At Last, Found Another!

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@domain.elided>]

Well, you can now officially welcome me to the ranks of Spider Owners,
as well as owners of multiple Alfas.  As of about 7 PM tonight PDT, I
became the owner of AR3045392, a 1974 Spider.  I will of course bring
the car to the ARA meeting Tuesday evening, but in the meanwhile... 

What a car!  

The story: A deal I'd been working on (for a British sports car) since
January fell through last week, at the last minute ("the VIN on the pink
slip doesn't match the VIN on the car... is this a problem?") 
Fortunately, since January I had actually ended up with *more* money
than I thought I'd have back at the first of the year, so I thanked the
would-be seller and started calling friends, relations, and anyone who
might have a small open car for sale.  I must have looked at 12-15 cars,
more if you count Web ads on Ebay, club sites, the local paper and two
different picture-ad magazines.

Due to work pressures, I'd forgotten to send in my ARA membership (due
at the beginning of May) till last week, so I didn't have a May issue of
the Cams on hand, and here it is almost June.  I called ARA secretary
Warren Richardson to see if he had a copy to give me some leads on
Spiders for sale.

Warren's copy of the Cams, he said, was at work and he was at home; he
mentioned, however, that he'd seen a Spider for sale at Cammisa
Motorsports in Burlingame.  So I called... talked to Terry... found out
they actually had three Spiders for sale.

One didn't interest me, but may interest one of the Digestisti: it's a
'93 with, no kidding, six thousand miles on the clock.  It's virtually a
new car, looked beautiful, asking over $20k for it.  Probably worth that
to someone looking for as near-new an Alfa as possible.

The next one was more what I was after, an '88 (I'd decided to look for
'82-'89 cars, or '73 and '74).  It was black on black, and as I looked
it over -- what appeared to be a new '88 Spider -- the salesman said
"You don't see cars as nice as this one on the street."

"Well, as a matter of fact, the last Spider I drove was this nice," I
said, and described Bill Bergman's NKYDNKY to him.  Bill -- this would
have made a nice matching pair with Inky Dinky, and if you don't know
Bill's Spider, that's high praise indeed.  I drove the '88 on a mix of
freeway, bumpy surface streets, and one or two corners just to feel how
the car takes a set when you goose the throttle a bit.  I was hooked,
hooked in a way I'd never had the chance to be in a Spider before (I've
written in the past about my first drive in a Spider, with the owner --
my father's lawyer -- in the passenger seat, and his gorgeous blonde
girlfriend on the trans tunnel, her long tan legs reaching up to the
shifter.  I *think* his Spider was silver, but I'm not sure... Ahem.)

So we pulled into the dealership and I loved the black '88.  "The only
problem with this one," I said, "is *that* one."  And I pointed back to
where the third Spider sat.

The third Spider was a genuinely immaculate '74, in dark dark dark green
- -- dark enough to shame the last British Racing Green M.G. I owned.  (In
fact, my oldest daughter thought it was black when I brought it home
late in the day.)  Somehow, the '74's interior -- little chrome strips
in the door panels, that big aluminum grab-handle on the passenger's
door, and mainly those huge black crinkle-finish instrument binnacles in
front of a *gorgeous* wood-rimmed wheel -- just tugged at all my
heartstrings.  The new fabric top didn't hurt, though I imagine I'll
leave it down most of the time here in California, at least till fall. 
And the added brightwork of the '74's triangle grille and small
stainless bumpers, offset against the dark green paintwork, would have
clinched the deal even *without* the Carello headlamp covers.  This, I
thought as I looked at it and felt my soul being pulled into the
crystalline structure of its metal, is a car worth getting into trouble
over.

Driving it was incredible.  It drives as well as the '88 with half the
mileage of this '74, only a few clinks from the top frame hinting at the
extra decade and a half of age.  The engine pulls strongly from
2500-3000 RPM -- hey, my previous Alfa ownership was of a 1300, which
has no response to speak of till 5000 (at which time it's as if an extra
engine was just hooked up).  

What's wrong with it?  Well, if you try to shift into second too fast,
it makes me appreciate the smooth, silent-shifting APE-rebuilt gearbox
in my '67; yes, the '74 will graunch unless you do it just right,
pulling it far towards you and shifting slowly.  I can shift
graunch-free now nine times out of ten, and I'll get used to it, I'm
sure.  There's about a half-inch tear in the driver's seat, I'll have to
seal it somehow and think about having it professionally repaired or
recovered next winter.  And some of the chrome on the door-panel plastic
trim has peeled.

Other than that, it looks like a three-month-old car.  Under the hood,
it's a time-warp -- everything is new.  Rubber lines, bellows on the
clutch master, the Spica airbox, it all looks new.  Only a few black
smears down the side of the block (and the usual corrosion on the
cast-iron headers) tell the tale of 25 years of happiness.  And there's
a tear in the leather shift boot; I'll have to order it from IAP.

What else?  It's got steel wheels with stainless mini-hubcaps; the
wheels are grey and look newly painted.  The tires are new Michelins. 
The sun visors are in the trunk (fine with me), along with a nice tan
flannel cover.  All the lights work, all the gauges work, the interior
lights come on when you open the passenger's door (but not the driver's;
I'll have to frob something).

When I drove home in it, my wife walked out onto the front porch and
said, "I thought you said you were buying the '74!"  This is a really,
really nice Spider, straight and clean and beautiful, and a sheer joy to
drive.  I love my new Alfa.  

Thanks to my loving wife for giving me the freedom to go car-shopping
this weekend when my original little car didn't pan out, to Warren
Richardson for pointing me to Cammisa, and of course to John Chambers
for making it possible for me to purchase the car (Brian knows what I
mean :-).

 --Scott Fisher
   1967 Giulia GT 1300 Junior "Bella"
   1974 Spider Veloce "Tinuviel"

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