Original Owner: A Fun Weekend Toy Turned a Whole Family into Alfa Romeo Enthusiasts 

In summer 1992, Donna Musilli, in her early 30s and living in Columbus, Ohio, had just earned a big bonus from her pharmaceutical sales job. She decided to splurge on a sports car, despite a poor experience with an old Fiat 124 Spider she’d picked up for $2500.

Naturally, she test-drove the Mazda Miata that had revived the spirit of 1960s European roadsters in an affordable, reliable package. A typical $17,000 retail price with popular options seemed irresistible. That didn’t stop her, however, from dropping by Alfa of Columbus to sample the Alfa Romeo Spider, a yellow model she liked much better than the red one also in the showroom. The $25,000 price was an initial obstacle, though.

“I asked the salesman, ‘Why should I pay $10,000 more than the Miata?’” she recalled. “He walked me around and showed me all kinds of specs and features and said, ‘That’s about $5,000.’ Then he handed me the keys and said, ‘Take it for 24 hours, and you’ll find the other $5,000.’ That was a good strategy on his part. I bought it the next morning. It was just my fun weekend car.”

Donna found the bright yellow Alfa attracted a lot of attention, but she had no idea how owning it would steer her life. Nor did she envision, at the time, that the Spider would become a “forever” car.

Ski Trip to an Alfa Marriage

The following March, Donna, a member of the Columbus Ski Club, joined the group for a trip to Austria. At the airport, she met another member, Andy Musilli, for the first time. As his surname reveals, it proved to be an auspicious meeting for both of them.

“We spent eight days together in Europe skiing in the Alps and drinking German beer,” Andy said. On the trip home, a major snowstorm that paralyzed the East Coast added another day due to flight diversions. “I proposed to her after three months, and we were married 11 months after the day we met. We celebrated our 31^st anniversary in February.”

During their courtship, Andy had also become smitten with Donna’s Alfa Romeo. After marriage, the couple found themselves engaging with the local Alfa community, meeting many new friends. 

“Andy got involved with Alfas, then my dad got involved, then our son and my nephew,” Donna said. “We’re a total Alfa Romeo family. Andy takes care of the cars. He’s the historian and detail person, so it’s a story about both of us.”

A Note on the Spider’s Windshield

Looking striking in Bilbao Yellow, named for a city in northern Spain, Donna’s Alfa Spider captured eyeballs wherever she drove it. One set of eyes belonged to Ken Wears, founding member of the Buckeye Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owners Club in Ohio. Returning to her Alfa after lunch one day, Donna found his business card on the windshield. She ended up joining the club but did not become active in it until after she and Andy were married. 

“We’ve been involved ever since, and Andy has been the president for over 25 years,” Donna said. “Ken and his wife, Leslie, became close friends of ours.” (Ken passed away in 2019.)

Andy explained his “president-for-life” status as almost accidental. When the chapter needed a new president in 1998, the officers met at a sports bar to choose one. 

“I left the room to answer a call to my pager, and when I came back, they said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the new president.’”

Donna noted that at every annual meeting since, someone nominates Andy, another seconds it, and he’s re-elected. The Buckeye chapter has about 40 members.

“We’re the central Ohio chapter,” Andy explained. “There’s one in northeast that takes in Cleveland, Youngstown, and Buffalo, and another in the southwest that includes Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Southern Indiana.” 

Factory Basics: Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce Series IV

Introduced in 1966, Alfa Romeo’s successor to the Giulia Spider would be built in four series through 1993. Differences among these were largely front and rear styling revisions combined with powertrain changes to keep pace with emissions regulations.

Pininfarina designed the Spider and assembled it for the model’s entire run. Only the first-series Spider wore the distinctive “boat tail” design used through 1969. Many still refer to this model as the Duetto, a badge that Alfa chose from more than 100,000 entries in a naming contest. The winner, Guidobaldo Trionfi of Brescia, earned his Spider prize, but Alfa Romeo dropped the name in 1967, because a snack maker owned the trademark for a small cream-stuffed cake.

The name became simply Spider 1600 for the car’s 1.6-liter DOHC four-cylinder engine. The Spider used a steel unibody and carried over Giulia Spider chassis bits, including a solid rear axle using trailing arms and coil springs. The early models weighed about 2300 pounds. An aluminum twin-cam four, five-speed manual transmission, and four-wheel disc brakes were almost exotic compared to the mechanicals in British roadsters of the period.

The low-volume Alfa Spider was never going to be a common sight even in America, its biggest market. Yet, in late December 1967, millions of Americans watched the zesty Italian roadster speeding across the big screen. In the hit movie, The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman portrayed aimless college grad Benjamin Braddock, whose suburbanite parents gift him a new Spider. The car would have cost around $4000 then, or about $38,000 today. The Alfa became so identifiable with the film that, in the 1980s, Alfa Romeo issued a stripped-down, lower-priced version of the Spider called “Graduate.”

A 1.8-liter (1779-cc) version of the engine replaced the 1.6 in 1968, though it was badged as a “1750” in homage to Alfa Romeo’s 6C 1750 sports car of the 1930s. European buyers could also get a 1.3-liter. For 1970, the Spider became a Series II model with a design refresh that chopped off the boat tail and tweaked the front-end styling. Alfa did not import 1968 or 1970 models to the U.S. due to certification issues. 

When the Series II Spider arrived in the U.S. for 1971, it had a 2.0-liter (1962-cc) engine with SPICA mechanical fuel injection. Road & Track magazine called the 1971 Spider “a refined, rewarding sports car” and praised its powertrain and handling. At the same time, the magazine knocked the car’s ergonomics.

Alfa Spider Goes the Distance

Modern tech, including the industry’s first production variable intake valve timing, in 1980, helped preserve the Spider’s verve. Two years later, the Series III Spider gained Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection. The advanced Bosch Motronic engine management system replaced that in 1990.

Pininfarina’s design refresh gave the Series IV Spider introduced in 1991 a better-integrated front end and tail. The car by then weighed 2700 pounds and had power steering. The standard and Veloce models shared the same 120-horsepower 2.0-liter engine, and this last run of Spiders had a driver’s airbag. Although Veloce means “fast” in Italian, and on past Alfas models had denoted sportier variants, on this car it merely signified a higher trim line with 15-inch alloy wheels, leather seating, power windows, air conditioning, and other amenities. Pininfarina made the final Spiders in 1993, though some were sold as 1994 models in the U.S.

In a May 1993 Car and Driver comparison test pitting the Spider Series IV against the Miata and the front-drive Honda del Sol Si and Mercury Capri XR2, the Miata won, and the Alfa placed fourth. The Alfa essentially matched the early Miata’s acceleration, with 0–60 in 9.7 seconds and the quarter-mile in 17.3 at 80 mph. But the magazine’s judgement was simply that the nearly three-decade-old Alfa felt its age on anything but smooth roads. The car’s fans would likely argue that was part of the charm, along with the classic design.

Alfa Romeo built about 124,000 Spiders over 28 years. In contrast, Mazda built more than 140,000 Miatas in its first two years of production, and North American dealers sold about 150,000 over the first five.

From the Spider, Many More Alfas

Donna’s Spider had truly given husband Andy the sports car bug, and soon he would have his own Alfa.

“I used Donna’s Spider in the autocross at the ’97 national convention, and I think she was mortified seeing how I drove it,” he said. “An opportunity came up for me to buy a 1982 Alfa GTV6 race car that the owner had thrown a lot of money into but felt he couldn’t be competitive. He bought another car and sold me the GTV for a ridiculously low price. When I told Donna I was thinking about buying it, she said, ‘Yes! Please buy it!’” Andy drove the GTV6 only at club events.

The couple’s club involvement attracted opportunities to buy other Alfas, too. About 10 years ago, Andy picked up a 1987 Milano with an automatic transmission. This funky-styled rear-drive sedan used the same 154-hp 2.5-liter V-6 as in the GTV coupe—one of the best-sounding V-6s you’ll ever hear.

“We bought that for our son Michael’s 16th birthday. He and I spent a year on and off converting it to a manual transmission,” Andy said. “Then I had second thoughts about putting a 16-year-old in a car without any safety features like ABS and airbags. We ended up selling it and getting him a VW Jetta.”

A ’66 Giulia Sprint GTV coupe and a ’66 Giulia Spider spent some time with the family, and Andy bought another GTV6, an ’87 that he described as a barn find. “With that one, I got the owner to include a Vespa 150 scooter he had. I flipped the Alfa and still have the Vespa.”

“My dad bought two Milanos, and my nephew inherited them,” Donna said. “Two Alfas we sold helped pay for our kids’ college.”

A More Modern Spider

A pair of Alfas currently share the Musilli garage with the Spider, a green 1969 GTV 1750 bought out of an estate sale 10 years ago, and a 1300-mile 2018 4C Spider Andy acquired via Bring A Trailer from a seller in Atlanta in 2020.

“A member of the Atlanta club chapter did a prepurchase inspection for me, and he told me, ‘If you don’t buy this car, I’m going to,’” Andy said. “My son and I flew down to Atlanta and drove it back. We were an hour from the Tail of the Dragon, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to drive that.”

Donna called the 4C their go-to fun car. “For the most part, when we go out on day trips or just drives in the country, we take the 4C because it’s so much more modern and fun.”

The couple’s love of all things Alfa goes international, too. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in Italy as part of an Alfa club trip. There, they toured the Alfa Romeo, Ducati, and Lamborghini museums as well as some private collections. They’re planning a 2026 trip to Italy with an outfit called Nostalgic Driving Experience to get behind the wheel of some 1960s Alfas.

Alfa Spider Memories

Hagerty: Donna, your ‘fun weekend car’ purchase over 32 years ago sparked a family of Alfa enthusiasts. Do you still take time to enjoy the Spider?

Donna: If there’s a local event, I’ll drive my Spider, and Andy will drive his 4C. We take the Spider for summer evening and weekend drives. We joke that she knows her way to all the Whit’s Frozen Custard shops in the area.

Hagerty: Any long road trips taken in the Spider?

Donna: The Spider has been to numerous Alfa conventions. Two summers ago, our son and his girlfriend drove the Spider and we drove the 4C on a day-long road rally. Our daughter, Audrey, prefers not to drive stick shift.

Andy: I’ve driven the Spider to conventions in the Eastern half of the country, and we’ve been to Montreal in it. Usually if they’re within reasonable driving distance, nine to twelve hours, we’ll go with the club. We might have nine cars from our AROC chapter, and we’re often the most represented chapter at a convention.

Hagerty: Has the Spider required any work?

Donna: A friend who finds detailing cars and doing paint correction relaxing took the Spider for a week. When we got it back, we couldn’t believe the color transformation. It still has the original top, and the plastic rear window is still clear.

Andy: Cars don’t like to sit too long. I’ve done the brake master cylinder twice. And we’ve of course changed the tires a few times.

Hagerty: Andy, Donna calls you the family Alfa mechanic and historian. Were you always a car enthusiast?

Andy: My father was an excellent shadetree mechanic and loved cars. We grew up in rural Ohio and by most standards were poor, but we didn’t know it! My era was old American iron—Cutlass, Barracuda, Demon, 442, and Mustang—but I couldn’t afford any of those muscle cars at the time. After meeting Donna and becoming immersed in the Alfa community, I was surrounded by like-minded people that offered me great counsel, technical advice, and fun outings. None of that would have happened without Donna. I was a late bloomer, I guess.

Hagerty: Have you ever thought about selling the Spider?

Donna: I basically made the commitment to just keep the Spider forever. We both agree that this is the one we won’t ever sell. It will stay in the family.

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Car: 1992 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce

Owner: Donna Musilli

Home: Powell, Ohio

Delivery Date: June 1992

Miles on car: 43,000

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Are you the original owner of a classic car, or do you know someone who is? Send us a photo and a bit of background to tips@hagerty.com with ORIGINAL OWNER in the subject line—you might get featured in our next installment!