Rusty But Trusty

Since I’ve been writing fewer posts, I seem to have cut back to featuring my favorites. Looks like they’re mostly Italian cars that are affordable enough, yet modern enough in spec to be used as daily drivers. And I’ve mentioned it before, but they almost all seem to use the same formula – rear wheel drive, twincam fours, 5-speed manual transmissions. Mostly I also try to feature cars that are running, but recently I’ve spotted a couple that I still think are worth mentioning in quickie format.

The first one is a Fiat Spider. All Fiat Spiders get cool points in my book, even though they’re still fairly common in northern California, but I’m a bigger fan of the early models (AS and BS) with their delicate chrome bumpers, hubcaps, and (sometimes) flat hoods. They have a much more delicate look about them that is probably closest to how Tjaarda intended them to be. And since they were often kept as second cars, you can still find them in pretty decent shape for short money. That brings us to our first example, a 1972 spider in Campbell, CA (near San Jose) for $1606.

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