Niki Lauda Special Edition - What Do You Think?

I'll start the discussion.

As a lover of Alfa Romeo cars, I feel the Niki Lauda Edition should've had more than just stickers, spoiler, badges and other small things. To honor Niki Lauda, it would've been nice to give the car extra power, bigger brakes, steering and handling improvements. Special wheels (not used on any other Alfa) would've been nice. Also, how the side stripe defines the front of the car wrong - doesn't follow the body line and droops down at the front of the car, where no body line does the same thing. For me, a side single blue and white racing stripe running from the nose and hood to the deck lid would've been a nice touch. Not centered, but offset to the passenger side. Very mild side striping (blue and white) starting behind the front wheel well and continuing to the rear quarter panel would've been nice. No rear spoiler! I like the side badging. Ditto for the dash plate. And upgraded seats would've been nice too - maybe Ricaro??? Lighter exhaust headers with a free flow exhaust to cut weight and let the motor breathe better. And since it's a special edition, the four leaf clover is a must!

For looks, #4 is for me. I like the clean look of the twin stainless bumpers with center grille. Carello headlight covers with thin headlight bezels look great! And a cool gold and silver wheel like this one would be a nice addition:

I agree that something performance-related should have been done to make a true special edition. Adding "gingerbread" decals and a bumper just doesn't cut it for me. Now if an Alpha Spider with these markings and no performance improvements won a noteworthy race then I'll accept that it deserves a special edition designation.

Design, art, beauty, whatever you want to call it, is entirely subject to the viewer's personal taste.

What you see in it does not necessarily have any relation to what others see in it.

When I look at those pictures I see something that could have been designed in the Eastern bloc by a Soviet workers cooperative.

To me it's bland, boring, lacking creativity and completely devoid of any beauty whatsoever.

At first I thought it was one of those boat cars that go on both land and water.

But obviously there must be others in the world like yourself that see something desirable in it so go with your gut and just enjoy it for what you see in it yourself.

No one else can give you advice on what beauty is because it's different to all of us.

Tatra 603

Oh my! I wonder who designed this mess.

No, not a pretty car.

The great Battista Farina, designed the Alfa Spider. His plant also produced the cars for Alfa Romeo.

Battista Farina is one of the great Italian auto designers. He designed many Ferrari's from the 60's and earlier.

He obviously had uncooked spaghetti on his mind.

So many straight lines.

Probably took him as long to design that as it did to cook his spaghetti.

Aha! See, that's what makes his design so special. Most people see straight lines, which you see when looking at a picture. In real life, the car is anything buy straight lines. In the 70's and 80's, Bertone designed wedge or boxy shaped cars that had lots of lines. Battista Farina designed beautiful flowing cars. When you look at the 1973 and 1969 Alfa Spiders in the pictures below, you'll see the many curved surfaces in the car. The entire front end of the car is one piece (all painted parts except the hood). The front fenders, header panel and lower valance are all one piece. So not one seam in in the four parts and the headlight area is definitely curved too!

Some prefer the top four, while others like the bottom three.

1973 Alfa Spider:

1969 Ferrari 365 GTS:

1969 Alfa Spider:

Contrast this to the Bertone Fiat X19:

or the Volvo 780 (he also did the 262 with the chopped top)

And his idea of a Stratos:

And some people think this is beautiful: One of the few cars that looks better with a front license plate:

And one of the cars that looks better in last year's model - 2020 Corvette from the worst angle.