Lou Savarese's 1980 Fiat Spider, home again.
Editor's Note: This piece comes to us from reader Lou Savarese. Given the introduction of the new Fiat 124 Spider, we thought the timing was perfect to run Lou's story.
My Fiat Spider odyssey started in 1971. At that time I was driving my first car, the car of the year, the Chevy Vega. Well, needless to say, my love affair with the Vega's beautiful style was short-lived, as the engineering gremlins started to mass.
At the same time, a few of my friends were having their own love affairs with their foreign imports. There was a Toyota Corolla and a Mercury Capri, and one guy had this outstanding dual-overhead-cam gem designed by Pininfarina that was light years ahead in styling and technology.
I looked into the engine compartment and was amazed. I knew the engine was an inline four, but with those dual cam covers, the 1608 cc engine looked like a baby V-8.
This car had a five-speed, four-wheel disc brakes and a wood dash and steering wheel, and at once I was smitten for life. The next day my Vega was put up for sale. Within a month I had my own yellow Fiat Spider with white porcelain 13" wheels, black interior and black top. My girlfriend, and still my wife of 40 years, and I had many an adventure in the yellow Spider.
Then, life happens, you get married and want to start a family, and you buy an Oldsmobile Cutlass. I sold my Spider, I watched it drive away and had a very empty feeling.
It took a bit longer than the Vega, but I just wasn't happy with the Olds. I sold the Olds and got the next best thing to the Spider, a Fiat 131 five-speed coupe. The 131 was a fine car, great fun, but my wife didn't want to drive a stick, so we sold it and bought a Fiat Brava automatic.
We started doing a bit better financially, and I rewarded myself with a five-speed Alfa Romeo Alfetta Sedan that was great fun and a useful family car, but it still wasn't a Spider.
Buying the Spider in 2001.
Many years had gone by, and on my drive to work in Brooklyn I would pass Mitchell's Auto Repair. In Mitchell's driveway was an outstanding gray spider. I said to myself 'nothing ventured, nothing gained, so from time to time I would stop in and ask Mitch if he was interested in selling his car. I also would notice that there was always a Spider in the shop or just outside being serviced. It seemed that Mitch was sort of the Northeast Guru when it came to the Spider. People from all over would come in for his expertise, and even more so for his persona.
Needless to say Mitch wasn't going to let anyone pry his Pininfarina away from him (one of 186, he now owns two of the 50 or so surviving).
For many years, I worked long, hard hours, 70 to 80 hours a week, in my butcher shop, and I desperately needed a diversion. I had it in the back of my mind that I was going to find the right car to help with that need. So my hunt was on again.
It took many years of off-and-on searching, but I found a smoke-gray 1980 Spider 2000 with only 16,800 miles on it in Minnesota from a great guy named Jim.
Jim had babied the car and was reluctant to bargain, and I couldn't blame him. The year was 2001. My brother-in-law Eric flew frequently for work and had free miles available, so we flew out to check out the car. Within a week or so it was home in Staten Island.
Of course, my first stop was Mitchell's Auto Repair. Mitch went through the car with me from timing belt to brakes and said I brought home a winner. With Mitch's advice, I had the car wet sanded. I did some cosmetic and minor mechanical work myself and used the Spider as a circuit breaker for the stress of running my business.
Mitch and I became best of friends, and with our wives had many great road trips.
My car had won many trophies at Italian car shows from Philadelphia to the NorthFork of Long Island, and for some reason (maybe bragging rights) I put the car up on the Internet for sale.
It didn't take long for a buyer to surface. The year was 2005. My wife and I were planning to explore the east coast from Upstate New York down as far as Charlestown looking for a place to hopefully build a home someday (or maybe an excuse to take a road trip).
Although the Spider was very reliable, we thought it might be prudent to let it go and pick up the new MX-5 Miata that was just being released. After all, the MX-5 had air, airbags, 170 HP, a six-speed, a wonderful reputation for reliability and so on.
Well, the MX-5 turned out to be another gem of a car. It truly does live up to its reputation, but guess what? I made the same mistake again. It still wasn't a Spider, and that empty feeling was back in spades. I went to Fiat rallies, and the nice folks at FLA (Now Fiat Club of America) and Fiat Freakout would let me tag along in my "Fiatiata."
I was intent on becoming a Spider owner again, this time for life, and started my quest anew. In the summer of 2014, I found a red 1980 Spider 2000 in Hollywood, Florida, with only 27,000 miles on it, which was advertised by a dealership.
I called the dealership, put the salesman through the ringer and bought the Spider. I was so excited and thrilled to be officially back in the Fiat family again. I started ordering parts even before the car reached Staten Island.
When the car arrived, the title told a completely different story than the salesman. Instead of 27,000 miles, the car had 127,000 miles on the odometer. I immediately cancelled all the parts I had ordered and put the dealership on notice that I expected a full refund including transportation. The dealership did the right thing, but I was still Fiatless.
Well, guess what? It's now spring 2015, and my buddy Mitch kept looking out for his pal, and I got an email about a Spider for sale.
My first glance opened my eyes really wide. Wouldn't you know it, it was a smoke gray 1980 Spider with the same 15" Speedline wheels I had on my car. I began to read the description, and my jaw dropped even further.
The seller stated that he had bought the low-mileage car from an Italian butcher in Staten Island 10 years ago, and he had invested thousands in it since then. He stated that he knew he was overinvesting in the car, but did it for the enjoyment of it.
I immediately called Tom the seller and explained that I was the now "retired" Italian butcher who had sold him the Spider. Tom said that he was now going to concentrate on his collection of vintage motorcycles.
I asked Tom if I could use that enjoyment he received in "over investing in the car" as credit and offered him what he had paid me 10 years ago. Well, thanks to Mitch, Eric and Tom, after 10 years and only 7,000 additional miles (now 30,465 in total), my Spider is now home to stay.
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1LJp02s
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