A Test That Makes Me Think. Mostly About Why I Care, But Also Other Things.

  Ah, here they are.  Two not-quite-natural competitors, reconfigured to produce- faster not-quite-natural competitors...
  And yet, it feels somehow inevitable that the Nissan GTR Nismo, and Chevrolet Corvettte Z06 should meet, and do battle in the media.  By being top-tier, uprated products, and flagships for their respective brands, they meet at a nexus of marketing philosophy, and corporate peacocking.  They are the identity cars for the current incarnations of the marques from which they spring.
  They are also both cars that I, as an unemployed car blogger, cannot hope to afford, and which I would be unlikely to purchase if I could. With the near $80K it would take to buy a new Z06, I would be looking everywhere for both a Matra Djet, and a Tornado Talisman.  Had I the $150K necessary to secure a Nismo, I would drop nearly everything else in life, and go in search of a derelict De Tomaso Valellunga, the services of an old guard race engineer/fabricator, and a drivetrian composed of a Cosworth FVA, and a Hewland MKIX in a effort to produce my dream fast road/track day beast.
  And yet, I find myself thinking about which car I'd want.  Maybe it's because neither tick all the right boxes.  Maybe it's because I like variety.  Somehow, this completely irrelevant video caught my attention this morning, and kept it.  These two are poles apart in the way they go about creating speed.  They're also quite close in terms of overall performance.  Neither is really my thing, both are quite neat, and for once the test doesn't succeed in making me want the loser more, except maybe when I listen to it.  Both are quite expensive.  Both are relatively cheap.  And both are more than fast enough to render which is faster a moot point; which is fortunate, because as points go, it's far from clear.
  Some days all it takes is a couple neat cars, a nice road, an open, fast track, and a racing driver who talks like your conspiracy theory spouting uncle...

My Car Get's New Springs, And I Contemplate A New Car...

I think I've mentioned my Alfa Romeo in passing, but since I basically stopped writing this blog for more than two years, I should probably explain that i bought an Alfa Romeo.  So here goes.

  I bought an Alfa Romeo.

  It's a Spider, a 1972, and I had to look for it for about five months, and get it back from San Francisco to SoCal.  That was August of 2013, a few months after my terminally unreliable Ford Focus SVT finally stopped breaking down because it stopped running at all.
  So far, it's worked out to be more reliable than the Ford, and it's a complete car, which is more than I can say for the first Alfa Spider I bought, a 1974 which has since moved along to a friend who can weld.  The car was, and continues to be in terrific shape, especially considering the price I paid for it. I love driving it.  I love looking at it.  It's my only car, which contributes nicely to the development of my bicycling skills.  The previous owner had lavished a lot of time, money, and care on the car.  The only thing he did wrong, was lower the front via a set of mismatched IAP springs.
  To a degree, this is an understandable impulse with a 105-series Alfa Spider.  The cars have a nose up stance that some find off putting.  I'll agree that it's not the most sporty pose to strike, but I actually rather like it, and think it fits the upright elegance of the car.  More importantly, lowering the front of the car has functional drawbacks.  It throws the camber out of whack, and it reduces the already marginal ground clearance.  This aspect is made all the more potentially catastrophic by the fact that the lowest part on the front of a 105-Series is the sump.  The finned, cast aluminum sump.  Were it not for the add-on sump guard, I would have gone through about fifteen of these things in the last year.  The car would ground out over anything from speed bumps, to freeway compressions.  All for the aesthetically dubious goal of making an Alfa Romeo Spider mimic the stance of a Charger Daytona.

  Yesterday, I picked up the car with the IAP springs in the trunk, and the original set nestled in their perches, and now the car looks like this.

  So that's nice.  It also rides a lot better, steers lighter and sweeter, and should stop eating front tires.  Yes, I should have done this months ago.  All the car needs now is a couple front tires, and a new speedo cable, and it's good until it breaks again.  Which makes the next thing I have to say, a bit odd.

  I think I might let the Alfa go, at least for a bit, and get another car.  The reasons why are complicated, and a bit unpleasant.  It involves someone stealing my father's car from in front of my apartment while on loan to me, and the idea of letting him have my car.  He now says he does' want it, but in the interim, an interesting alternative presented itself in the form of a 1974 Fiat X1/9.

  I recently wrote an article for Driven World Magazine (it's on page 25) about these little cars, and the fact that they're among the least appreciated (financially at least) of all classic sports cars.  More to the point, I've wanted to own one for almost as long as I've wanted an Alfa Romeo Spider.

  So there's a potential deal, and it may or may not happen, and I can only afford to keep and house one car...  The Fiat isn't a long-term prospect, and I'd have to put the interior and trim back on the car, but it does come with a nice set of Campagnolo wheels.  It also comes with some of the best handling of any car I've driven, and styling courtesy of one of my favorite pens of the period, Marcello Gandini.

  So, there's that.  And I'm kind of excited at the prospect of owning a real driver's car for the first time since my lamented Nissan 240 SX went away on the back of a truck.  It's not that the Alfa isn't a drivers car in most respects, but it's chassis isn't the stiffest, and it's so nice to just sit back and enjoy cruising around in it that you tend to adopt a pace rather than dictate one.  The Fiat is a more focused beast.  It's also almost irrationally underrated, and under priced, so I don't think I'll get hurt on the investment.

  And now I really want the thing.  I want to drive around in a tiny, baby Lamborghini for a while.  in basic template it matches so many of my favorite cars.  I've driven the car before, and I know just how fun it can be.  I just don't want to give up my Alfa to do it...