My automotive list of things to do includes owning an Italian car at least once. Almost all are completely out of my financial reach. Luckily, Alfa Romeo made some really cool cars that are now really affordable. I love the boat-tail Duetto, but those will set you back at least $30k. For less than half that price you can get a much newer Spider, like this tidy example in Armonk, NY for $12,500:
21,000 miles with the hard top included? Yes please! Chisel them down to around $10k and smile with the top down all spring summer and fall.
Maybe you don't like two seat rear-wheel-drive convertibles (because you're a fool). Or maybe you just don't want to spend that much. You're in luck--Alfa made a front-wheel-drive sedan called the 164 and I love it. I dated a girl whose father had a 164. I got farther with the girl than the car. Would you trust me with this?
That car is the Quadrifoglio version, which is Italian for "fast and fragile." Those can be a little more expensive than the lesser 164s, but no matter what you do get one with the V6 cuz dat Busso!:
For under $5000 you can get that beautiful car in green over biscuit with (a slightly detuned version of) that engine. I am always on the lookout for one of these within driving distance of zhome and came within a few hundred bucks of winning one on bringatrailer.com relatively recently.
Maybe you're a baller and money is no object. What then?
Alfa's been around for over 100 years and they've made a bunch of cool cars. Import laws now allow for the insanely weird Lego-on-steroids SZ to be brought into the US. This one is $105,000.
I really dig the SZ but would only get one if I had fuck you money and it was one of ten cars in my collection. It just screams "1990" too much to be my Sunday driver.
The Montreal is so "1970's Italian supercar" that it hurts. And many were made in orange, which is awesome, and the gauge cluster is crazy.
But this still isn't quite right. Like I said, I'm biased towards rear-wheel-drive two-seat convertibles, and I have a soft spot for real vintage stuff so the Giulietta Spider is just about perfect.
This one is a 1959, one owner (!?!?!?), numbers matching, original bill of sale ... GAH! And who doesn't want to sit behind this steering wheel for hours at a time?
For $135,000 you could build a significant addition on your house or you could drive around in this thing while your old lady rides shotgun pretending to be Sophia Loren. It's a tough choice for some but I'll take my busted kitchen and the Giulietta every time. zwoman, for the record, does not agree. Luckily I have neither an extra $135k nor the garage space for this perfect specimen of Milanese style and engineering.
As a side note, Ray Allen drives an 8C. I know this because FOG:TB JP once got his doors blown off by Ray Allen in his 8C in Waltham. You could do a lot worse.
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73 comments:
Very cool. I'm not an avid car guy, but I just went to bringatrailer.com for the first time and it's excellent. If I had some FU$ I would spend a lot of it there.
Z, there's a '74 Spider in CA for $3600.
And the car from Sixteen Candles for $7500. (The Porsche, not the Rolls.)
And Ferraris and motorbikes and Hondas and Bentleys and beat-up trucks from the 60's...
like whitney, i'm not much of a car guy. don't care much about automotive performance, but i love the artistic beauty of a great car. and that giulietta spider is freaking gorgeous.
Pour one out for Higgins.
Squeaky, TR beat you to that punch last night. I'm shocked that he was only 84 and just 12 years older than Magnum.
That's what I get for going to bed at 3pm yesterday. Wish I could blame it on drinking too much.
bringatrailer.com is a wormhole that used to suck me in regularly. I try and visit it less to avoid doing something stupid (like buying a 23-year-old Italian car and driving it home from Ohio).
Zman:
Buy the car. Pass on the addition. Trust me.
Sincerely,
Guy who has no idea where his wife packed all his winter jackets before renovation started in August
So Louis CK is a perv too huh? For some reason I'm not really surprised by that. I do give him some credit though for his "apology". In quotes b/c he doesn't say outright that he is sorry. He does seen genuine and remorseful however. Where does he go from here? Is his career over? Do any of these wack jobs (pun intended) make it back?
Hard to say. Seems like several new allegations come out every day. Are all of these people's careers over?
The good news is that men will think twice before doing this crap in the future.
i hate cars! i'm more of a guitar guy, which is the same thing.
anyway, if you buy my smelly minivan from me, then you'll own an italian's car.
Blue hens up 18 on Richmond halfway through the first half. Fuck spidey.
Delaware up 31
fuck spidey is right
of course, the tribe is down 12 to high point. which is a low point.
did i say 12? i meant 19.
do i hear 30?
brad stevens: best basketball coach ever, or greatest human being ever?
100-64. Nice, Tribe.
Samantha Huge inherited bad football and basketball teams, eh?
men's soccer beat jmu today to advance to the caa tournament final. suck it, danimal.
but otherwise, yeah. this hoops season could rival our first two years in the 'burg.
I need a shoe intervention. I was doing good but I’ve fallen off the wagon recently.
You’re damn right about Tribe soccer. Antonio Bustamante scored four goals against Hofstra last week.
Hey Gheorghies. Family came into NYC this afternoon and we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Was a meh show. Highlight was when I took my younger kid to take a leak at intermission. It was a crowded men’s room and I bumped into an older guy trying to steer my kid to the sink. I thought “that guy kinda looks like Elvis Costello.” About ten seconds later, I realized it really was him. I go back to my seat and my wife says “somebody just said Elvis Costello is here!”
For a second, I thought I should introduce my son Declan to him b/c his real name is Declan, but realized that would be weird. He’s not a tall guy, and he was just an older dude in a blazer with a good seat to a mediocre Broadway show.
Second highlight - we had a frigid five block walk from 46th & 8th to 41st & 8th to get our car. So that means we walked by two peep shows and one strip club. As we walked into the Port authority garage, I heard my older one ask my wife “what’s a gentleman’s club?” The wife quickly passed that hot potato to me. I wanted to say it’s Heaven, but just said it’s a bar that only lets guys in. Thank God he didn’t ask about the peep shows.
A must watch documentary....Icarus.
i believe the first-ever celebrity visit to sentence of dave occurred this morning. check out dave's post about the new adrian mckinty book and the comments.
Does Dave know yet?
adrian mckinty visits sentence of dave! he was really slumming it . . .
wait until he sees the next post . . . he's gonna be embarrassed he stopped by.
Danimal, you wager on the Irish tonight?
That is a negatve Teej.
Roberto, where does your niece go to h.s.?
Danimal, with all that's going on in the news, you may want to keep those inquiries to yourself...
I wagered on the Auburn-UGA under. Was tempted to parlay with Auburn +2.5 but held off. UGA is one dimensional offensively. It’s a good dimension but I don’t trust Fromm to win games at this point.
In other news, Florida paused away yet another winnable game. Can Scott Frost come and save us already?
Kind of a mixed wagering bag so far. Ga Tech was a win. Sparty, not so much. Clemson and Virginia are looking good. Maryland is looking like, well Maryland.
As for tonight, I’ve got ND and TCU. Only betting on TCU though. (taking Mizzou over Tennessee too).
I’m at the Gaylord Palms to celebrate the 16 year olds birthday. I’ll be drinking alone in the bar for the 8 pm games if you need me.
My guess for where Rob’s niece goes to school- Bolles or Bishop Kenny. Maybe Trinity Christian. They’re fancy like that.
Was at Episcopal today for a swim meet, Bolles a few weeks ago. Both impressive.
William and Mary hasn't won a game in-conference. Last time the Tribe went oh-fer had to be the 70's or before, right?
Laycock's swan song?
Spidey playin tight w Jmu. Not good.
So ya know the cabanas with the pools at Everbank Field, a.k.a. Home of the Jaguars? Be on the lookout for the Danimal clan there tomorrow, making an ass of myself fer sher.
she goes to fletcher, danimal
Got it...I remember that now.
Spidey and Dukes tied at 13. Jmu about to get the ball with 4 min left in reg.
Breathe easy, Dukes win.
Wake put up 64 on cuse? Well then.
Spoke to soon on my afternoon wagers. Not looking so hot.
My 8 y/o recently got a kazoo and showed me how he can do all of Seven Nation Army, start to finish. Really. He did the WHOLE thing. Just for me. Start to finish. And then he came back and did it again. Start to finish. Just for me.
Yes, I poured myself a scotch.
That's what you get for giving a child a kazoo. zson's harmonica mysteriously disappeared right after Xmas dinner last year.
Trapped in a NJ Hyatt with a one man kazoo band. That’s a party.
I picture TR putting on his white shoes and heading to the hotel bar Clark Griswold style.
TR, that is awesome
Let's just pause and reflect that one of the authors whose work Dave reviews on SoD popping by and commenting is as remote a possibility as I can conjure. It's awesome and I commend Dave, even as I'm hoping it was an impostor.
TR, as an accomplished kazooist, I'd suggest that he play a tune with an actual melody. Seven nation army is the worst. I think it endures because middle school kids can play it.
To me, the blue hens are the actual worst.they heckled me mercilessly back in '95 when I was jimmye laycock's cord boy.
I wish GTB had something equivalent to a turnover chain.
“Laycock’s cord boy” has an awful lot of negative connnotations.
Every elitist NFL fan that shits on NCAA football should realize how amazing today’s slate of games is. The fact that the regular season is so important differentiates this sport from anything I watch, other than Premier League.
Back in August, nobody pegged Miami-ND, Bama-Miss St or Georgia-Auburn as pivotal to the title chase, but here we are.
Rootsy - what’s a good kazoo song?
Tr beat me to it. Irish....wow. Winbush blows. How about this ‘Bama game? There is no way they don’t pull this out, sadly.
Would like to see a Richt vs GA bowl match-up with Richt on top.
Like I said....Bama.
WOO boy did I take a bath today. It’s been a really good gambling football season up to this point but damn was I off today. I mean, even shit I got right was closer than I anticipated.
Oh well, at least I’m not a Mississippi State fan. Dagger.
ND a fucking dumpster fire rn
Also, the Wizards might have the worst bench in the league
I’m team CFB over NFL all day. I get that the players are better in the NFL but the product is more entertaining and quite often more meaningful (from game to game) in CFB.
I’m sure some of it has to do with where and how I grew up and went to college but I don’t think it’s much of an argument that, present day, CFB is just more entertaining than the NFL.
Also, I never made it back to the bar. In my room. Drinking crown and eating peanut M&Ms.
Stress free game tho.
I did realize the double entendre possibilities of 'laycock's cord
boy,. ''Twas a fun job-except in fucking Delaware.
TR, any song with a whistlable, or singable, melody is good. Seven nation army is for power chords only.
Crown is delicious. Would have been fun to see Bama lose, but the Iron Bowl will still be fun.
My oldest (and a couple buddies at the time) decided they were all Miami Dolphins fans three years ago. He then started rooting for the U. I indulged him in the past, and ended up learning a bit about the team. Richt has recruited speed on both sides of the ball. And that chain was brilliant. Was cool to see the mother of all ball hawks Ed Reed watch his team get three INTs in the first half.
The city of Miami is kinda awful and kinda awesome. Fun to have the program be competitive again.
Ben simmons is fucking awesome. I’d give him my jump shot if I could.
There is no area in the country with better football players (and speed) than the 3 county area of Dade-Broward-Palm Beach. Football really, really matters down there and that area is LOADED with athletes.
Richt has been a good recruiter since his days as an FSU assistant. He did great at UGA and didn’t have near the advantages of proximity that he’ll have at Miami. UGA firing him is the best thing to happen to Miami’s program since Jimmy Johnson. They’ll have a top 5 recruiting class this year and many many more going forward. Kids who grow up down there want to play at Miami. The chain was also genius.
The timing of this resurgence happening when UF and FSU are dumpster fires doesn’t hurt either. Ugh, I need another drink.
Here we go Irish! The Crown talk inspired me to pour one, with a little gingah. Need 4td’s. Doable.
I’m out of brown liquor b/c I bought my last Johnny Black bottle four days ago. Enjoying some Sweetwater IPAs.
Home renovation - still awful! But we may have a functioning fridge and oven/stove by Thanksgiving. Small victories.
If you’re up late tonight, or most Saturdays, Khalil Tate of Arizona is really fucking fun to watch.
They need a new stadium though. Hard Cock is great but an hour away from Coral Gables. As soon as we see their next mediocre season we will see 25000 seats filled, tops. Their fan base is very fair weather.
Sweetwater is a solid beer. One of my company’s HQs is around the corner didn’t the Sweetwater brewery. Good times.
I’m on that ginger too.
Maria Taylor....hi.
Girl was a hell of volleyball player.
had a reunion dinner tonight with old colleagues. the guy who hosted just retired at 52 after a very successful career. he brought out the pappy early. it was a good night.
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