Classic Alfa Romeo Spider wanted

Hello, erm, this newsgroup is jolly quiety - has it died a death in the last year or two?

I'm looking for a classic Alfa Romeo Spider - perhaps a Series 4, which I think are early 1990s? - for my wife.

If anybody knows of a good one for sale in any shade of red or green please drop me a line! (Remove the spam word from my return email address)

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick
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Rare things - at least rare to see them for sale.

Good choice, though - the best of the classic spiders - largely rot resistant, and the engine / electrics got a lot of the 75's improvements.

I'd try AutoItalia magazine and the AROC forums.

Hope you have deep pockets - good ones aren't cheap.

Reply to
SteveH

There are a couple of adverts online. Confusingly, one of them says "all the S4 Spiders were made left-hand drive..." yet another advert for a "1990 Spider S4" is quite clearly an RHD car.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

AFAIK, the S4 was only officially available as a LHD car from Alfa - but there were a couple of endorsed specialists who converted them.

Here you go:

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Reply to
SteveH

Hmmm, not entirely convinced by the conversion nonsense!

How does a Series 3 compare in terms of quality? I'll have a look around the AROC website tomorrow and see what more I can find out about the various models.

And blimey, who wants a RHD car with windscreen wipers designed for a LHD and which don't properly clear the driver's side of the screen?

The trouble is, the new Spiders are so *ugly*. They have that aggressive frown-like look that a lot of cars seem to have these days - almost as if the designers are deliberately playing on the anthropomorphic tendencies of mankind, and think it's good to make something that looks positively *angry* rather than elegant and refined.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

I'd avoide the S3 - they're the unloved Spider - all the disadvantages of earlier cars, but without the purity of the looks.

Those American spec. impact bumpers and rubber spoiler are so wrong.

They also don't have anywhere near the same level of rot protection as an S4.

On the other hand, good ones are still comparatively cheap.

Didn't BMW / Mercedes / VAG do this a lot in the 80s?

Reply to
SteveH

My E39 BMW has wipers optimised for LHD. Can't say it's ever been a problem, though.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Yes, I'd read that in one of the AROC pages last night.

Blimey, that's a bit cheap-skate for major producers such as those. It isn't that difficult just to make a mirror image component set for the windscreen wipers and scuttle, surely.

I'm a little bit wary of this LHD/RHD issue with the Spiders as it's fundamentally a *bodge* even if it's done well. However, I'm not sure what else I could look at to get Alena. If it were my choice I'd look for an MG RV8 (at least I would know the engine very well) but that would be 50% more expensive.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

You could get a really nice Mk1 MX5 for a fraction of the budget.

I've just spent the day caning mine around Castle Combe and can't imagine ever selling it.

Reply to
SteveH

Yebbut the right side wiper arm on your car has the goofy double pivot that swoops the wiper blade around and cleans almost all of the right side of the windscreen/windshield.

Reply to
Dean Dark

Blearghhh!

I drove up to Peterborough today and test-drove an MG RV8 that's for sale. Amazing fun. However, I get the feeling that my SD1 Vitesse with a

4.2 litre engine is faster than the 3.9 RV8!

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

They do seem to fulfill the buying criteria, though - and Mk1s are definitely a modern classic.

Good and original ones will be rare and appreciate, too - as a lot of cars have been ruined by the Barry types.

They look alright - but stupidly over priced.

Reply to
SteveH

Yes, but it's virtually the only modern roadster that looks like a classic car. Almost every car made these days is just piss ugly, so nothing with a modern build quality is worth buying.

For example, my wife would like a Spider, but the new ones (about 2007 onwards, I think) are just *ugly*, as I said earlier. Similar cars by other manufacturers are the same. The lines are overdesigned, the front ends are just nasty "snarling faces". Ugly, nasty, brutish....

Like architecture, the styling of cars will be seen as good when there have historical resonance. I bet you that in 50 years time people will still say that the clean, elegant lines of classic cars are just as beautiful as we see them now. Just as Georgian houses will be still beautiful compared to the artless ugly boxes that get built today.

A 50-year Alfa Romeo Spider, or a 50-year old Audi built in 2013 will just be "another piss-ugly car from the 2010s". There may be one or two rare examples of designs from today that stand out as worthy. There were plenty of rubbish-looking cars from 50 years ago which are only "classics" today because they are rare, not because they're lovely. But in my view, something that we see today as a "classic" style will in 50 years still be a classic style. An MG RV8 will look good in 2050. Nobody will care about a 2013 Alfa Romeo Spider.

Let's wait until I'm 95 so we can found out if I'm right or not!

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

The left hand one wipes right up to the screen edge - the blade is parallel to it at that point. The driver's side has a small triangle at the top untouched. But I've never found it a problem in practice.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Given that it doesn't now, I find this unlikely.

Reply to
Huge

Quite. It's quite common for a tarted up version of a classic design to look worse than the original, and it is no exception.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The RV8 is not the most beautiful car by a long shot but it's better looking than most things made today, whether or not you think it's not as good as the older car it was based on.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

There was an RV8 and an original B at the Ace Cafe this Tuesday, and the original just looked so much better.

The RV8 is a pretty dreadful car - it neither goes or handles well compared to its contemporaries, so I really see no point in it. Other than as a curiosity.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I could see the point if they weren't so highly priced. But that reflects the number of old gimmers taken in by the hype / marketing.

For £5k or so, they'd be an interesting curiosity - but you can buy a significantly better TVR, or even a Ferrari Mondial for the same kind of cash as you'd need for an RV8.

Reply to
SteveH

But TVRs are pretty dreadfully noisy inside, and having seen the dreadful box-girder-like chassis they're constructed on, I've always thought they were pretty crude and nasty despite the reasonably well-styled bodyshell on the top.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Kilpatrick

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