A360P

A couple of recent Alfa Romeos (Spider & Giulia Sprint GT)

I was working in Healdsburg, CA last week working with the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley and this beautifully maintained Alfa Romeo Spider was parked downtown....
It appeared as quite a contrast to the Alfa Giulia Spring GT that I saw tooling down PCH a couple of days later.

The ratrod concept is not lost on me...many years ago my 1973 Volvo 1800ES had been rearended and while the insurance companies sorted things out I drove around town for a couple of weeks with plastic sheeting duct-taped to the back of the car. I learned quickly that people were afraid of me on the freeway, allowing me to change lanes simply based on signals, since other drivers reckoned that I had nothing to lose as far as being in another accident was concerned. I don't know if this car is in the process of being restored or if it's in a long, steady decline, albeit still running. Or maybe it's in mint condition under the hood and just looks like a mobile rust repository. More power to the owner, regardless of intent.

Ferrari 365GTC/4 Redux

In my previous post, I wrote a bit about a Ferrari 365 GTC/4 that I saw in town earlier in the week. What are the odds that I'd see another one (red as well) driving up my street a few days later?
It's likely that this may be the same car as the earlier one (didn't get license plate info foreither car so there's no way to know for sure) but it's interesting to see two of these 2+2s so soon. I also like to think that it may also speak to the quality of the neighborhood that a car such as this comes to visit....

Ferrari 365 GTC/4 in Century City

While passing through Century City yesterday I saw this Ferrari 365 GTC/4 at a stoplight. While this may be the most unloved of all of the 365 series body styles, I've always been partial to it. This probably stems from an experience in back in the late 1970s where I followed one down the Pasadena Fwy into downtown. I was driving a supertakerish Pontiac Grand Ville and it was inspiring to watch the Ferrari smoothly whoosh through the curves, never needing to brake on what is the oldest freeway in the world, not to mention the curviest. Meanwhile, my efforts to keep the USS Behemoth in my own lane while trying to keep up with the Ferrari were a losing battle to say the least...

A lovely car in all respects except perhaps for repair costs. I've read that this model is even more nightmarishly expensive to maintain than the other 365s, but perhaps that is the price one pays for the extra seats in the back.  Or maybe it's because of the way the transmission is mounted (on the engine, not the axle as is the case in with the GTB/4 Daytona. Only 500 were built in 1971 and 1972, and they remain relatively affordable, as such things go. A very imformative website devoted to the 365 GTC/4 can be found here. The forum makes for some interesting reading.

So maybe it needs a little work.....

I often see cars in various stages of reconstruction as they're moved from place to place. This old Thunderbird looks to have a lot of potential in the restoration process.

This oval window VW seemed to be in a bit of distress. It was being driven up PCH toward Heathercliff at a very slow rate of speed (and off to the side of the road too).

I'll finish with this car, which probably doesn't need any work done to it at all, given that it appears to be a rat rod all gussied up to look like a barnfind or a relic from the middle of a wheatfield somewhere:
Regardless of whether or not I see the entire Rat Rod thing as smacking of being an attempt at attaining instant street cred without actually having spent much time on the street, in the end it's all about getting people involved with cars as something to enjoy, rather than something to endure.