Help! Spider burning oil??

[Glenn Wasserman <glennwa@domain.elided>]

 Help!!! I've got what looks like a pretty serious problem with my '93
Spider Veloce.
 
 The car has been consuming alarming quantities of oil since the day I got
it. I'm talking about a quart of oil for every 250 miles.
 
  I checked the coolant, and it's perfect.  No oil in there. I suppose that
means the car is burning it... I talked to my mechanic, and without a visit
(I haven't had time to drive the car up there) he thought it was likely the
valve seals. The car certainly runs very strong, but I don't have much of a
basis for comparison. Not the same punch as my Milano 3.0, but still very
peppy.
 
 My mechanic told me to do a simple test: go down a hill with the throttle
closed (in gear). Then come back on the throttle and look for a puff of
smoke. I tried this and didn't notice anything... but it's difficult to look
behind you when you're gunning the gas!!
 
 In any case, he didn't feel that whatever it is was likely to do any damage
to the engine - if it was running OK, it was running OK. He recommended I
drive it and just keep the oil level up to where it should be.
 
 So naturally, I autocrossed the car that weekend :-)
 
 And while I was there, I pulled the car into my paddock spot and dropped my
plastic bag with munchies in it right behind the car. When I came back
later, the plastic bag had speckles of some black gunk on it - I had dropped
the bag right behind the ehxaust tailpipe. This stuff had shot out.
 
 It's sooty, more of a solid than oil - but dark in color. Could be burnt
oil, I  guess.
 
 What's the next thing for me to look at, what might be wrong, and should I
stop driving it?
 
 (by the way, I live about 45 minutes away from my mechanic, and I'm away
during the week, so dropping the car off has proven to be a challenge).
 
 Thanks,
 -Glenn
 
 p.s. to complicate matters, the car is already a month late for NJ DMV
inspection, and of course, I'd like to autocross it again this weekend if I
can... !

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