The first thing that strikes you about the 2007 Alfa Romeo Spider is that it's not the sylph-like convertible Dustin Hoffman drove in The Graduate, but much chunkier.
Gone are the subtle curves and narrow windscreen pillars of the '60s Duetto classic, replaced by muscular haunches and a drop-nosed wagger.
It's also a vast departure from the '90s GTV-derived cabriolet, which looked super for a year or two, but depreciated faster than its trendy buyers' attention span.
Based on the handsome, wedge-shaped Brera, the drop-top Spider is the child of design house Pininfarina. It's not a million miles away from the hard-top, but it's a new car in its own right.
With a sculpted body of swooping lines and just a hint of machismo, the Spider has an over-the-top leather interior that's reminiscent of nothing so much as a hairdressing salon.
But hit the red start/stop button in the centre of the dash and it becomes clear that underneath the coiffured frou-frou beats the heart of an Italian thoroughbred. With 260 brake-horsepower delivered via Alfa Romeo's Q4 permanent all-wheel drive, the car is quick, well-grounded and handles as sharply as anything around.
The Spider's unisex appeal is also refreshingly free of the associations that come with, say, the Porsches or the Lamborghinis of the super-rich.
