Black Spiders – 1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Pair

October 26, 2015

You’ve heard it enough times, many classic cars are slipping out of the reach of mere mortals. Well sure, if you approach with a narrow focus, you can’t even get a project for under $10,000. But if you look carefully, and weigh your priorities, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a little or a lot of money, as long as you can be diligent in your search and diligent with your tools. Conveniently, that supports the case for today’s pair of feature cars, both 1987 Alfa Romeo Spiders. Sure, in 1987, these cars seemed antiquated, but now you’re picking up a lot of the iconic 1960s style with upgrades like power windows, electronic fuel injection, and more. Which makes it like a Miata with more heritage and less bulletproof-ness. Check out this 1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Quadrifoglio for sale for $2700 in Chatsworth, CA.

1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Quadrifoglio left rear

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Due Alfetti – 1979 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce and 1977 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV

October 23, 2015

In the name of keeping the faith alive, here’s another pair of Alfetta coupes. Wonderfully balanced, overlooked, blah blah blah… you’ve heard it all here before. As much as shiny paint isn’t a priority here, it’s fun to see how, after years and years of the Alfetta being a beater, a clean body and shiny paint do wonders to bring out the curves and creases in the body. And suddenly, your coupe turns from a little Datsun B210 that goes faster than it should into an unusual car featuring lines shared with some of the most famous 1970s exotics. Okay, a bit of hyperbole there, but you get the general idea. And here are a couple of attainable examples – first, let’s look at this 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT for sale for $3000 in Daly City, CA.

1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT 2 left rear

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Defeat Device – 1973 VW Squareback (plus bonus 1972!)

October 22, 2015

One of the RustyButTrusty parts runners – the new car that enables all the old car fun – is a VW fitted with the now-infamous TDI engine. Without excusing VW’s actions, a recent article on defeat devices exposed some interesting facts about the history of these cheats and their employment since the early days of emissions systems. Interestingly, while VW was slapped on the wrist 42 years ago for employing such devices on their cars, manufacturers including GM, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors, Nissan, and Toyota, in addition to various semi-tractor manufacturers, have all been caught using work-arounds to get their cars past the EPA while maintaining othe rthings consumers care more about, like power, drivability, and fuel mileage. So for an early example of an emissions-cheating car, let’s take a look at this 1973 VW Type 3 Squareback, for sale for $2495 in Deville, Louisiana.

1973 VW Squareback right front

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