Archive for July, 2009

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Holy Pistons! 1976 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT turbo

July 8, 2009

Update, 7/8/09: This car is now available on eBay, with better pictures showing its condition. Still looks like a solid project for that price, and it’s possible this is a period Jafco turbo setup.

As you might know if you’ve looked around elsewhere here, I’m the proud owner of a faded and somewhat rusty, but solid and reliable, 1979 Alfetta GT (sprint veloce). The shape shows some typical design characteristics of its period, and the car is very close in some ways to the contemporary VW Scirocco and Lotus Esprit (start with the trapezoidal windshield), which were all done by Giugiaro. Anyway, I thought I’d post this car to assuage my guilt about not finishing off the Alfetta’s clutch slave cylinder – it’s all hooked up, just needs bleeding and bolting into place to be done.

This sweet-looking car (okay, the flesh-toned paint job is a little weird) has the desirable 5-star Daytona-style wheels, a lip spoiler on the hatch, rollbar, and a large turbo. It is listed for $2500 in Denver, CO. The seller has had the car garaged for years, and has now realized he will never get this non-running car on the road. As you can see in the side shot below, the car has also been lowered:

1976 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT side

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1970 BMW 2002

July 7, 2009

By now I’m sure you’re noticing a lot of my favorite cars come from the seventies. Well, here’s another (just barely) – the BMW 2002. I’m sure if you’re reading this, it comes as no great surprise, and I’m not revealing anything unusual like I have in some of my other posts. However, I rode in one of these before I was born, on the way back from the hospital, and then as a little screamer, until my father replaced it with a used 1975 530i with a black vinyl roof. I’ve always wanted one of these, the search for one during high school having culminated in the purchase of my Alfa Spider. Since then, I’ve looked for one in vain, on and off, but even cheap ones have become more expensive, especially if you’re trying to avoid the 1974-76 rubber bumper cars.

However, a decent car within the budget range occasionally pops up, and this 1970 model (same year as my father’s) in Sacramento, CA looks a pretty solid basis for a rusty-but-trusty car. It has a substantial, descriptive advertisement to boot. As is frequently the case, the photography leaves something to be desired, but that is fairly common for a $2500 car on craigslist. You can see that it’s a fairly straight car that should be low-rust if it’s spent most of its life in Northern California:

1970 BMW 2002 front

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1971 Triumph TR6

July 1, 2009

Having always been a fan of 6-cylinder Triumphs, but having a hard time finding one at an affordable price, I had to jump on this particular car, listed here in Thousand Oaks, CA for $2000. I can’t say I have a particular story about these, or even any experience with them, except for one I test drove while I was in high school. Even at that time (15ish years ago), I think it was about $3000 for a ratty example in primer with a steering rack that was not properly secured to the rest of the car. I was kind of surprised the owner let me out on a test drive by myself, until I found out it wouldn’t get me too far.

Anyway, that was so bad, I couldn’t possibly run into another example that bad! Or could I? For $2000, this car with seemingly original color, no visible rust (solid according to the seller), and mostly complete, seems like a screaming deal. It’s even one of the earlier cars with smaller chrome bumpers and limited smog equipment. Check it out:

1971 Triumph TR6 left quarter
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