Why is a certain type of roadster called a spider? An article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette muses, but doesn't quite pin it down.

quote:

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Spider and Spyder are used almost interchangeably in automotive literature. If the car is old and Italian, it's likely called a Spider; if new or German, a Spyder.

The Oxford English Dictionary includes "spyder' as a variant of "spider." It lists nine primary definitions of the word, but none in an automotive context. The closest it gets is: "A lightly built cart, trap or phaeton with a high body and disproportionately large and slender wheels."

A posting on Wordwizard elaborates: "The name was originally used to describe a type of light two-wheeled horse-drawn buggy with large spoked wheels, giving it the appearance when moving of a running spider. There was also a type of carriage called a 'fly' but I don’t know if this was similar."

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Is that type of carriage the source of the automotive name? Did that carriage get its name as wordwizard says, and how does it relate to the 'fly'?

No doubt you've already looked, but googling "spyder automobile" I find

Maserati Spyder :: Automobile Web DirectoryTIV.NET, MASERATI SPYDER. ... Compare Prices On Cars Before you buy...
www.auto.tiv.net/maserati-spyder.html ...

and

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Automobiles (Spyder Web)... Claim: Parts Click Here. from James Dean's crashed Porsche Spyder were re-used in other automobiles, with disastrous results. ...
www.snopes.com/autos/cursed/spyder.htm ...

referring to Maserati Spyder and Porsche Spyder.

For what it's worth.

I think Mitsubishi should come out with a model they call the Spider.


(...wait for it. It might have a very slow fuse.)

Mitsubishi? Hmmm... They produced a "spider" of an airplane, the A-6M, also called the Zero, which was responsible for considerable "short-fuse" activity in WWII!