If you’ve seen the SF90 Spider or the F8 Spider and scratched your head at the naming, it’s clear you haven’t experienced the thrill of piloting a Ferrari convertible. While Ferrari has branded their convertibles differently over the years — spider, spyder, GTS, aperta — they’ve always delivered the same promise: the excitement of Ferrari performance with the wind in your hair. Aperta means “open” and GTS is simply Gran Turismo Spyder… but why do we call convertibles “spiders?” It’s a story older than Ferrari.
Many of the terms we use in the auto industry come from a time that predates the first car, and “spider” can be traced all the way back to the horse-drawn carriage. The spider phaeton was a lightweight carriage built for sport and show that featured a removable top (with minimal protection from the elements). While many other open-air carriages sported permanent side windows, the spider offered a true open-air experience.
Some speculate that the carriage, with its small body, large wooden wheels, and thin spokes resembled a spider, and the name just stuck. It’s more likely that the vehicle’s eight-spoke wheels earned it its name, as they were distributed unevenly: four pointing to one side of the wheel and four to the opposite, with a larger gap between them.
Is it “spider” or “spyder,” though? It often varies from automaker to automaker, though you can tell from the GTS and the current Ferrari naming convention: sometimes one era features a spyder while another features a spider.
The current Ferrari lineup has a trio of spiders:
Whether you have your sights set on a new Ferrari Spider or you’re looking for something classic, Ferrari Lake Forest is here to help. Contact us today for more information.
A big client dinner calls for something better than a generic table by the kitchen door, and picking up a new Ferrari calls for a little more ceremony than driving straight home. Across Lake Bluff and Lake Forest, a cluster of private dining rooms gives locals the perfect backdrop for both moments, whether you need…
Two of the most talked-about performance cars on the road today take radically different paths to blistering speed. The 2026 Ferrari 296 GTB vs 2026 Porsche 911 Turbo S matchup pits Maranello’s plug-in hybrid V6 against Stuttgart’s newest T-Hybrid flat-six, and the differences go far beyond spec sheets. If you’re weighing which one deserves a…
A squeal after a rainy drive. Or maybe you run a finger over a cool rotor and feel a slightly rough texture you weren’t expecting. Every Ferrari owner notices these things eventually, and most of the time they mean nothing at all. Knowing the difference between normal characteristics of Ferrari carbon ceramic brakes and genuine…
