She's Alive

[126coupe]

The 2.5L is alive, Thanks Alan for you hard and timely work, drove her around the block, she screams.

[widebody911]

Why isn't this in the tech forum?

[crustychief]

Nice!

[Zeke]

What's the story on the Alfa Spider?

[motion]

Originally Posted by widebody911

Why isn't this in the tech forum?

What's a "tech forum"?

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by widebody911

Why isn't this in the tech forum?

Ive been posting here for like years,..

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by Zeke

What's the story on the Alfa Spider?

long story, but a true "find"

[tevake]

I really like seeing the blue roll cage/framing braces, running the length of the car tying all together. Nice!

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by tevake

I really like seeing the blue roll cage/framing braces, running the length of the car tying all together. Nice!

Heavy, but safer

[tevake]

Do you think that the stiffer chassis/suspension points help to make up for the weight increase? Looks like you have grown up around the performance/collector car scene.
Did you start race driving at a young age?
And if you find the time to share the story of the Alfa, I'm sure it will be appreciated here.

Cheers Richard

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by tevake

Do you think that the stiffer chassis/suspension points help to make up for the weight increase? Looks like you have grown up around the performance/collector car scene.
Did you start race driving at a young age?
And if you find the time to share the story of the Alfa, I'm sure it will be appreciated here.

Cheers Richard

Agree on the stiffness, my dad was a motor head, been crawling around cars since I could crawl, Started racing at 40, finally could afford it. The very brief story on the Alfa, bought it from a probate sale, I am the third owner, 23,000 miles, all docs, orig paint always garaged and babied. my favorite car to drive, driving to willow w the top down. last prduction year for this model, 1993. 1900 produced.

[tevake]

Thanks, enviable childhood. :-)

[126coupe]

photos





My first car was a 1967 Alfa Duetto Spyder, This was a perfect replacement. My Dad took the car away from my older sister, she thrashed it, blown head gasket. Dad handed me the keys and Said "its yours learn how to work on it" so at 17 years old I learned, no books and very little coaching.

[tevake]

Wow the Alfa really does look pristine! And so modern with the body colored bumpers. Great find.
Interesting that the grill and badging are in the bumper.

[fastfredracing]

Awesome! Have a sound clip? I bet it sounds great at full song.

[weseeeee]

Nice looking cars!

[Don Plumley]

Need a Like button!

[Bill Douglas]

lookin' good, well done.

[speeder]

I seriously love Alfas.

A couple weeks ago, I was at my buddy's art gallery in DT L.A. working on his Mercedes. It's an old w123 diesel wagon and it started running bad so he asked if I'd take a look. Like I said, he's a buddy, so there I was under the hood checking things out. I'm sort of the "car guy" in my group of friends.

There were 3 young-ish guys hanging out, looking at some art and chatting. Two were speaking Italian to each other but I thought nothing of it because this whole crowd speaks Italian, some live there, etc... One guy sauntered up and started asking me questions about what I was doing to the car, we started chatting. He had no accent, so I was surprised when he told me that he lived in Rome. He also told me that he was a gear head and that if someone was working on a car, he had to watch. I really liked this guy. I started telling him how jealous I was of the cars available in Europe that were not sold in the U.S.A., especially Alfas.

With that, he informed me that Alfa was coming back here, and furthermore, his cohort talking to my buddy inside was "Lapo".

Holy sheet.

"I thought he looked familiar". Then it all came together, they were driving a raced-out Fiat Abarth and a new Dodge Charger SRT. "Lapo" is Lapo Elkann, famed international playboy and Gianni Agnelli's grandson. He is the heir to Fiat and his brother is the chairman of Fiat. Fiat owns Alfa Romeo, not to mention Ferrari and most of Chrysler(?)

My new friend started showing me amazing photos of the inside of the Ferrari factory on his phone, including all of the F1 cars in for service. He gave me his cell phone # and email + took mine and told me that if I "needed anything in Rome" this summer to give him a call. I told him that I wanted to go to the Ferrari factory, he said no problem, he goes once a week.

This all happened while I was wearing dirty mechanic's clothes and working out of the back of my beat-up old MB wagon on the street. Only in L.A. I freaking love this place.

Sorry for the highjack, but I do love Alfas.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Cool story Denis. The 911 is nice, but I was just reminded why I want an Alfa. Considering that a nice one can be had for $10k, it's pretty hard to resist.