The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Because of the tragic Russian invasion of Ukraine, gas prices in the USA averaged $4.25 a gallon for regular and over $5.00 for diesel as I write. Fortunately my V-12 Mercedes S600 is in the shop for last minute repairs before I sell it. But we still gotta drive, right? Thought I’d put together a short list of cars I might be tempted to drive if I had to endure these prices long term. (Of course I say that as I prepare to pickup a 24 test drive of a BMW M3 V-8 this afternoon!) Unicorns? Only during these times.
Let’s start with an electric vehicle (EV), the controversial 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E SELECT. I’ve seen them on the road and the design doesn’t offend me, I just wish Ford hadn’t contaminated the Mustang brand on this EV. But since I drove a pitiful (borrowed) 1978 Mustang II with the 84 hp four-cylinder to my high school prom I guess I have little credibility here. Is is an SUV? A crossover? A car? Who cares. It’s electric! (Boogie, woogie, woogie)
The Mustang Mach-E Select has 266 hp and will do 0-60 mph in less than five seconds – not bad – and go maybe 270 miles on a charge. Middle of the pack EV performance. It’s fairly well equipped with auto cruise control and Apple Carplay. Car and Driver liked it so much they gave it an “Editors’ Choice” award. The car sold for maybe $50,000 new, and is now selling at a disappointing premium of $53,998 here in Potomac Mills, Virginia.
Stock # 22328427 VIN # 3FMTK1RM6MMA10386
Next we have what I thought was the gold standard for EV’s, but don’t hold me to that – a 2018 Model 3 Long Range. CarMax today has 253 Teslas on the lots, ranging from $41,998 for a Standard Range model to $156,998 for a Model S Plaid rocket ship. I chose the 2018 below for no other reason than it was “reasonably” priced and a long range model. It’s similar in performance to the Mustang, albeit with a little less range (200 miles?!). Same with features.
The 2018 Tesla Model S Long Range rolled out to mixed reviews. Car and Driver noted the highs as “satisfying handling, impressive tech integration, looks and feels like the future.” The lows were “Not the price we were promised, not the range we were hoping for, the questionable build quality we’ve learned to expect.” This was probably a $56,000 car new, and is now $43,998 here in Kearny Mesa, California.
Stumbled on this hot 2020 Range Rover Velar SV Autobiography Dynamic and wondered if there was anything special about it. Was surprised to learn it’s a one year only model and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) made only 600 units. A unicorn, but not a cheap one. Invested another whole hour on the web only to learn that 60 made it Canada, and no idea how many to the USA. It was once a $100,000 SUV and two years later, it’s on the lot for $83,998. A bargain? Probably not. Exclusive? I’d say so.
With the convenience package and driver assistance package there is nothing available from Land Rover this vehicle don’t have. Adaptive cruise control, heated, cooling, and massaging performance seats for all, knurled-metal finish on the infotainment and HVAC knobs, multiple big screens, leather, carbon fiber, and on an on. Looks handsome. Tasteful.
No rear DVD system – probably interferes with the suit jacket hangar built into the driver’s headrest? Nothing opulent in the back. Nothing really to see here mate, move on.
Here’s what you really get for the $40,000 over a regular Velar – a monstrous 550 hp 5.0 liter supercharged V-8 powerplant mated to an eight speed automatic that’ll take this beast to 60 mph in less than four seconds. Same motor in the higher priced Range Rover Sport SVR and lower priced (usually) Jaguar F-Pace SVR (see the bottom of this piece). The motor engineered and built by Ford for Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations until 2020. The SVAD gets bigger wheels. bigger brakes, and corners with brake-based torque-vectoring. It also has a bigger gas tank – gonna need it. JLR is also pretty proud of the active exhaust system, providing the video sound track below to whet your appetite, or be music to your ears, depending on your epicurean preferences.
This one-owner, accident free 2020 Range Rover Velar SV Autobiography Dynamic is available in Corpus Christi, Texas here – it’s been on and off the net today so the stock number and VIN are also below. What about MaxCare? This Range Rover still has two years and 20,000 miles of manufacturer warranty – after that it’s a crap shoot. I suspect the legendary unreliability of JLR vehicles is by now more folk lore than reality, despite Doug DeMuro’s famous Range Rover some time back. (For the record, CarMax dropped more money repairing my Mercedes S55 AMG – $35,000 – than they did on his Range Rover – $21,000!) Spending $84,000 on this Velar would be a strain for me, and MaxCare might push that to $90,000. But I couldn’t own this without it. Your call.
2016 Cadillac CT6 Platinum – Home for 24 Hour Test Drive
My 2010 Mercedes S600 has about 97,000 miles and two years of warranty left, and so I’ve been preparing it for sale (hint, hint?) and hoping to replace it with another long distance highway cruiser. The BMW M760 V-12 I drove last fall was not as spacious as the Mercedes, and there haven’t been any Mercedes V-12 unicorns at CarMax in an awfully long time. I’m starting to think there may not be anymore, and so I started looking at possible placeholder cars – nice enough to drive for a year or longer but not so expensive I couldn’t impulsively sell on short notice if a Mercedes (or Audi) V-12 came on the market. I’ve looked at Cadillac CTS-V’s, but they don’t have adaptive cruise control or seat massagers, features I just have to have on the highway. I am willing to sacrifice the aromatherapy in the S-class.
Then I started filtering my searches for Auto Cruise Control, Apple Carplay, Heated Steering Wheel, and Seat Massagers. You’d think there would be more choices, but of the 61,000 cars in the CarMax inventory, less than 400 have seat massagers. Iinterestingly, the highest count are Fords – F150’s and Explorers. Who knew? Sorry but once you’ve had your back and butt rubbed at 75 mph on a thousand mile drive, you can’t not have seat massagers again. Ignoring the $70,000 and up cars, I zeroed in on these Cadillac XTS and CT6 sedans with 400 hp six cylinder motors, AWD, and most, if not all, of the features I need. And I even took the 2016 CT6 Platinum model above home for a 24 hour test drive, so we’ll start with that one.
The CT6 was the Cadillac flagship from 2016-2020, selling about 40,000 units total. The Platinum trim is the highest level. More interior pictures below, but let’s just say I was as comfortable in this Cadillac CT6 as I have been in the 2004 Mercedes S55 and 2010 Mercedes S600 I’ve owned. And neither had the audio system in the Cadillac – a 34 speaker (including in the head rest) Bose Panaray sound system. Loved it – especially coupled with Apple Carplay. Never heard of Panaray so had to Google it. First, Panaray is a “portmanteau” word, blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others – panoramic and array. The sound system is a $3,700 option in lesser Cadillacs and standard in the Platinum models. I can see me turning the stereo down to share with passengers what both Panaray and portmanteau mean, once I learn to pronounce it.
Thought I’d wrap up the sale of my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider on Bring a Trailer before getting back to CarMax unicorns. This post about taken longer than I wanted to write, because the whole Bring a Trailer process has taken far longer than I had expected. It was an exhausting and exhilarating ride, and ironically one of my lingering memories will be just how much Bring a Trailer struggled to actually bring a trailer when the buyer requested shipment via the web site. More on that later. Fortunately, the buyer is a patient and kind man.
I initially submitted my Fiat in mid-October 2021 to begin the process. I elected to go for the $349 package that included Bring a Trailer (BaT) sending out a professional photographer and assigning an editor to write my listing. It took a few weeks to schedule and shoot the photos and make them available to me for review. Then it took a couple of weeks to assign a writer to complete my ad. If you’re wondering, BaT uses a template to input owner-provided info and allows for a little, but not much, color commentary. That’s why all the ads sound alike (powered by a 1.6 liter four-cylinder mated to a five-speed manual gearbox….) Fellow DC Fiat member Brewster Thackery is a BaT rep and was assigned as my writer. He did a good job and accepted edits that were important to me. By now we were into late November with no date set for going live and the holidays were looming. I began to fret.
To their credit, BaT noted there was a single digit discrepancy between my vehicle title and the VIN, and I would need to get that corrected before it could be listed. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a new title issued in Virginia for a 50 year old Italian car? Turns out not hard at all – wonderful lady at the DMV got it done in about 20 minutes. Not a corrected or salvage or anything – an original title with the correct VIN. Whew!
Although I was frustrated we were two months into this process the BaT folks were accommodating in postponing going live until after Christmas. I didn’t think launching the auction right before Christmas was going to help sell the car. Who buys a vintage Fiat as a Christmas present? Instead I had a better plan – go live on New Year’s Eve and hope car enthusiasts with lots of time and lots of booze might go nuts bidding. And so we went live, for eight days instead of the normal seven, with the auction to close at 11 am Pacific time – 2 pm my time on January 7th. BaT has a provision to prevent last second snipers – if the high bid is placed at the deadline, the auction is extended another two minutes. Let’s go to the bidding.
I got a chuckle right off the bat with a compliment by solarfish and a clever $1,971 bid. Get it? BaT members can make comments whether or not they are bidding, and that makes for an interesting auction. Normally the negotiation of a car sale is between a buyer and a seller. Not here. Negotiations are more chaotic, and like normal auctions potential buyers are negotiating with each other with escalating bids – not negotiating with me. I made the sale “no reserve” and so highest bidder was getting my car. The interesting part is that the bidding is going on while bystanders, who may or may not know Fiats, and may or may not even be interested buying the car, can add comments. I was prepared for some sharp shooters who tune in only to point out defects and signal to all of us how much they know about these cars. Irritating, but can’t get irritated. Calmly answer their points because everyone is watching – but be aware that their comments can influence other real bidders. Tom Milton irked me by asking questions that seemed like that, at one point suggesting I might be hiding something and “maybe beauty is only skin deep?”. Imagine my surprise when he later bid on the car! That reinforced the need to stay calm. BaT advisors also told me I did not need to respond to each and every comment in real time, especially not from non-bidders.
Considering both of these unicorns, and both thrilled and disappointed by each. I had the Jaguar for a 24 hour test drive in early January, noted some mechanical and cosmetic issues, and almost a month later they offered it again (allegedly after fixes) for another 24 hour test drive. I did pay $99 to have it transferred from Newark so it was sort of reserved for me until I didn’t want it, although it wouldn’t be the first car CarMax “lost”. I have not driven this SL550 but a few months ago I drove a similar one and was quite surprised at how fast it was. Let’s get to the cars.
The interior of the Jaguar seems spartan compared to the Mercedes. The seats aren’t uncomfortable for short rides, although the seat back seemed to have little to no cushioning. It wasn’t very adjustable and when the seat back bumps against the rear “seat” it automatically moves an inch forward. Wasn’t a fan. The infotainment system is painfully archaic. Jaguars of this era also have a problem with tacky steering wheel controls – actually sticky and gummy, not unfashionable. Googled it and a known problem with lots of home made attempts at fixing, none reliable. Liked the heated seats and heated steering wheel.
The matte black finish on what is normally an elegant Mercedes SL550 caught my eye first. Then the 417 logo on the head rest puzzled me. Retreated to my extensive automotive library (aka Google) and immediately learned this car is a one of 417 special edition models commemorating Mercedes unexpected win in the 1955 Italian road race called the Mille Miglia. Sixty years ago a Mercedes 300SL was driven by a pair of Americans to a first place in class and fifth overall over the 1,000 mile road course. The race started at 4:17 am and the 300 SL’s race number was 417, hence the “417” moniker. Me thinks that’s a little odd but as the last year of the R231 platform before the 2017 refresh I guess Mercedes needed a marketing boost. This 2016 Mercedes SL550 Mille Miglia 417 Special Edition sold new for perhaps $120,000 and six years later is available at half that. A unicorn.
Car and Driver made note of the extensive use of red stitching and interior trim, writing “It’s not discreet, but it is well executed.” I’d second that. I don’t hate it although it’s an awful lot of race car aesthetics on what is still a JR Ewing car (and yet a model I am seriously considering – more on that tomorrow). It may be a low end niche collector car someday due only to the low numbers?
Not only does the head rest have the Mille Miglia 417 logo, it’s home to the wonderful Mercedes Airscarf heated blower to keep the neck and shoulders warm during top down fall runs to the winery. I really, really like this.
Even the rims get red lips. The color is officially Designo magnetite black metallic paint finish. I wonder how many times at cars and coffee I’d be asked if it was wrapped? I think I like it, although I wish something more had been done to the car’s performance. Borrow some bits from an SL63, perhaps?
The Mercedes SL550 is powered by a 4.7 liter twin turbo V-8 and a seven-speed automatic transmission, good for 60 mph runs in a windblown hair over four seconds. Not an SL63 but still very fast. The V-8 makes 449 hp and 516 lb-feet of torque at only 1,800 rpm. I drove a 2013 SL550 not long ago and mistakenly thought it was the older 380 hp SL550 – was stunned at the acceleration. Top speed is a governed 155 mph. This car is loaded and a data card search revealed it actually does have auto cruise control (Distronic Plus) even though not noted by CarMax. Might cost more if it did. Use the savings for MaxCare – this one will not be cheap to fix. Find this two owner, accident free Mercedes SL550 here in Rivergate, Tennessee.
After writing my Fiat story and the low mileage SUV piece I though I should get back to covering some fundamental cars that (mostly) met my original parameters for unicorns – less than $35,000, not more than 60,000 miles, and if possible be an enthusiast car. Unfortunately, the crazy used car market has boosted prices significantly, and I may have to up the cap to perhaps $45,000? Well, I picked the following naturally aspirated V-8’s for no other reason than I found them interesting, and I’m writing from Daytona after watching the Rolex 24 Hour race, where I had hoped the V-8 Corvettes would be more competitive. Let’s jump in.
First, how about a bright orange 2014 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 Core? A stripped down version of the SRT-8 392, it pumps 470 hp from a 6.4 liter motor linked to a six-speed manual transmission. (For all the muscle cars in this post I picked manual transmissions only – seems right and salutary.) The car is good for mid-four second 0-60 mph sprints and burnout after burnout fun. Brakes strong, surprisingly comfortable on the highway, but not terribly well equipped. But because it’s an American car, MaxCare is available for another full five years and up to 150,000 miles.
You can find this 2014 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 here in Indianapolis, Indiana.
New old stock (NOS), or old stock for short, refers to aged stock of merchandise that was never sold to a customer and still new in original packaging. Such merchandise may not be manufactured anymore, and the new old stock may represent the only current source of a particular item.[1] There is no consensus on how old a product must be to be NOS, and some people reserve an NOS label only for products that are actually discontinued. – Wiki
Not to be confused with nitrous oxide engine offerings, also known as NOS in the automotive hot rodding world, the handful of SUV’s below are what I could find of older vehicles with almost no miles on them – or damned near new in unicorn terms. They’re not terribly special otherwise, but I was sitting in my home office watching the snow fall and the plows at the ready, and thought why not?
Interestingly, I started writing this on January 19th when CarMax inventory was maybe 50,000 cars. On January 21st we are up to 65,319 vehicles! Pre-Covid CarMax held maybe 50,000 cars in inventory year round, and beefed up to 70,000 around the end of their financial year (spring). I’m already seeing some fascinating cars, unfortunately most are higher than my unicorn cap of $35,000. Think I’m going to have to up that. There was a time when CarMax offered lots of cars in the $5,000-8,000 range, and rarely one over $100,000. (Here’s the link to the first one I ever saw in 2017 – a Mercedes AMG GT S). Now the cheapest cars (3) are $9,000 and there are 36 cars on their lots that are over $100,000. The market has gone mad. Anyway, let’s get to the SUV’s. It’s still 19 degrees in Leesburg. Maybe when it warms up I’ll find us a real unicorn?
This 2014 GMC Terrain Denali is eight years old, and has only a couple of hundred miles on it. Adequately, but not opulently equipped, no third row, and a decent 301 hp six cylinder driving the front wheels, it’s mostly interesting as a bit of a time capsule. GMC sold about 100,000 units of these first generation Terrains yearly.
Find this single owner, accident free 2014 GMC Terrain Denali here in Las Vegas.
Time to get back to blogging after being totally consumed by the successful auction of my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider on Bring a Trailer – and yet another search for my next unicorn. Will post about both later, but it’s mid-January and I’ve hardly shared the cars piling up in my profile faster than a snowy stretch of I-95 in Virginia. Speaking of which, with another snow storm headed our way this weekend I thought I’d post seven sedans worthy of loading up and heading south to sunnier places. I can picture all of these with a clothes hanger bar spread from coat hook to coat hook over the back seat, with nicely pressed shirts and slacks at the ready for beach bars and buffets. Let’s start with one I didn’t think I’d see at CarMax again, a 2011 Lucerne Super.
I last blogged about a Lucerne Super here, another 2011 with 77,000 miles priced at $11,998. This one has 90,000 miles and lists at $19,000 – just another reflection of how crazy used car prices have gotten. If a front wheel drive 292 hp Northstar V-8 is what you’ve been waiting for (Mick?) this car is for you. I do find the lines and wheels to be quite handsome, actually, and while CarMax describes it as “fully loaded” (for 2011) it only has a heated steering wheel and heated seats – a bit austere for me.
Front wheel drive and a full size sedan means a GIGANTIC trunk.
You can find this 12 year old Buick here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (where my Fiat is headed!).
THE SHORT VERSION. Sorry, not a CarMax car but a unicorn nonetheless. My award winning 1971 Fiat 124 Spider is up for sale on the Bring a Trailer auction site https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1971-fiat-124-spider-19/ with no reserve. There are about 150 professional photos there. The car has 61,000+ miles, a 1.6-liter DOHC motor, five speed transmission, and runs like a top. You could drive it cross-country tomorrow. The motor was removed and completely rebuilt in 2018, and pretty much the rest of the car was repaired or restored since I bought it almost 10 years ago. I’ve sunk over $25,000 into this car. Maybe closer to $30,000. Don’t tell my wife – we had a deal beforehand I would buy a vintage car for not more than $3,500 (I paid $3,000) and put another $3,500 into repairs. She doesn’t complain about it. Much. Externally and internally the car is beautiful – underneath it more resembles the 50-year-old car that it is. There is no rust that I can see, and what little I found during rehabilitation has been professionally repaired. All the work done is documented below. I have some receipts for parts and no receipts for the repairs, because the major work was done privately by the stalwarts of the DC Fiat Club who I will talk about way too much later. I have more photographs and video than you could ever want. Happy to answer any questions if you’re interested. Those are the facts.
THE WHOLE STORY OF MIA SOLE, MY 1971FIAT 124 SPIDER. This really is the story of the shit box 1971 Fiat 124 Spider I bought on eBay in the spring of 2012 sight unseen, originally from Texas but to me by way of Charlevoix, Michigan, from a less than forthcoming seller. We won’t say he lied but other than “mechanically sound and almost rust-free” few other claims about the car turned out to be true. We’ll get to that shortly. As a seller I will do all possible not to misrepresent the car.
The dream of driving a Fiat started almost 40 years earlier, when Spiders were still sold new and not yet vintage. While serving in the Army in Germany in the early 1980’s I test drove a cream-colored 1979 model and found that my six foot-four-inch frame fit surprisingly well in the Fiat, and I loved how it revved. But it would have been the only car for my first wife and I, not a good daily driver, and in the way of the fast cars on the autobahn. I passed. Fast forward to 2010, and I’m completing another assignment in Germany and about to move back to the States, and in a moment of weakness my second (and final!) wife agrees I should enjoy a vintage convertible. I love her. By 2012 I’m living in Virginia and ready to pull the trigger on a purchase. And after much research and dialogue with Fiat owners of FiatSpider.com, I ignore most of their advice and fall for a little red 1971 Fiat 124 on eBay from what sounds like a decent human being. He probably is. The original pictures are still on Flickr! https://www.flickr.com/photos/supplyguy/with/7028379221/ .
THE HANDOFF. We closed the deal long distance and although I had yet to see or collect the car by April 2012 it was mine – bought and paid for. In Virginia the DMV will reassign owner-provided license plates, the old ones with the year stamped on them, to vintage cars. I found a 1971 Virginia convertible plate on eBay and bought it. Had it in my carry-on luggage when my close buddy Chris Murray and I flew to Cleveland to pick up the car and drive it home. I was that committed. No going back.
The seller trailered the car from way up north in Charlevoix, Michigan to Cleveland since he was picking up an MG to take home. Thought that was nice of him since it cut our return drive to Virginia in half. But when Chris and I saw him wheel into the parking lot meeting spot with “my” car on a flatbed in a light drizzle I sank. Wanted to cry. Once again, I learned the hard way that cars never look as nice in person as they do in photographs (except of course, mine now that I’m selling it?). The paint was worn, the top torn, and the seats were dilapidated and tired. But it fired up and we parted ways. Did I mention the light drizzle? That’s when we learned the wipers that I had specifically asked about, did not work. Nor did the lights or heater. But we had an afternoon to prepare for the next day’s drive home, which we spent at the NFL Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a pub. We picked up a few of the emergency supplies Fiat experts had recommended and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before the next day’s drive home.
Before we flew to Cleveland, I joined the Fiat forum on the web and sought advice on how best to bring the car home and what spares to take along. The answers ranged from “you’re a fool – don’t do it” to “driving a car bought sight unseen on the web and driving it home is part of the charm of vintage car ownership!” and everything in between. They were all right. One guy said you could tow an entire parts car and still not have the right part when you break down. My favorite was the dude who said all we needed was “a bag of weed and an American Express Gold Card”. There were some helpful points, like take some tools and belts and fuses and a fire extinguisher. We picked up some odds and ends in Cleveland before heading back. On the drive home Chris pointed out that we forgot to buy the fire extinguisher. I said “I didn’t forget. I hope this car burns to the ground on the drive home, so my wife doesn’t see the piece of shit I just bought.” I was glum.
IN FRONT OF EVERY SILVER LINING THERE’S A DARK CLOUD? I would have been sadder had I not found inspiration from three rays of light in the first 48 hours of ownership. The first was John Kristoff, a young executive and Fiat 124 Spider Turbo owner who connected with me on the Fiat forum before departure for Cleveland. The great Fiat community came through with a rat line of phone numbers and contacts from Ohio home that I could call if we ran into trouble, and John lived in North Canton, Ohio awful close to where we collected the car from the seller. John offered to meet us at a local Starbucks after we got the car and give it a once over. We introduced and warmed ourselves over a Pike Place while it rained outside and we chatted Fiats for a bit, and when I mentioned no wipers, he invited us to his home to give it a look. That’s where we saw his pristine blue Fiat 124 and if I remember right, a nice Porsche 911. Got a chuckle out of him saying “In fact, I don’t even know if my wipers work – I’ve never driven it in the rain!” Lucky man. We poked around my car without success, and he wiped our windshield down with Rain-X and wished us the best. For what it’s worth, I was pleased to see John auction his lovely car off on Bring a Trailer last summer and draw a healthy sales price here. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1982-fiat-spider-2000-turbo-3/. Later, when I got home and told my teen age daughter about the wonderful experience with Mr. Kristoff she said, “wait, you met a guy hundreds of miles away on the internet and had coffee with him, and he invited you back to his garage and you went?! What don’t you get about stranger danger, Dad?” Not the first life lesson I’ve told her that I ignored.
The second boost was when we learned the trunk wouldn’t latch, but there was a spare, mechanism in the box of junk in the trunk. Over the next few months, I’d find more than a few useful parts back there I wish the seller had installed beforehand and have tried to keep that in mind as I prep my car almost a decade later. Anyway, we sat in a fast-food joint and I successfully cannibalized and repaired the trunk latch and was sooooo proud of myself – the first of many, many repairs I’d either do myself (rare) or need done by professionals. But it gave me a tiny bit of confidence.
The third was my buddy Chris, who impressed, but did not surprise, in joining me for this adventure. I have to admit that when we drove around Cleveland the day we collected the car he was a bit fast and fearless in the rain, in this mystery Fiat. The night before we headed home, I struggled to sleep in the hotel. Visions of crashing danced through my head, and with only the original lap belts I imagined that steering column piercing my chest. (Of course, for that to happen I’d have to be driving and I guess I could go slower….but dreams don’t have to be logical.) But we headed out that Sunday morning with a thermos of coffee and a bag of donuts and hoped for the best. No bag of weed. No American Express Gold card. We kept a steady pace in the drizzle, southeast on I-76 onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, to Breezewood and onto I-70 almost all the way home. People would pass us and honk their horns and wave and smile, and we thought it was because they dug the little Fiat, and maybe they did. But later I saw a reflection of us sitting in the car in a supermarket window, and realized that two six-foot-four, 230-pound dudes in this tiny convertible really looked more like a clown car. We kept driving despite the drizzle, and the cold with no heat, and our eyes a little agitated from what seemed to be a strong smell of smoke from under the dash. We cracked the windows, which made us colder, and drove on. I got more and more discouraged. That’s when Chris gave me a great pep talk reminding me why I bought the car in the first place, and this was a neat little sports car for not a lot of money that was humming along just fine despite our discomfort, and this was in fact a great road trip regardless. Turns out he was right and that was just what I needed.
We headed east on I-70 from Hancock, Maryland and by late afternoon considered stopping into Hagerstown, Maryland where coincidentally, the DC Fiat Club was having their annual pig roast at the home of Todd Rosenthal, the club’s President for Life. As much as it would have been a nice introduction on my second day of ownership, we didn’t want to tempt fate by stopping and pressed on. The club would factor huge in my ownership later – for now we just wanted to get home. And get warm. And not die.
Near Leesburg, Virginia, maybe 340 miles into our 348-mile journey, the car sputtered to a halt. Uh oh. Cranked and cranked but just wouldn’t start. We sat there pondering how we could have made it so close, and what to do next. After maybe 20 minutes we tried again, it fired right up, and I dropped Chris off at his house and continued another five miles solo to my own.
All in all, it was an incredible, exhausting, and satisfying journey. And there sat a ragged little red Fiat convertible in my garage. My wife did her best to look impressed. I’d come to recognize that look with each repair.
THE SECOND REPAIR. A few days after surviving the drive home I took the car to work on a sunny April day. A good 30 miles of bliss, and as I exited the highway near my office the car sputtered to a stop – again. As before after a short wait it started right up, and I was only a little bit late. Drove it home that evening – same thing, a stall near home. A little frustrating. Through the online Fiat Spider forum (now https://mirafiori.com/forum/ ) I had virtually met the patriarch of the DC Fiats Club, who reached out to me to offer help. To protect his identity, we’ll call him Capt. John. He put me in touch with long time DC Fiat member Carl, who lived not too far away from me, for technical assistance on my sputtering motor. Carl suggested that since the fuel filter in the engine bay was new, that I should remove the sender from the gas tank and look at the filter there. That filter is a mesh sock looking thing that deteriorates, shreds, and gets sucked up into the sender while driving. Sit for a few minutes and gravity solves the problem – the sock falls back out of the tube and dangles in the tank. The top of the gas tank is easily accessible, and after removing seven small nuts the sender was out. Sure enough the sock was original and torn and had been clogging the sender. Carl said just cut it off – it’s really not needed, and I did. The car never stalled again. This was my introduction to guys like Capt. John and Carl, who know every inch, every nut, every gasket, every connection on Fiats, and have faced down diagnostics I would never have figured out. I realized had I taken the car to just any garage and asked for help with a sputtering motor for a 40-year-old Italian car they would have rebuilt the carb, replaced the plugs, and who knows what else for hundreds (thousands?) of dollars and never thought to look in the tank.
THE FIAT HOSPICE AND REHABILITATION CENTER. Capt. John and I exchanged a series of emails about my Fiat as I learned more about the car and some fixes that might be necessary. We talked about the no heat issue, and he told me about the heater core valve under the dash, and a buddy at work got upside down under there and with a flip of a switch – I had heat! It was so easy, and I felt so lame, for driving back from Ohio in the cold unnecessarily. So much to learn.
It was about this time Capt. John invited me to his “Fiat Rehabilitation and Hospice” in Maryland for a one-on-one tech day. Capt. John has a four bay, two level garage with a lift next to his beautiful single-family home. He has tons of parts and supplies, and every piece of automotive tool and equipment imaginable for a private garage. As I drove up and no sooner yanked the emergency brake handle, he was pulling my driver’s side windshield wiper off the hub and realigning it properly. One fix done. Over the next couple of hours, he installed a bleeder valve in the coolant hose, reattached the muffler hanger, adjusted the carb, got my wipers and horn working, and replaced a motor mount and the “guibo” flexible disc between the drive shaft and the transmission. Capt. John let me replace the bolts securing the guibo and thankfully, patiently checked my work. They were in backwards and would have sheared off. Rookie mistake. Wouldn’t be my last.
Capt. John did a few other fixes and checks on the car while we talked about our careers, his as a US Navy Captain and Defense Attache and mine in CIA. We talked cars (I learned I paid about double what my 124 was worth!). We had a Yuengling when done (wouldn’t be my last) and he was about to send me on my way. It was my birthday, and I was off to see Willie Nelson in concert again. I was filled with gratitude for all his wisdom and help and asked how I could repay him. I’ve never forgotten his words. “You can’t. I just wanted you to spend some time with the car and realize they aren’t that hard to work on.” So, thinking Capt. John did not participate in social media I posted a long story on Spider.com on how helpful he was, and what it meant to me. But foolishly not considering his Fiat network and intel background, I was surprised to get this email from him the next day – “Nice article in Spider.com. Bernie told me about it. What’s this “Capt. John” crap? Glad to help you out and will do the same in future if needed. However, that doesn’t erase your debt. In effort to get you to Willie’s on time, neglected to tell you about your parts bill, the used mount, the two hangers and the hose fill/bleed plug comes to $35.50. See you at Carlisle. Capt. John”. Of course, I wrote write back, “I have no idea who you are or what this is about. Is this a phishing scam?”. Capt. John usually got my sense of humor, and I got his, although sometimes I suspect he thought I was being an ass and wasting his time. But he always helped me.I hope he’s not reading this.
THE THIRD REPAIR, OR THESE CARS WILL BRAKE YOUR HEART. It was clear within the first few weeks my car needed brakes and I thought I would roll up my sleeves and tackle them myself. Fiat 124’s came with discs on all four corners, pretty advanced for the mid to late 60’s introduction of the car. Capt. John mailed me a set of rebuilt calipers (“media blasted, new seals, smooth pistons”) and I bought new pads from one of the big Fiat parts folks. Capt. John cannibalizes Fiats that cannot be saved before sending to the crusher and has his own enormous, catalogued stash of hard to find and reusable parts that he will sell for almost nothing (plus postage) to Fiat enthusiasts who aren’t asses. Wouldn’t be the last time Capt. John sent me parts. The main Fiat parts suppliers are Auto Ricambi, Vicks, Midwest Bayless, Mr. Fiat, and Fun and Imported Auto Toys (FIAT, get it?). I’ve bought from all of them. Capt. John sent me a thorough step by step email on how to do the brakes. Printed it out, jacked up the car, and got to work in my driveway like I did as a poor teenager replacing the idler arm on my $125 ’66 Barracuda. And just like my car repairs of 1978, I got stuck almost immediately. The brake hose would just not disconnect from the old caliper. I tried everything and got nowhere. Got introduced to PB Blaster and soaked the joint with no luck. I removed the caliper with the stuck brake line still attached. I had never removed a brake caliper before and the part in my hand was as foreign as a Jarvik 7 artificial heart. ll my $100 cars had drum brakes in high school. I threw it in my daily driver to take to work the next day and show it to the real mechanics at work who know all the tricks intuitively. At lunch we went out to my car, and damned if the nut didn’t turn by hand and come right off. Inside the car on a hot sunny morning, the PB Blaster did its job marvelously! And I felt like a fool. Wouldn’t be the last time. Got back home, installed all the new pads and rebuilt calipers, and EVEN learned on YouTube to operate an Auto Zone one-man brake bleeding bottle kit! The car now ran without stalling, stopped without screeching, and had heat if it got cold. I was starting to come around on this beater Fiat. It was time to show it off. Or something like that.
MY FIRST CAR EXPO AND COMING OUT PARTY – CARLISLE PENNSYLVANIA. In May of 2012 the DC Fiat organization was kind enough to invite me to the annual Import and Kit Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Matters not whether cars are show field contestants, the most import thing is to show up and mingle. Capt. John was there and welcomed me to join the DC Fiats, which I did. I also got to meet the DC Fiat Club President for Life Todd Rosenthal, of Hagerstown pig roast fame, who prides himself (as he should) in showing up at these events with an entire cooking grill, disassembled, transported in the hatches and passenger seat of his flexible Fiat X 1/9. I’ve seen it a few times since, and I’m always amazed. Todd grilled brats while I browsed the fascinating world of vintage and unusual automobiles.
I stayed until the end so happy to meet all these great car people and started driving south from Carlisle to Virginia at dusk. Might have been my first nighttime drive. Could have been a rookie mistake. I noticed some of the dash lights were out. I could only see half of the speedometer – the part above 80 mph where my car would never go. Couldn’t see the temperature gauge that I had stared at all the way from Ohio to Virginia, and every drive since, waiting for the dreaded overheating (that never happened). Couldn’t see the gas gauge that either worked perfectly or wobbled like there were goldfish swimming in the tank. Instead of being disconcerting, driving in the cool night air with the top down, in the total absence of possibly catastrophic information made it one of the most pleasant drives ever! When Capt. John installed my custom dash panels a year later, he refreshed all the gauges and replaced all the bulbs and robbed me of my bliss in the dark. I’ve never stopped staring at the temperature gauge that never goes high.
THE THIRD REPAIR AND MEETING THE FIAT POPE. While putzing around the engine bay over the fuel filter issue I noticed oil on the underside of the hood and all over the top of the oil filter. I was worried. Capt. John sent me to G&S Automotive in Riverdale, Maryland, where a seasoned Italian mechanic who once worked in the Fiat factory ran a garage. To protect his identity, we’ll call him Gildo. Gildo worked on lots of cars in his shop but has a knack and passion for Fiats. He owns a legit Abarth. Drove my car to his shop and I drank coffee while he went over my car. He invited me into the garage and showed me that my car had a goofy “lunch box” aftermarket air filter, and the filter inlet for the crankcase breather hose was smaller than the original. He thought the back pressure was blowing out my dip stick causing the oil spray. Gildo cut the breather hose, cleaned up the oil, and suggested I drive for a week or two and see if there was any more leak. Then we stood there looking at each other awkwardly and he said, “we’re finished”. I said, “well I need to pay you, don’t I?” and he looked a little annoyed. He said, “Ok – $10.” I only had a $20 and didn’t want to agonize over the change and left. I was stunned he charged so little. Nice guy. Years later I learned Capt. John called him The Fiat Pope. A title well deserved.
LETS GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD. In July of 2012 I went for my first DC Fiats Club drive, an organized ride through the Fairfax County Virginia countryside through Clifton Virginia. I expected a leisurely cruise with a bunch of old men nursing their cars through the countryside. It was not that at all. These guys drove pretty much balls out (but not unsafely) for quite a while. It was an exhilarating, enthusiastic driver. It was so enthusiastic, I burned out my clutch and had to nurse my car home at the end of the afternoon. I guess there was a reason why when I bought the car there was a brand-new clutch set in the trunk.
GILDO COMES THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH. I took the car back to Gildo for the second time in weeks and prayed for help with the clutch. Told him there was a new one in the trunk with some other parts. Left the car with him and trusted him to go through it and sort out anything he thought needed to be sorted out. He also agreed to weld in the three-point seatbelts that I had bought from Auto Ricambi. I expected to get a call letting me know what all was wrong with the car and how expensive it was going to be to fix it. I didn’t get such a call. Instead, I got a voicemail from Gildo that said something like (insert Italian accent here) “Mizzuh Banks, your car is ready. Come get it.” I went back with a blank check in hand and some trepidation on just how expensive this was going to be, remembering the whole “I’m only going to spend $3,500 sorting out the car” promise to my wife in the beginning. When I got there, he explained to me that he went ahead and did the clutch as agreed, and while he was under the car, he found that it needed a ball joint that somehow somebody had installed an upper in a lower or a lower in an upper or something like that, and while he was at it he went ahead and adjusted the valves and mentioned a few other ad hoc repairs. I was nervous as hell on how deep financially I was getting into this Fiat. He stunned me by charging all of $500 I think for all of that work! As you can imagine, I was now all in on Team Gildo.
That first summer I was scouring forums and Craigslist nationwide for parts to make my Fiat better. I found a pair of very nice Fiat 124 Spider seats for sale on the Fiat Spider forum, and the seller had a back seat set from a later model Spider that would accommodate 3-point seatbelts. The seats were being offered by a gentleman in New Jersey on behalf of a NJ Fiats club member who was not on the forum anymore. I was quite surprised to pick up the entire set for $175. It was a steal. Good people. It would be years before I would meet George, the seller.
MY FIAT GETS THE FLU. In August 2012, I was excited to participate in my first ever car show, the Fiat Lancia Unlimited (FLU) national gathering called “Fiat FreakOut” to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia, only two hours from me. FLU would later reorganize as the Fiat Club of America and is a wonderful annual event for all sorts of Italian cars, from show cars to beaters. Mine was the latter. Fiat as a car manufacturer had just returned to the US market in 2011 with the reintroduction of the Fiat 500 and the acquisition of Chrysler, after having been gone from our shores since 1984. Most significantly, at Fiat FreakOut, Fiat sponsored the free Yuengling beer tent, meaning good free beer for all. I drove my still-red Fiat 124 down US Route 29, checked into the Wintergreen resort, and made a beeline for the beer tent.
It’s tradition at Fiat FreakOut for everyone to gather and watch “The Italian Job”, a 1969 film starring Michael Caine, and a backdrop for fantastic car chases and neat foreign cars. I sat at a table with Gildo and his Italian business partner and knocked back Yuenglings watching the film for my first time. When the scene came on where the mobsters in black fedoras and sporting submachine guns surrounded the good guys I leaned over and said, “I’ll bet you’re rooting for them?” like an ass. Gildo looked back at me puzzled like I was an ass. He was right.
The next morning, we drove the cars onto the field in an orderly way, took a group photo from a tower (it’s done by drone now), and settled in to wander around and look at all the cars before a barbeque lunch. I marveled at how nice the old Fiats were and how much work mine needed. I had no idea. Sometime in the afternoon I noticed a small dripping leak from under the rear of my car. Smelled like gasoline. Thought maybe I overflowed it a bit when I gassed up. Came back from another walk around the field, saw the drip had become a wet spot running from my car downhill under the car next to me. This can’t be good. Quickly got a basting pan from the caterer that had some grease and barbequed turkey carcass in it and put it under the rear to catch the drips. Problem solved. For now. One of the participants came by and said, “Oh I know what you’re doing – you’re trying to win the ‘Most Challenged’ trophy!”. I didn’t know that was a thing, but I knew I didn’t want it. Folks were good sports about me leaking gas under the show field and seemed not as concerned as I was that Fiat FreakOut 2012 would go up in flames because of me.
The day after there was a lunch gathering just outside of Charlottesville at International Auto Parts (IAP), a Fiat parts specialist company that eventually got bought by Auto Ricambi. I drove there and carefully placed the baking pan under the gas tank again. I had bought a new gas can to recycle the fuel and filter out the barbequed turkey. After lunch a club drive was scheduled on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the leak was growing and I thought it prudent not to go. Turns out the leak was from a seam in the gas tank that had started to give, the result of what I later discovered was a rear end collision the seller had failed to disclose. What I did not expect was for the good people of DC Fiats to try so hard to help me stop the leak so I could head home. First Gildo explained to me that there was an easy fix – chewing gum wadded up and stuck in the gas tank seam and allowed to harden. He produced from the glove box of his Fiat 124 Abarth (a gem in its own right) a piece of Teaberry gum in a faded wrapper that seemed almost as old as his car. Chewed it up, mushed it into the seam, and sure enough after a few minutes the gum fell to the ground. Huh. Then a wonderful couple from DC Fiats, Tim and Terry, offered to forego the Blue Ridge drive themselves in order to go to a car parts store and get me a proper gas tank leak sealer kit with official gas tank putty and chemicals of some sort to make it stick. I felt horrible them not making the drive and they were unbelievably cool – telling me about club drives when their car failed, and others came to their rescue. Good people.
We sealed the tank as best we could, and I headed home with the gas can half full of turkey basted fuel. Every 30 miles I stopped to refuel and fortunately made it home without running out. To me, the whole experience less the gas leak was tremendous, meeting lots of great Fiat folks, drinking too many Yuenglings, watching the Italian Job for the first time, and NOT winning most challenged. Apparently, there was a Fiat 124 Spider with more misery than mine. Hard to imagine.
TANKS FOR THE HELP! What to do about the gas tank? Turns out Capt. John refurbishes two tanks at a time and just happens to have one on the shelf. No kidding. His process involves cleaning it twice with Marine Clean, degreasing the inside, then coating it with gas tank sealer, as well as painting the outside in black. Refurbished ones from the big vendors cost about $300 – Capt. John charged $80 for sourcing a tank and $80 to refurbish. A steal. I picked up the tank and installed it all by myself and showed everyone who would look at it – it was the newest, nicest part on my Fiat!
FALL SHOW AND A FUNERAL. My car was still ugly as hell but by October of 2012 I was starting to become comfortable that it was running reliably. The DC Fiat Club convinced me to include my car with their corral for the annual Rockville Antique and Classic Car Show in Rockville, Maryland. It was a neat experience but there were so many cars in pristine condition and mine was a little bit embarrassing but still fun.
The following Monday after the Rockville show my aunt was going to be buried In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I had decided to go straight from the show to Philadelphia to see my son and on to Lancaster. It really was a pleasant drive through the Maryland and Pennsylvania countryside in the crisp fall air at night listening to music with my car humming steady. I did not think through that my Fiat would be included in the funeral procession. It was quite the spectacle having this little red Fiat convertible in the procession with the top down and funeral flags on. I was a little proud. My aunt would have been.
THE REAL REHABILITATION BEGINS. By December of 2012 I decided to retire and entered the CIA’s “retirement transition” program. It was meant to be a pre-retirement time when one does not report into the office at all, and instead prepares to retire by learning how to write a resume and I guess putting grab bars on shower doors and things like that? Instead, I put on sweats and went into my garage and worked on the interior of the Fiat every single day. I learned what a Dremel was and bought one and used it for the first time. I tore up all the tar like covering on the Fiat’s floors after removing the seats, consoles, and carpet.
I was disappointed and a little alarmed at finding a few rust holes about the size of a dime and a quarter. I reached out to Capt. John once again and he calmed me down saying, “that doesn’t scare me one bit”. He coached me on how to patch it neatly with fiberglass and coat the entire floor area that with POR-15. I decided to seal the floor also with a product called Protecto Wrap, a peel and stick membrane for use as a positive air/vapor stop.
For some car owners this would be a little controversial. Fiat’s come from the factory with holes in the floor and rubber plugs that are considered floor drains. I’ve been on some forums where people get a little excited saying “if you seal those how will you drain the car when it fills with water?” – I always answer “Why on earth would my car filled with water to the point where I need drain holes in the floor? And if the floor is filled up with water that much what makes you think it’s going to run from the drenched carpets into those holes? Wouldn’t you have to lift and tilt the car a whole bunch of different ways to get the water to run out those holes?”. I decided my approach would be to prevent water from filling up the floorboards in the first place! While I was at it, I decided to add some thermal insulation as a barrier to the heat coming off of the transmission tunnel. Here I got some more wisdom from Capt. John that I have tried to share with other owners, and some appreciate it, and some don’t. Instead of gluing the thermal barrier to the floor, glue it to the back of the floor mats so that if in fact water gets into the floor and makes things damp one can more easily remove the entire barrier and floor mat combination to dry. Brilliant!
PARTS IS PARTS. In January of 2013, a week after formally retiring from the government I began a job as a vice president in a small firm in northern Virginia. How on earth does this matter to a Fiat story you ask? Pretty simple. I was now collecting a pension and making pretty good money as an executive in a defense contractor firm. But it goes deeper than that. There’s a technology aspect to this story. Unlike my time in the government, in the private sector we have our cell phones with us all the time including in some very boring meetings. And I found in this company during conference room meetings if it wasn’t your turn to speak it was normal and customary to be putzing around on your cell phone under the table. It was truly a breakthrough when I learned that I could order Fiat parts, pay for them, and arrange shipping all while someone was droning on about business insurance or budgets that did not apply to me.
I went crazy. I ordered a new center console cap. I ordered new carpets. I ordered floor mats with Fiat logos to go on top of those new carpets. I ordered new door panels for the interior. I ordered all the trim and accessories that go with those door cards. I found a new OEM steering wheel on eBay and bought it. Why not a new shift boot and knob? All the rubber gaskets and trim for the trunk lids. Brand new sun visors. I ordered brand new exterior emblems for when I would eventually get the car painted. The previous owner had capped off the coolant T and done some sort of Frankenstein homemade internal thermostat which was not at all original. I always worried about the car overheating although it never did, and I’ve never stopped worrying about that even though it never has. But I decided to order a proper external thermostat as well as a single coolant T as it is called and was brave enough to install them myself. The car still ran just fine but it looked more original and better. There was no end to what I wouldn’t do for my baby car. I bought parts that didn’t even go to my car and they’re still somewhere in my garage. I stockpiled all these parts into March of 2013 in anticipation of gutting the car and taking it to a paint shop. My car was running well and deserved a new outfit.
BETTER CALL MAACO. I decided to get the car painted at the Maaco in Sterling, Virginia. At the time it was run by an auto enthusiast named Steve, who drove a convertible Dodge Dakota pickup. Good man. In the bays and outside the shop were a TR6, ’59 El Camino, AMC Marlin, two 40’s and 50’s Ford pickups, and a Vega in addition to the standard assortment of wrecks all waiting to be painted. Vintage car folks trusted their autos to Steve. My car was originally orange and was red when I bought it. There are lots of advocates on the internet for keeping classic cars their original color. Others believe the only real color for an Italian car is red. Some are busting my chops on Bring a Trailer as I write this! I think the owner should make their car whatever color makes them happy, and I always wanted a yellow sports car. You can’t have a bad day in a yellow convertible.
We settled on Porsche Speed Yellow as my color. My running joke is how ironic it is to have a color named “speed” in such a slow car. If I remember right the estimate for top-of-the-line painting was about $2500 provided I removed all the trim. I was pretty pleased with myself for being able to take off all the chrome, the lights, the bumpers, and even the convertible top and frame. I drove the car with just a driver seat and nothing else maybe five miles to the shop with my wife following closely behind so no one would see what we were up to. And you wonder why she was never a fan?
A few days into the project Steve invited me back to the shop to show me the full extent of the rear damage from the collision that I had not fully appreciated, and we had not budgeted for.Turns out the rear trunk lid and the rear valances were largely reconstructed with bondo. Very disappointing. He told me he could certainly paint over them, but it would never look quite right. I put in a call to Capt. John for advice. Capt. John of course has a whole bunch of trunk lids hanging under the back deck of his house and fortunately was able to sell me one for $50 and I immediately went to pick it up. I ordered new valances from a company called Mr Fiat. Surprisingly they were only a couple of hundred bucks for brand new ones. For additional cost, of course, Steve agreed to cut out all the damaged pieces and weld in new ones.
While it was in the paint shop, he agreed to do his best to paint the engine bay black (it was a faded orange) despite the engine still being in place. He didn’t do a bad job of that. However, when all was said and done, I was well over $4,000 for the paint job. When I picked the car up, I absolutely loved the look. Well except I still had to drive it home without all the body trim. It took me a little longer than I had planned to reassemble the car. I thought I did a good job cataloging where things went and what nuts and bolts went with what trim pieces when I took them all apart, but I guess it wasn’t as thorough as I had hoped.
But I did get it back together – everything except the convertible top. Capt. John had agreed to purchase and install a new convertible top once I assembled the car. After painting I gave him the car and for less than $500 I had a brand new black top. When he was finished, almost a year after I bought the car in eBay, I now had a car that was running pretty good and looked even better. I was ready for Fiat Freak Out 2013 in Long Island New York.
FREAKOUT TIME – I CAN BE A CONTENDER! After months of sorting out the car I thought it was in pretty good shape for the July 2013 Fiat FreakOut in Long Island, New York. I planned to drive in the evenings when it was cool and lay up during the heat of the day, but I decided to stop into Philadelphia again and see my sons along the way, and my entire plan went to hell. I ended up driving the car in the middle of the day, sweltering July heat in a black vinyl convertible. The car ran with no problems, and I made it to Long Island for the show. I ended up spending the night before the show skipping “The Italian Job” and preparing my car at 2 am, thoroughly cleaning the car and wiping everything down. Quite a different experience from only a year before when my clunker was spilling gas on the show field while I was drinking free Yuengling beer into the wee hours of the morning.
I thought it would be clever to come up with a playlist of music from 1971 to match my Fiat’s era and have it playing on an iPod through my MP3 jack hidden in my new retro car stereo. That worked out OK and while on the show field passersby and I enjoyed some of the hits from 1971 (Joy to the World? My Sweet Lord? Maggie May?).
Unfortunately, I thought it would also be clever to put together a DVD of things that were significant from 1971 that people might find interesting and have them playing on a portable DVD player in the Fiat’s trunk while on the show field (DB Cooper? Billy Jack? AMTRAK?). After I cleaned the car, I stayed up until 3 am burning this cool DVD. I think I really wanted to win. I got up and tidied up the car one last time drove it to the show field and began to get things ready. The music went fine. But when I tried to play the DVD player, I found the sunshine washed out the LCD screen and you really couldn’t see anything at all. That was kind of stupid, so I sheepishly hid the DVD player in my gym bag.
I spent the morning sitting in a lawn chair talking to people about my car and trying to stay awake. I thought my car was competitive. My competition though was a nice young lady who had a beautiful burgundy Fiat she had rescued from a Chicago fire and totally restored. She had neat poster boards showing the history of her car’s restoration. I was intimidated. She also had a wagon that she pulled around the show field giving out ice cold water. Of course, I took one. I also spotted her giving a shoulder rub or two to some of the other folks who would be voting on the cars. I refused to stoop to that. I thought it would creep people out if I offered. It really didn’t matter, and I don’t mean to take anything away from her. Her car really was stunning. She took first place and deserved to.
That evening at the 2013 awards banquet I was quite surprised and pleased to take second place for early Fiats, called “flathoods”. I was just giddy as hell after my pitiful experience just the year before. Collected my plaque that evening got snockered celebrating, and drove home the next afternoon, once again in the sweltering heat with a hangover but proud as could be of my little yellow Fiat. In retrospect, I had way more fun in Charlottesville with my clunker just hanging out with people and drinking beer. That’s good it was really satisfying after all the hard work and support I got from the DC Fiats club to come home with a plaque from Long Island.
NICE RACK. When I got back from Long Island, I wanted a luggage rack on the decklid to give it that classic roadster look. Luggage racks, like Fiat colors, are controversial in the Fiat community. As soon as somebody asks on a forum about putting on a luggage rack people jump their case hard saying it ruins the lines of the car. Folks don’t seem to be able to say it’s not for me. I had one Facebook comment from a stranger, “Love your Spider. Too bad it has a luggage rack.” Looked at his profile – HIS SPIDER HAS A RACK! (Not naming names, Ralph of New Orleans!) Fiat owners are the same way on removing the front bumper. Personally, I think removing the front bumper makes it look like the car has a bad overbite. However, many people like it and that’s OK with me. I knew I wanted a luggage rack. I found a couple of luggage racks and had one shipped from San Antonio to my home. Capt. John gave me some more good advice. Set the luggage rack on the trunk (of course with some pads underneath the posts to not scratch the paint) and leave it there for a couple of days as I come and go from the garage and get a feel for the look. That way before any holes are drilled I can be sure it’s what I want. I took his advice and after a couple of days I had no doubt I wanted a luggage rack on my convertible. I left the rack with Capt. John, and he bolted it on properly. Scared the hell out of me the idea of me drilling holes in my lovely trunk lid. More than once I used the rack! And on Bring a Trailer I’ve already been jumped for my rack.
A DAY AT THE RACES. I was so proud of my car that I took my car to my hometown of Baltimore for the Baltimore Grand Prix in August of 2013. Full of myself, I asked the Italian Car Corral and they let me park my little Fiat with their expensive Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Made me proud to return after the race and fans were taking selfies with MY car in the background! Later, in 2019, I’d put the Fiat on the Amtrak Auto Train for a wonderful journey to the 24 Hours of Daytona and a drive on the beach. My car was a little bit of sunshine in the middle of winter. There are no pictures of me digging out the right rear wheel by hand.
THE CRAB RUNS. In November 2014 after Capt. John replaced my timing belt, water pump, and engine seals, it was time for another DC Fiat Club drive. The capstone drive of the season for the DC Fiat club is the late fall “Capt. John’s Crab Run”. It starts at his home with a club breakfast and meanders down to a small town on the Chesapeake Bay for lunch at a seafood restaurant before looping back. Everybody loves the Crab Run. Except me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great drive and a great route with a great bunch of people. It just doesn’t go so great for me. My first year I got the instructions wrong and missed the group’s departure from Capt. John’s house. I showed up late to the restaurant at the halfway point. Folks had ordered and were awaiting their meals and so I quickly ordered myself a dozen hard shell crabs hoping to catch up and fit right in with the crab run drivers. That’s when everyone sandwiches started to arrive. Nobody ordered crabs but me. That left me still eating when everyone else paid their bill and departed for the second half of the drive.
The next year I showed up on time and followed all the instructions for the crab run. But before we made it to the restaurant steam suddenly started billowing out from under my hood and the temperature gauge peaked. I was sure I had blown a head gasket or something catastrophic and nursed the car to a little gas station and general store. No tow trucks would come, and no cabs would come get me in this remote place. I added a gallon of water and gently made my way back to Washington DC to the Amtrak station where I had planned anyway to leave the car and catch a train to Philadelphia that evening. When the Crab Run was over Capt. John phoned and said I should have it towed to his place which I did before catching my train. It was the first time my Fiat had been on a tow truck and one of only two times in a decade. Imagine my surprise when he called me shortly after he got home to say that he found my problem. It was a small couple of inch piece of hose that came out of the top of the head that had split, and he replaced it in about 15 minutes, and I could pick up my car anytime I wanted. Absolutely no damage to the car. Relieved.
My third and final crab run I showed up on time, followed all the instructions, and the car ran great. But in these club drives the lead car in a group always has a navigator/passenger with written directions and a phone to lead us through the country roads. In my group the lead car got lost in the first 15 minutes and never could find the pack. Me and two or three other cars pulled over while he tried to figure it out. Eventually he gave up and said he thought he knew the way to the restaurant, and we could just drive straight there. I figured I didn’t come all this way to drive with two other cars on the interstate and not be part of the Crab Run and said screw it and drove home. I never went to another Crab Run. They are cursed events for me.
In 2018 another significant life change event led to another significant investment in my car. With our daughter a freshman in college, my wife and I were empty nesters and decided to downsize to a brand-new townhouse with a two-bay garage. Even though the timing belt and seals had been replaced in 2014 the car did have a slight oil drip to it that annoyed my wife no end. She said, “tell me your car is not going to drip on our new garage floor?” I sensed an opportunity. I talked to Capt. John, and we agreed for a reasonable price he and Gildo could make that drip go away with a limited engine rebuild. While the engine was out, I could also get the engine bay painted properly which I had always wanted to do. But Capt. John gave me lots of options on how much to spend or how deeply I wanted to go with rebuilding the motor and once again I was all in wanting every upgrade possible. And just like every other project I’m pretty sure what I spent was two or three times what I had told my wife I was planning to spend on this car.
Regardless, it was money well spent. I’m not mechanically savvy enough to describe all the work that was done to the car by Capt. John and Gildo. It’s in the list of repairs at the end of this piece. The car absolutely purrs. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I would drive that car 1,000 miles straight if my body could take it. I know the car can.
FIAT FREAKOUT 2019 GREENSBORO . I lucked out that Fiat FreakOut 2019 was not too far from home. Held in Greensboro, North Carolina, it was only about five hours away – same distance as Long Island in 2013. I learned my lesson from Long Island not at all. I still left at the wrong time of day and drove south in the midday summer sun. But I went in shorts and a T-shirt, sweated like hell, and sucked down Gatorade and loved the drive down US 29 to Greensboro North Carolina. It was a wonderful drive in the well-tuned car. Yes, I still went to a car wash and cleaned up the car and tucked it away under cover for the evening. That night we watched The Italian Job on an inflatable screen in the parking lot and I went to my hotel room at a reasonable time for beers and to be ready for the show field the next day. The next morning I did nothing fancy, just sat by my car and enjoyed spending time with the Fiat people and just had a really neat experience. That evening I was pleased to take home third place. Yeah, I dropped a position, but it really didn’t matter to me – it was nice to get a plaque without working myself into a frenzy preparing. Had a wonderful drive home on US 29 and it was a completely uneventful Fiat FreakOut.
TOW TRUCK TRAGEDY. The second, and hopefully final time that my Fiat was towed was in the summer of 2021 when the rubber hose between the fuel filler pipe and the gas tank split. I had replaced this hose back in 2012 when I did the gas tank, but it had split again. I did everything I could to put a new hose on, but it just didn’t happen easily for me the way it did nine years earlier. I was stuck. If I got the hose on, I couldn’t get the gas tank back in and I was totally frustrated. It’s either a two-person job or one if you know the technique. I watched a YouTube video and didn’t get anywhere with that. More frustrating because I did this alone when I was a new owner in 2012. I needed the car running and so I had it towed to European Service Center in Leesburg, a local garage that worked on some vintage cars although not Fiats. I presumed the mechanics would have the right instincts and I was correct. They called me within 30 minutes after the car offloaded telling me the tank was in and the car was ready to go. I asked them to tune up the car, which they did, and I was ready for my next and final Fiat FreakOut.
THE BRIDGES OF LANCASTER COUNTY. I skipped a couple of FreakOuts from 2013-2019 because they were just too far away. I wasn’t going to trailer my car – I’m not opposed to trailering, I just don’t own a car hauler and couldn’t afford to rent one! And I certainly wasn’t going to drive the Fiat a thousand miles. The car might make it but I wouldn’t. I’ve driven cross country solo and done thousand-mile days – in a Mercedes S600, not a convertible with no A/C and no cruise control. I’ve gotten soft. Fiat FreakOut was canceled in 2020 because of Covid but for 2021 it was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, almost as close as my first freakout in Charlottesville in 2012. It was a great experience again and extraordinarily well attended.
Knowing this would likely be my final FFO and hoping to place once again before offering the car for sale in the fall, I had the Fiat professionally detailed before leaving home. The drive was smooth, and the Fiat needed little sprucing up when I hit the hotel parking lot. Bucket of chicken, a six pack and I sat in a camp chair and enjoyed the gathering crowd of Fiat fans. When the party ended, I moved the car from the club lot to the hotel side entrance near my room, not for security reasons (I leave the keys under the seat always), but so nobody could see me put a car cover on it. There were so many vintage Italian cars nicer than mine, and I didn’t see another one covered. Felt like a toad but my Fiat has almost NEVER been outdoors overnight!
This year I decided to participate in the club drive through the Pennsylvania countryside. The car was running so well, and the weather was pleasant, and the route was through a half-dozen covered bridges. For my last FreakOut I just had to go. I didn’t do it in Charlottesville the first year because my car was crap. I didn’t do them in Greensboro or Long Island because I had driven so far to get there, I had no interest in getting back in the car and doing a couple more hours’ club drive. But Lancaster was damn near in my backyard, where my mother’s family is from, and they had a wonderful, well-organized drive through the covered bridges of the Amish countryside in Lancaster.
I went on the drive and sure enough the leader got lost on the very second turn almost within sight of the hotel! We wandered the countryside for a while before hooking back up with a bunch of drivers – coming from the opposite direction. In fairness, there were over a hundred cars that signed up for the drive, leaving in 10 car groups every fifteen minutes, and planning and managing a huge drive is hard. Our new group made it through a couple of covered bridges and then we decided to abort because it was becoming a little disorganized trying to keep so many cars together.
The show field for Fiat FreakOut 2021 was actually in Hershey at the AACA Museum, maybe a half hour away from Lancaster. Nice drive and I set up with the early Spider folks. The highlight for me was meeting George Kaltenbach of the NJ Fiats Club. It was George’s seats I had purchased back in 2012! George had two Fiat Spiders entered and when he heard I was struggling with selling mine, he shared that he had reluctantly agreed with his wife to sell one of his too. His strategy? Put a stupid high price, and no phone number on the For Sale sign. “It’s been for sale three years now!” he told me. Loved it. George, if you’re reading this, I caved. My car is for sale. That night at the awards dinner I was surprised and pleased to win first place for early Spiders. I had confidence my car was nice, didn’t count on it being the best. Got up early and took the back roads home, over the Conowingo Dam where I fished with my Dad as a boy, and across Maryland to Virginia. Four days in a row I drove three to four hours a day in my Fiat, and it ran flawlessly and made me grin. Didn’t see how I could sell it now.
“What a rich and rewarding Fiat experience”, you’re thinking by now, so why does he want to sell the car? Up front (but in closing?) I have to say I am not at all 100 per cent convinced I am doing the right thing and may regret this, and even though I’m driving the car less and less, each time I do it’s a satisfying experience. I’ve added 17,000 miles in almost 10 years. Winding out the gears on a curvy road, listening to the motor purr, and the looks the car gets and the waves from friendly car people feels very good. I even taught my daughter to drive a stick in this car that’s three times older than she is!
But I’m getting older, and while I get in and out of the car fine, my drives are shorter and less frequent. Last year I simultaneously owned four cars, three of them enthusiast cars including the Fiat, and I spent much time on long road trips – two coast-to-coast and one a thousand miles each way to Florida. I’m choosing the comfortable cars more and more. And as Capt. John and Gildo have less capacity over time for fixing cars, I’m less confident I can troubleshoot this Fiat alone, and other than European Service Center in Leesburg, Virginia – not experienced at Fiats but willing to try – there aren’t any mechanics my way with the expertise I’ve become used to. (I got royally hosed with my one attempt to use the only other known vintage Fiat garage in the region.) The car has had pretty much every mechanical system sorted over the last 10 years, but it is a 50-year-old car. Any vintage car enthusiast knows there will always be something next on the to-do list, and no matter how well maintained, there will be fixes needed. I believe the challenges will be less for my Fiat than most, but they are not zero.
Most of all, my wife and I are empty nesters and downsized to a lovely townhouse with limited parking. She was never really fond of the Fiat and was gracious to agree with me having a second car at all back in 2012. Somehow, I pushed the agreement to include not just a vintage Fiat, but also a Porsche 911 daily driver, and then added a Mercedes S600 as my business car. I’m no Jay Leno, but from where I come from this extravagance makes me a very blessed car guy. I am going to limit myself to two cars and the Fiat doesn’t fit into that picture. It needs to go to someone who will drive it more. And I need the garage space for my next unicorn. Who wants a 1971 Fiat 124 Spider?
The comprehensive list of work, as far as I can recollect, follows.
