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In 1969 my cousin was working as a salesperson for a Fiat dealer. I was looking for a more reliable car than my 1965 Corvair and went to have a look at the Fiats. I really liked the 124 Sport Coupe’ and since I had a new job that paid more than minimum wage, I bought one. The car came in about three weeks later and I was thrilled. The Fiat ran perfectly for about 18 months and then, almost literally, fell apart. The water pump quit and I had to be towed over 100 miles to get home. Then a series of defects showed up climaxing in the car bursting into flames minutes after the car passed the strict New Jersey Motor Vehicle inspection in 1974.
That’s when I first saw the Alfa GT-Veloce and thought about purchasing one of these to replace my Fiat. As it turned out, reliability was a bigger driver of the purchase than style and so I decided to fix up the burned out Fiat and kept it running until I replaced it with a 1978 Toyota Celica. But I still wonder if I would have been happier with the Alfa? I snapped this Alfa in my neighborhood. It is in great shape.
© Fred Winograd copyright 2010
Oh, do I remember that day! Soot on the windshield while driving, burnt wires on the starter shorting and pumping fuel into the flames and running into a roadside store for a fire extinguisher. Good times, bro, good times…
You really must have loved that car. If I remember, you had it rebuilt after the fire and drove it for some time.