Alfa Romeo 8C Spider
A long time ago, despite being a virtually homeless and starving college student, I decided to go test drive an Alfa Romeo Quad. The car’s $20,000-ish sticker price was way beyond anything I could have afforded, had I food in my belly and a place to live. This was in St. Louis, Mo., and the salesman was suspicious (I had driven up in a blue but mostly rusty 1969 Ford Mustang convertible) but he handed me the car keys anyway.
(It looked something like this)
I swear the car purred and jumped as I made to put the key in the ignition. I cannot describe the sensation that pulsed through my body as I sat in the plush leather of this red thing. The sensation went to my head, giddy I would not be driving off the lot in that monster.
For years, the Alfa Romeos (especially the Quads) were my favorite cars. Even when declining sales forced them to abandon the North American market. The car has, apparently, seen a resurgence in Europe in recent years and is ready to try our shores once again.
I’m older now, with a family so I won’t be buying a sports car anything soon, if ever. So, it is small consolation that Fiat, the new owners of Alfa Romeo, has chosen as their re-entry vehicle the 8C Spider. The base price of this model (a 450-horsepower V-8 coupe head turner) is $200,000.
Talk about inflation!
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