Alfa Spider 1750 - Part 1

I've been very lucky in the past. In 2007 my business sold to a large US company and I allowed myself to buy another 'future dream stable' car. It was 2008.

Timeless....

And when I think about the 'list', I'm reminded of the market's rise to unreachable heights for some models. Super high, right near the very top of my list was/is the Dino 246GT, and I think the Spider purchase was something I did on the bounce, after turning down a 'perfect' 1971 red/black 246GT with 17k documented, for £86k. I came very close, but for reasons that are frustratingly familiar to me, I just couldn't bring myself to spend that sort of money on myself. So I passed on it. Genius. I could have owned it for a while and given the profits to charity. We learn.

The Boat-Tail Spider is one of those cars you can spend endless moments staring at, and I have.

Back in the late '80s when I was very young, I had a go in a Kamm-Tail and loved it. It felt exotic and in a strange way, challenging. I'd always loved the Alfa brand - my father had a Sud when I was a kid - and for me, the Boat-Tail was special. Although it wasn't until many years later when waiting for a train in Lincoln, having dropped the Porsche off with Nigel at Wellingore Garage, that I saw one properly - a red 1750 parked up with the roof down. It went on the list.

Into Italy

When I bought the Boat-Tail there were very few good ones around. This was a right-hooker, had an amazing history file, 27k documented miles and of course, patches of rust lurking beneath the liberal spreading of filler. It looked great but needed some help. I booked it in with Nigel.

Fortunately he was busy. Road trip! The Eurorail train is a brilliant invention. I chucked the car on at Calais, sank a bottle of plonk and woke up the next morning in sunny Frejus in the south of France. From there it was up into the quieter coast road and across of course, to Italy - Cinque Terre, Portofino, Sestri Lavante, Lucas, Sienna, Montepulciano, Montalcino, Bologne, Modena...of course, and Verona. Here I met the train, which negotiated the Dolomites, as I another bottle of wine, before heading home from Dusseldorf.

Somewhere near Montalcino, Tuscany

Old Alfas in Italy are popular things. At times the level of enthusiasm for the Boat-Tail was extraordinary and made for a much easier time of it for things like parking, than I might have had.

But the best bit was the driving, particularly around the Tuscan hills. The car has Koni Classics fitted and has been lowered a little. It handles brilliantly and the little torquey engine lifts it out of the bends with such positivity. Just brilliant.

Nigel finally took the car; in fact as soon as I got back. He stripped it completely and over a period of 9 years completely rebuilt it; well, all bar the rear diff, which I agreed to get sorted another time.

This is a car I now want to get to know again. I'd love to run it down through the Dolomites and into Italy, but to head all the way down to the south of the country, before heading back through Tuscany again, and via the Lakes into the Alps and back. One day.