Designed by and manufactured at the Italian carrozzeria Pininfarina factory, the monocoque, front-engined, rear-drive Sport Spider debuted at the November 1966 Turin Auto Show with styling by Tom Tjaarda.

The early AS cars also have smaller taillights, while the BS received a mesh grille and black-rimmed gauges inside.

The Fiat Spider 2000 ended manufacture in July 1982, and after the Italian summer holidays, production of Pininfarina-badged cars commenced in its place.

The four-cylinder engine used in the spider and coupé is a double overhead cam, aluminum crossflow head version of the sedan's pushrod unit.

A supercharged model called "Volumex" also was offered toward the end of production; it was sold only in Europe, where it cost 35% more than a regular, fuel-injected Spidereuropa.

Its derivatives powered race cars such as the Fiat 131 Mirafiori, 124 Special T, Lancia Beta Montecarlo, Delta Integrale, and many others.

Suspension is conventional by unequal-length wishbones and coilover damper at the front and by coil-spring live rear axle at the rear, which is located by a transverse link (Panhard rod) and two pairs of forward-extending radius rods to react to braking and acceleration forces, and to control axle wind-up.

In 1969, the Spider featured four-wheel disc brakes, double overhead cams, hesitation wipers, steering column-mounted lighting controls, radial-ply tyres, and a five-speed manual transmission.

For the 1980 model year, a version with a catalytic converter and Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection was introduced for California and optional in the other 49 states.

[10] The 124 Rally was added to the Sport Spider range, which included the 1600 and 1800 models; the first 500 examples produced were earmarked for the domestic Italian market.

[11] Amongst the most notable modifications over the standard Spider were independent rear suspension, engine upgrades, lightweight body panels, and a rigid hard top.

In place of the usual rear solid axle, independent suspension from lower wishbones is used, with the original trailing arms, an upper strut, and an antiroll bar.

[10] The engine bonnet, boot lid, and fixed hard top are fibreglass, painted matt black; the rear window is perspex and the doors are aluminium.

Matte-black wheel-arch extensions house 185/70 VR 13 Pirelli CN 36 tyres on 5.5 J × 13" four-spoke alloy wheels.