Out of the desert, into a field… of Italian cars
If anyone was hoping to read about my Land Rover’s journey to Arizona and back, or about anything new at all over the last five weeks, I’m sorry to have disappointed you.
Sadly, the great destroyers of all poorly planned expeditions; time and money, dropped their ugly axe of practicality and forced me to make the 6,000 mile journey like a normal person. In an airplane.
…this time.
Anyway,
No sooner do I clear my head of recycled aircraft-cabin oxygen then I find myself at one of my favorite annual auto shows in the Boston area; Italian Car Day at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum.
Yes, I’ve mentioned this place before.
My Land Rover and I had been there about two months ago for British Car Day (are you seeing a pattern here?)
This time it was my father’s chance to exhibit. He brought his 1979 FIAT Spider 2000, which has as much time between waxing treatments as Gertrude Stein. But on this day it was slippery as a well-lubed cow inseminating glove, and actually looked pretty decent as long as you didn’t get less than ten feet away.
$10,000 and it's yours.
We were one of the first vehicles to arrive. My 5:20 AM landing time prompted us to get going sooner then usual. But by around 10:30 the field was well packed with lovely cars and motorcycles from the land of pasta and moonlit dinners featuring a guy with a striped shirt playing the accordion. Or is that France?
Ducati had a setup with several bikes available for test rides. Unfortunately I didn’t have my helmet with me, so that was an attraction I was forced to forgo.
Ducati... the Ferrari of the motorcycle world.
The vintage Ferraris are always exciting to look at, and the museum even had one of those Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione on display. Of course I had already checked it out in Geneva a few months ago, but it was cool to see one of the 99 here in the States.
If you’re hoping one of those 99 can be yours, MSRP is just shy of $300,000. You might be better off buying ten Honda S2000s.
Ferrari... the Ferrari of the car world. ...are you following?
By the time we were ready to leave a few other FIATs had joined us, including some Spiders. We may have had more rust on ours then all the others combined… but we had more character too. Or something.
Overall the show was great. Lots of beautiful machines you don’t see everyday, fair weather and a fun atmosphere. I read on somewhere else on the internet that people were complaining about the quality of the sausages… but I say if you pay $6 for a microwaved cow dick you deserve what you get.
Maybe by next year the restoration fairy will have visited our garage and turned our Spider into a show piece… or the judges will forget their glasses.
