why I drive an alfa, spider for sale, chassis stiffies - long!

["David Sisson" <splankin@domain.elided>]

all this talk about the various pros and cons of driving
different marques of auto has got me thinking about why
I drive an alfa.

first, some background: I am an architect, fairly young still,
and relatively recently graduated from school. i like modern
design and appreciate things that simply look good, irregardless
of how well they 'work'. like many young architects, my lust
for 'good looking stuff' is often underweighed by my pocketbook.

here we come to the crux of the matter: autos in current (new)
production. my opinion = gag! while i could potentially afford
a new auto, the completely utter lack of good design (IMHO)
has convinced me that non of them warrant my perusal. a few
exceptions: VW seems to make cars that are very popular with
architects, and the audi TT as well. some older, and therefore
more wealthy, architects appreciate mercedes and bmWe. however,
the audi, mercedes and bmw are a bit out of my price range, and
VW is, well, let's just say that all my friends drive them.

enter alfa romeo. not currently available in new production in the
US & therefore quite lesser known. an advantage in this situation.
an analogous situation would be in chairs. all architects know
and probably could own, a chair designed by charles and ray
eames. however, very few would know about a chair by Gaetano Pesce & Claudio
Cicchetti, while if you had one, they would think it the sexiest
thing ever.

the alfa spider (my car) is immediately recognized as a beautiful
icon of modern design. the visual design of the car is from,
and immediately identifiable with a retro area of modern, and
therefore forward (futuristic?) thinking. however, it is difficult
to place it's age, it certainly looks 'new', but 'old' at the
same time. (my beautiful paint job helps).

it is amazingly impractical. you cannot really do the laundry or
even go to the grocery store in it. (now, keep in mind that this
is my only car, and my wife and I do EVERYTHING in it, so you
really can do this stuff, just not as easily as in a SUX.)
architects dig impractical. if it looks good, that's good, if it
looks good and is a little bit impractical, it's even better.
there is something very decadent about it, that just makes it
that much more sexy.

now, the spider looks like a million bucks. but it cost much less.
one of my favorite architecture professor emeritus here at rice
even offered to swap me his porsche 928 for my spider, until he
realized that he would be giving me about 10 times the value of
car. our friends see us around town and tell us that we look like
a wealthy couple out for our coffee or cruise around town.
in reality, we are working folk, probably going to the post office
or something mundane like that. and we can afford it!

none of this has much to do with the 'performance' of the car.
more to do with the 'looks'. but unless you think i'm heartless,
please understand that i love the way this car drives, and i
would be severely disappointed to go back to some honda. i'm
sure a new porsche would be nice, but somewhat disappointing;
the feeling I get from driving the alfa, something more ragged
and raw, would be missed.

in other news, i'm afraid that the spider may have to go. my
wife has been accepted to PhD programs at both Berkeley and
University of Michigan & Michigan has offered more $$. if we
go to Berkeley, the spider will come. if Michigan, we'll have
to get something more practical. (for snow at least). i know
some of you in A2 own alfas, but i bet you don't drive them
year round (I lived in A2 for 6 years, it can be pretty darn
cold wet and nasty.) so if anyone is looking for a beautiful
86 spider grad, low mileage, only typical problems, please
contact me. moving date would be approx. the end of may. i
can deliver the car anywhere between houston and michigan,
or, given enough incentive, possibly other places. price would
be right. i'll post some pictures to the web soon. do any
a2 people have GTVs? how are they in the snow? perhaps a swap...

well, let's hope for berkeley then. i'll keep it in that case!

someone has been talking about spider chassis stiffeners. i'm
the guy who manufactured a short run of those a couple of
years ago. (in order to get a free one for my car ;) I still
have the drawings if anyone is interested.

dave sisson
splankin@domain.elided
houston tX
86 spider grad

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