Posts Tagged ‘italian’

It’ll Buff Out: 1979 Alfa Romeo Sport Sedan

June 29, 2009

Since buying my spider, my fascination with Alfa Romeo sedans has grown. Aside from usually being the lowest-cost entry into Alfas (well, until recently with Berlinas and Giulia sedans), they’re also appealing in that they’re more usable on a daily basis for longer-distance, high speed travel and are more comfortable to take your friends along in your weirdo car. While some people could consider earlier Alfa sedans to be an acquired taste, the 1978 and 1979 sport sedans are pretty easy on the eye in a late-70s euro way. The subject of today’s post is this 1979 Alfa Romeo Sport Sedan in Albuquerque, NM with bidding started at $200 and no reserve.

On some level, I would argue this should be the most popularly accessible of Alfa Romeo’s sedans (if you ignore the need for smog testing). It’s got a tidy design, a very well-balanced transaxle chassis, the trusty 1962cc four cylinder, and a 5-speed transmission. What’s more is, there’s a lot on this car that’s pretty easy to service, contrary to the myths about these (although I must admit from my own experience, there are some things that can be a pain the first time around). Here’s a front shot of the car – looks pretty clean for a car that’s been out of action for a few years:

1979 Alfa sedan front

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1972 and 1979 Fiat 128s

June 26, 2009

Update 06/29/09: It’s baaack! The 1979 128 4-door is up on craigslist for $650 this time. I think you could pick this up in the low hundreds, put a few hundred into it and have a fun ride. There’s also a 1973 up in Susanville, CA for $1200, so for under $2000 you could have your own “fleet” of 128s.

Well, we’re back with one of my favorite car nationalities again – Italian! The thing I love about Italian cars is that even the dinkiest, most humble of models has a sporty feeling to it… and this isn’t just hyperbole, I’ve driven some pretty cheap Italian cars. Fiat 128s are a prime example of this. The great thing is, thanks to the much longer production lives of their brother and cousin, the X1/9 and Yugo, it should be easy enough to get parts and upgrade the powertrain if you so desire, and for not much scratch. What’s more is, this car featured a significant jump in technology: unequal-length driveshafts so the engine and transmission could be placed side-by-side. As usual, the earlier cars are preferable for their chrome-bumper aesthetics and smog-exempt status, but much like my beta, they’re so unusual that if you’re interested and you happen to find one, you should snatch it up before it, um, disappears into a pile of iron oxide. That’s the burden of being an inexpensive Italian car from that decade.

In a stunning turn of events, there are actually 2 (!!) listed, not including the pricey one over near Boston. What’s more is, we have a choice of 2 of the 3 bodystyles sold: 2-door or 4-door. Our first subject is a 1972 2-door in Denver, CO for $2500.

1972 Fiat 128

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Fee-yats #2 – 1973 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe plus bonus

June 8, 2009

In a search that ended up with me buying my Beta, I seriously considered buying a 124 coupe. It’s a great un-2002 that has many of the good qualities of that car, with a more elegant design and competitive performance from that great twincam engine and 5-speed transmission. I’m a big fan of the early single headlight AC coupes, find the twin-headlight BC coupes reasonably attractive, and am not at all a fan of the later CC coupes with their weird grill and either clunky chrome bumpers or seventies-safety-era rubber units, although their rear-end treatment is cleaner. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any affordable 124 coupes in my area that were clean enough to be usable without serious clean-up inside and out.

That brings us to the subject of today’s writing – a 1973 one-family coupe with 240,000 miles listed in Cupertino, CA for $2600.

1973 Fiat 124 coupe side

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