Archive for May, 2011

Rares Grenouilles – 1969 Peugeot 204 Cabriolet and 1974 Renault R12 Break

May 20, 2011

Lose track of the classifieds listings for a couple of weeks, and all kinds of rarities pop up. Among others in the last couple of weeks, there are a couple of French cars their sellers would gladly foist upon you. Since it’s a sunny day out, we’ll start with this handsome Peugeot 204 Cabriolet. The seller wastes no time in pointing out this car was styled by Pininfarina, who also designed the “FERRARI TESTAROSSA”. Which is like the seller of a Hyundai Excel saying his car was done by the same guy who did the “ALFA GTV”. Find it in Los Angeles for $1500, which is a total steal for anything designed by a guy who did Ferraris.

1969 Peugeot 204 C front

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Cross-Germination: 1977 Fiat 128 3P

May 18, 2011

Here’s an unusual example of a fairly rare brand of car, if you discount 124 spiders. Fiat’s 128, while innovative and quite successful elsewhere, did not sell too well in the US due to Fiat’s reputation for rust and lack of dependability. And if you thought the 128 2-door, 4-door, and 2-door wagon were rare, just wait until you see the 3-door. Wait, what? Isn’t that the 2-door wagon?

Nope, it’s this little beauty, which looks like a VW Scirocco with a recessive gene for weird tail lights humped a VW Rabbit. You can find it listed in Spokane, WA for $1500.

1977 Fiat 128 3p rear

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Ballin’ on 14s – 1977 Spider on the 2011 Snowball

May 14, 2011

In what hopefully becomes a tradition, the spider has successfully completed its second road rally. The first was the Mother Lode 400, which I ran with my father last year, and since then most of the spider’s driving has been local and constrained by winter weather. Not that a northern California winter is so tough, but it’s more pleasant to go out in a closed car when it’s cold out. Anyway, the plan was to run the 2011 Snowball in the same high style in which we did the 2010, but it was not to be, since the restoration of the Alfetta’s body was not complete in time.

1977 Alfa Spider and 1948 MG TC

Thanks to Ben Buja for this picture; he got a lot of great shots of the car doing its thing on this 700-mile journey.

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