, four headlamps replacing the earlier stepped nose, four-wheel disc brakes, and a five-speed gearbox. For the American market, 1969 cars carried Alfa's SPICA mechanical fuel injection — elegant when properly set up, and the reason these cars could meet U.S. emissions when rivals couldn't. There was no 1970 U.S. model year at all, a casualty of Italian labor strikes, which makes the 1969 cars a particular point in the line. Among Alfa people, the 1750 is the connoisseur's pick: where the later 2000 trades for outright displacement, the 1750 keeps the high-revving, free-breathing sweetness that defines the twin-cam at its best.