Posts Tagged ‘spider’

More like 600 – 2010 Motherlode 400

June 23, 2010

Rarely but rarely, I get the urge to torture myself by actually driving one of the old jalopies in the RustyButTrusty fleet. This time, it was the spider’s turn to do the dirty work (and it was actually quite dirty) and be the ride for my father and me on the 2010 Motherlode 400. Now, you’d think something called the Motherlode 400 would be 400 miles long… but it’s not. It was actually about 300 miles a day, Saturday and Sunday, plus another 300 to get to the start/finish in Jackson/Sonora, CA, respectively.

These weekend drives are actually surprisingly strenuous, on driver, passenger, and car. By the time we reached the top of the 9624-ft. Sonora pass (highly recommend it, it’s like if they put great driving roads in Yosemite – not that I’m suggesting that, but the roads are narrow and the views are tremendous) on the 108, the car was panting and we were doing mostly second gear to keep the power on tap.

motherlode 2010 5

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Almost there – Italian Fiat Spider and Alfa Berlina Projects

June 14, 2010

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.

1972 Fiat Spider

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Too Good To Be True? 1994 Alfa Romeo Spider CE

April 7, 2010

I normally prefer not to feature cars with one picture and a limited description, or cars this new, but this one seems too much of a screaming deal to let details get in the way. And being essentially the same car that came out in 1966, this one can be grandfathered.. in case you needed convincing. While even the earlier cars can work reasonably well as daily drivers, with good brakes, 5 speeds, and a decently powerful fuel-injected engine, the later ones offer more refinements that can make them good daily drivers.

1991 Alfa Romeo Spider CE

And that’s where our car comes into the picture. It’s a series 4 spider, with the final redesign and more luxury and safety options than earlier spider owners can shake a stick at. Further, this particular car is listed as a CE, which implies that it’s from the final 1994 run of Commemorative Edition cars, built in anticipation of the new 916-chassis front-drive spiders. With less than 65k miles, the car is listed for $3300 in Buffalo, NY. The big question is, is it real? Well, in its favor, the seller has posted a VIN, and gives good specifics about the mileage and the title. On the downside, the price is pretty low, the car doesn’t appear to have any CE badging visible (on the nose and possibly on the wheels, although those could easily go missing), they mistakenly say it has a 6-speed manual, and it’s listed as for-sale-by-owner, although it appears to be in a dealer showroom. The year is also not specified. So take it with a grain of salt – but if I were in Buffalo, or in the market for an S4 spider, I would be there in a flash.