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Spider Graduate, New Black Paint, Cloth Top, & Pirelli Tires Virginia on 2040-cars

US $6,950.00
Year:1987 Mileage:90000
Location:

Alexandria, Virginia, United States

Alexandria, Virginia, United States
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Are you ready to take your summer up a notch on a sun-dappled winding road? This 1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Graduate is here to assist!

A factory-trained Alfa tech recently overhauled this straight and original car, including rebuilding the engine and transmission. We have driven it 3,000 miles since finishing the projects, so it's road-tested and ready to enjoy.

As the photos show the car is handsome. It has fresh paint in its original "nero" black color, which many consider the best color on this generation of Spider as the distinctive rubber spoiler and other trim blend well. The paint shines, and reflects the clouds and trees going by. Brand new cloth top with a  clear rear window. The interior is nice driver quality. The seats have been upgraded to black leather ones with red stitching from a Veloce model. They feel great but the leather is 25 years old and has some seam splits and flaws. Another notable Veloce upgrade: the beautiful five-spoke alloy wheels (plus a fifth in the trunk!) Mounted on those wheels are new Pirelli tires -- new tires make such a difference in ensuring Alfas handle beautifully. A nice modern addition to the car is a Pioneer CD stereo with four speakers (the Graduate came with only two; rear 6X9s have been added).

The owner overhauled both the engine and transmission. This man is a genius with trannies -- he has rebuilt several for me and he always hits home runs. This Spider has no synchro issues. It downshifts exceptionally smoothly. The engine has new rings, rods, bearings and a valve job. Carfax shows a discrepancy so to be on the safe side, we're assuming the car has 92,000 miles rather than the 72,000 that show. With the engine and tranny just gone over, the car's mechanicals have effectively been reset recently so the condition, not the miles, are what matters most.

Additional recent work this year includes: Front brake calipers, front and rear brake pads, a tie rod end, lower ball joints, clutch master cylinder, and gas tank replaced along with main and tank fuel pumps too. Add that to things like the new top and tires and we are talking about thousands of dollars invested to make this car reliable and strong -- and ready for your driving pleasure!

One thing my friend did, since the car was for his own use, was remove the air conditioner. Why carry all that weight if it's not working, and in these cars, with the top down and vent windows open, a/c is sort of superfluous anyway. If the buyer desires it, the a/c unit, minus the compressor, would be made available at no charge. But it's in Maryland, not currently in or with the car. As shown in one of the photos, the A/C knob is not attached.

This Alfa looks sharp and runs well. It's a very decent representative of the marque. Remember just 10 or 15 years ago when you could buy a 1960s Alfa, a Duetto or GTV, in this sort of shape for under $10,000? Mm hm... Well those days are long gone. '60s Alfas in this kind of nice driver condition bring $25,000 and more while many 1970s Alfas are climbing toward that range. Plus the reintroduction of the Alfa Marque with a dealer network this summer after a 19 year-absence is going to bolster interest. A 1987 Spider like this one is a solid investment, never going to go down and all but certain to go up in value even as you enjoy the heck out of driving it!

I am including photos that give an honest view of this Alfa and I have more if you want to see anything or I can shoot video of it running. I've owned a dozen similar Spiders and as an Alfa Romeo Owners Club officer and concours judge, I am glad to share my insights. Alfas that have been sorted as this one has are not hard or expensive to keep happy. Our Club, www.aroc-usa.org, has chapters to keep you connected around the country and there are great sources for parts online. I've never had to wait more than a day or two for any part and they cost no more than VW parts from the same era. The car is garaged at my house in Alexandria, VA, convenient to National Airport (DCA) if you want to fly in and drive home, or I'm glad to meet a shipper. If you're local come by for a test drive. Thanks for your interest!

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Auto blog

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

Tue, Oct 2 2018

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

7 major automakers to build open EV charging network

Wed, Jul 26 2023

A new joint venture established by BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis will build a new North American electric vehicle charging network on a scale designed to compete with Tesla's industry-benchmark Supercharger network. The 30,000-plus planned new chargers will accommodate both Tesla's almost-standard North American Charging System (NACS) and existing automakers' Combined Charging System (CCS) options, effectively guaranteeing compatibility with the vast majority of current and upcoming electric models — whether they're from one of the involved automakers or not.  "With the generational investments in public charging being implemented on the Federal and State level, the joint venture will leverage public and private funds to accelerate the installation of high-powered charging for customers. The new charging stations will be accessible to all battery-powered electric vehicles from any automaker using Combined Charging System (CCS) or North American Charging Standard (NACS) and are expected to meet or exceed the spirit and requirements of the U.S. National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program." Critically, the automakers involved will have a say in how the charging tech is implemented, guaranteeing that the hardware will play nicely with each automaker's in-house charging systems. Hyundai and Kia, for example, were hesitant to jump on board the Tesla NACS bandwagon earlier this year over concerns that the Supercharger network is insufficient for powering the two automakers' 800-volt charging systems; similar tech is used by Volkswagen and Porsche.  In addition to providing much-needed capacity and high-output charging for America's growing fleet of electric cars and trucks, the new network will integrate seamlessly with each automaker's in-app and in-vehicle features, rather than forcing customers to use third-party tools and payment systems, as is the case with some existing public charging infrastructure.  "The functions and services of the network will allow for seamless integration with participating automakersÂ’ in-vehicle and in-app experiences, including reservations, intelligent route planning and navigation, payment applications, transparent energy management and more. In addition, the network will leverage Plug & Charge technology to further enhance the customer experience," the announcement said.

2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio vs. 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk: On-paper sibling rivalry

Thu, Feb 15 2018

Pricing was revealed for the 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, and with its $81,590 price tag, it's within range of yet another high-performance SUV from Fiat-Chrysler: the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. The Hellcat-powered Jeep is more expensive than the Stelvio at $86,995, but depending on options, the price advantage might go either way. This left us wondering, how similar are these two high-powered SUVs? Besides sharing the same number of words in their very-long names, we took a look at some of their performance specs and put them in the spreadsheet below. As always, if you want to compare either of these with other speedy SUVs, be sure to try out our comparison tools. As far as outright speed, both SUVs are surprisingly close. The Trackhawk is just a bit quicker in a straight line, hitting 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds as opposed to the Alfa's 3.9. The Jeep's 180-mph top speed is also 3-mph quicker than the Alfa. But neither of these differences is especially huge. What makes this interesting is how different the paths each SUV takes to get to its results. The Trackhawk accomplishes the task with pure grunt. It has Dodge's Hellcat supercharged 6.2-liter V8 making 707 horsepower and 645 pound-feet of torque to overcome its hefty 5,363-pound body. The Alfa, on the other hand, makes do with less power and torque, 505 and 443, respectively, from its twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V6. It has less weight, though. Exactly how much less we're not sure, since Alfa hasn't revealed that number, but a regular Stelvio weighs right around 4,000 pounds, so we would guess the weight is similar, possibly a little more. View 14 Photos The differences in how each SUV achieves its performance should result in pretty different driving characteristics, and probably different buyers. Each SUV's bragging points also indicates this. The Trackhawk boasts an impressive 11.6-second claimed quarter-mile time, something that American muscle car fans everywhere care about. The Alfa brags about how it's the fastest production SUV to lap the Nurburgring, something sure to impress fans of foreign cars and those that value handling over straight-line performance. So really, although these two SUVs have performance similarities, they're also very different, and the right one for you depends on what you value. View 29 Photos Also, as an afterthought, we wonder if the guys that attempted a Viper record at the 'Ring would be up for trying to break the Alfa time with the Jeep.