Imagine you always wanted an Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato. And supposing you didn’t have the $25-50,000 to purchase one of those. Supposing you only had $10,000. Well, for a mere $6990, my friend, you too can have both the style and the exotic twincam powertrain of that more expensive car. And what’s more is – get this – you get two whole cars in the deal! Now, you might think I’m suggesting you take the guts from the spider, and put them in the CRX, but that would be crazy. The CRX is a great car in its own right, even if it cribbed its styling from an obscure early 1970s Alfa, and the spider is an underrated classic. The CRX is up in Kent, WA for $3490, and the spider is near LA in Diamond Bar, CA for $3500.
Posts Tagged ‘italian’
Been There, Done That – 1975 Lancia Beta Sedan
May 26, 2013Well here’s something you don’t see everyday. Unless you were me a couple of years ago – I owned a 1978 sedan from from 2008 to 2011. And while it was a nice car on one level – sort of an old Italian man’s car, or an Italian version of a Volvo or Mercedes – it was painful to repair and woefully underpowered for a sedan of its size and displacement. Certainly, one of those issues could have been eliminated if it weren’t for the fact the car needed to be smog legal – a popular conversion is to mount twin carbs, which is supposed to give over 100hp. With the 5-speed, that would surely give more competitive performance. Find this conversion-ready example for $2500 in Bellevue, near Seattle, WA.

Pre-Rusty – 4000km in a Fiat 500 Sport
September 17, 2011Mostly modern cars are not interesting to this site, since they err too far on the trusty side of the rusty-to-trusty spectrum. But every so often, a new car is eye-catching or different enough that it catches my attention. The recently-introduced (to the US market) Fiat 500 is of those. Last month, on a trip to eastern Canada, I had a chance to rent a 500 Sport from Budget (mini sportster, class XF). Having test-driven a 500 Pop when the nearest Fiat dealer first opened, I already had some idea of what to expect, but spending so much time with one in all kinds of situations really gave a full perspective.

