1958 Alfa Romeo Guilietta Spider Convertible on 2040-cars

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Muhammad Ali's 1976 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce Series II is for sale

An Alfa Romeo was never in the plans. It was by accident that Muhammad Ali ended up bringing home this beautiful silver-on-black 1976 Spider Veloce Series II, but its interesting backstory only makes it more special. It's a story the car's next owner will surely need to memorize, as the car is currently listed on eBay for a Buy It Now price of $39,900 OBO. Found by Silodrome, the car is listed by Moto Exotica out of St. Louis, Missouri. According to Moto Exotica, which sources a clip from the book "Running with the Champ" by Ali's close friend and car guy Tim Shanahan, Ali had set out with Shanahan to buy a new Rolls-Royce (Ali loved his Double-Rs) during his time living in Chicago. The two visited European Imports in Lake Forest, Illinois, with the intention of buying a Kelly Green Corniche and possibly a Mercedes-Benz SL for Ali's wife, Veronica Porche. To Ali's dismay, the dealership did not have any SLs in stock, so this Alfa was suggested as an alternative. Ali purchased the car, brought it home, and ran into yet another issue. Porche did not know how to drive the car's manual transmission, and apparently didn't have any desire to learn. So the car mostly sat, with the exception of some rare errand runs by one of Ali's assistants. After a short time passed, Ali learned that Shanahan's personal car had broken down. In a situation that perhaps suggests destiny, Ali then gifted the car to Shanahan, who has owned the car for 40-plus years up until its sale to Moto Exotica. With about 80,000 miles, it has some wear and tear, such as a small crack on the dashboard, but it's in solid overall shape and recently received a respray. Plus it comes with the real registration with Ali's signature on it. Check out the full photos, video, and descriptive listing at Moto Exotica.

Fiat Chrysler's next-generation Uconnect is faster, built on Android

If you're a regular reader of Autoblog, you know that for a long time we've liked Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system for its bright, clear, responsive touchscreen interface. Now, according to the company, it will be better than ever with Uconnect 5, the latest iteration of the system. It has upgraded hardware and a revamped graphic user interface (the stuff on the screen). Looking at sample screens shown above, there are characteristics shared with the old system, such as the time, status and shortcuts at the top and the menu icons at the bottom. In the middle, the major change is the addition of home screens that can be customized with favorite menus and readouts that are always available. Each of these home screens can have up to four functions and you can have five pages to flip through. The graphics themselves feature more legible fonts and updated icons. Each car brand will get its own set of icons, colors and textures to help create unique experiences. And while each Fiat Chrysler product will be able to have Uconnect, including Alfa Romeo that has until now lacked Uconnect, each brand has the ability to make small tweaks including the screen orientation. The system will support displays in landscape, portrait or square, so different brands may choose different shapes. Powering Uconnect 5 is a processor Fiat Chrysler says is six times more powerful than what's in current systems. It features 6 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor also supports screens as large as 12.3 inches with as many as 15 million pixels, or nearly twice that of a 4K resolution TV. The system can display information on up to four screens, too. Uconnect 5's firmware is built on Google's Android operating system, joining a few other automakers in using Android as a base for their infotainment systems. Uconnect 5 brings with it a number of new features. It brings full Alexa integration, so you can use it just like you do at home, provided you have a data plan for the car. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to be standard, but now they can be used wirelessly. You can also now connect two phones via Bluetooth wirelessly so you can access content from both. Navigation gets real time information and updates from TomTom. Users can create five profiles with unique climate, radio and instrument settings, plus one for a valet.

This Alfa Romeo Spider is a four-wheeled fountain of youth

For some, the only real way to experience a direct connection with nature while driving is to be piloting a convertible. Keith Helmetag is one such individual. His 1969 Alfa Romeo Spider fulfills his desire to commune with the outdoors on the road, while simultaneously reminding Helmetag of his youth. The Spider's flowing lines especially appealed to Helmetag's eye as a designer. He loved the nose's pointed shape and the boat-tail rear's downward arch to the narrow taillights. To make it his own, he removed the badges and added plastic headlight covers to bring the Alfa's look closer to the original clay model it was styled after. Helmetag's design tweaks pair with a few engine modifications to create a roadster that perfectly fits its owner's relaxed style. Check out this Alfa as Petrolicious takes a drive along tree-lined roads, which are great surroundings to match the Spider's green paint. Related Video: