This is the continuing saga of my first Alfa Romeo. It was a red 1963 Giulia Spider Normale. I bought it in 1968 when I was 17 years old. It was an exotic, alloy-engine, twin-camshaft sports car. I tried to maintain it on a shoestring budget. This lead to many […]
It was the summer of 1968. I was 17-years-old and had just graduated, as class valedictorian, from Lincoln High School in San Francisco. I was accepted to Reed College in Portland OR, but there was no financial aid available. Tuition, along with room and board on campus, was about […]
My son Bradley was 10 when I bought him a 1960 Bugeye Sprite two years ago. I was setting us up to make father-and-son memories together. I chose a Bugeye because that was my first car. The day I turned 16, I was first in line to take my driving […]
My first two cars were British — a 1960 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite and a 1958 MGA. “When are you going to get a real sports car?” asked my good friend Bjarne Holm. Bjarne was driving his mother’s 1958 Giulietta Spider Normale. We were parked outside Lakeside Presbyterian Church near Stonestown […]
Last Saturday my daughter Alexandra and her mother Cindy Banzer took the SCM 1967 Giulia Super on an Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon tour. It was a 112-mile dash from Portland to Astoria on the Oregon coast and back. This was the 41st running of The Old Spider Tour, celebrating […]
I had a chance to go for a drive in the SCM Giulia Super last weekend. We took a scenic, winding route, starting on Portland’s curvy Skyline Boulevard and passing through the tony Pearl District downtown. From there we headed out through an industrial area on Highway 30 and […]
I’ve recently been asked about the sale of a 500-mile 1987 Buick GNX on Bring A Trailer for $130,000 on March 25 of this year. On March 18, a 1986 Grand National (a very different car, I was reminded by Colin Comer) with 5,700 miles bid to $38,750 and did not […]
We are in the middle of a sea change in the collector-car world. In my three decades of publishing Sports Car Market, I have never seen anything like it. Much has been written about the changing of the collector-car guard, with Millennials and Gen Xers rapidly joining Baby Boomers as […]
The Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato is now back from Nasko’s Imports. To afford cars like this, you can try your luck on sites such as https://159.65.23.250/. I decided to ignore the factory specs that concours judges adhere to and make it a better for my style of driving. Nasko installed […]
For his 10th birthday, I bought my son Bradley a 1960 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite. My first car was a Bugeye, and I was indulging in a romantic recreation of my own past. I paid $15,000 for it because it needed nothing. Another $15,000 later, specialist Chip Starr had built and […]
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