Just So "Right"

[DUCeditor]

My love affair with my Spider has been going on for 23 years. Good love is like that, it improves with time.

Today, finally, the heat spell broke here in The Monadnocks. It was around 70f this morning -- cool enough, first for a bike ride under cloudy skies, then, as the sun broke through and the temperature began to slowly climb toward 80f, for a long drive in the Spider. I just got home now, 2pm.

As with any love that grows beyond early infatuation there is a reason -- several reasons really -- why my love for the Spider continues to thrive and grow. One is the motor.

Much has been written about Lampredi's creation; how advanced it was for its time, how flexible it was and thus how many years it served Fiat and Lancia in one car after another. But when I'm driving that history, as wonderful as it is, is not what grabs my heart. What does is that certain "rightness" about how the motor reacts. How it feels. How it sounds.

But the Fiat Spider is more than a motor. It is also a sensually designed piece of rolling art.

I love the mid year cars -- the ones, like my `77, with the smaller, rounded and pert, breasts. Is that a guy thing? I don't know. But the sensuality of that hood, when seen from the driver's seat, is like nothing else on four wheels.

The sound of a 124 - especially one breathing through a smaller and more open air cleaner and sans catalyst - is like nothing else. Its not loud. Its not shrill. No buzzing bee like so many small displacement modern cars. No false masculinity like so many throbbing PU trucks, who, for all their basso noise, speak (to me) not of power, but of braggadocio. Off-putting to me in a man, equally so in an automobile or (worse!) a lumbering truck.

The shifter and clutch combo in my Spider is also "right." Not snick-snick precise like a Miata's (as lovely as that is in its own way), but, again this word -- sensual. Feminine perhaps? Wanting -- requiring even -- consideration for her nature. Preferring foreplay than just going about the business. A pleasure to be with. Never in a hurry. And married as it is to that perfect motor ever responsive to a thoughtful touch.

And then there's her scent. Cologne au Spider. Unique to the breed. This is something Fiat Spider owners come to know and love. Its source? Unclear. But every well cared for Spider I've had the pleasure to know has it. Two weeks ago when I displayed my little lady at a local 'cruze in' an admirer took note of it. Standing next to the open car he inhaled deeply through his nose, sighed gently, and said "I love that smell." I told him I did as well but could not identify it. "No" he said, "but they all have it."

Maybe I'd better not sign my name to this posting. The white coats may come and take me away. I can hear them even now... "In every other way he seems perfectly sane. Poor fellow! Twenty plus years with that car was just too much for him!"

If they do come to take me away will someone here speak up on my behalf? Tell them, please, "He's not mad." Or better yet, invite them for a ride in your own Spider on some sunny high seventies day. Then, perhaps, even such as they may understand.

-don

[azruss]

...I see you....

[So Cal Mark]

poetry

[Redline]

You've nailed it with the comments on sound. I spent the better part of yesterday running up and down 3rd and 4th gear, just to hear it. Stock exhaust, stock turtleback air cleaner, dual carbs. It's lovely. It's different than other 4s. Just like a Cossie BDA, you can't mistake it. They both have a certain, mechanical, "hard as nails" sound to them.

Oh, and that gearbox is good, isn't it? With that 1" plastic sphere in your palm, you just sense the correct pressure and timing to make all that mechanical chaos line up for a fraction of a second and open the gate to the next hit of pleasure.







(okay, I ignore the whine in 3rd gear, the thrum of what I assume is a diff slowly on the way out and the slight mechanical, ringing "klink" of an as-yet-undetermined source of play in my driveshaft... )

[tartan18]

You paint with words the essence of classic 124 Spider motoring. This is the elixir that is the foundation of the dis-ease which inspires me (Fiat restoration). Well done good and faithful servant.

[124JOE]

dito

[HFK]

I soooo agree. I have had a 30 year love affair with my beauty. She is still so wonderful to drive. Especially after dark on a winding road on a warm summer night with the wind blowing ever so gently across your skin...

[MIGHTY 8]

You Sir, have forced me into pouring a nice scotch and allowing myself to dwell in your description of true Fiat spider motoring!
I spent about two hours yesterday wiping, polishing, just basic quality time with my 31 year old girl and still am mesmerized by her beautiful lines and continue to look forward to that dual Weber growl every time I drive her.

If the "white coats" do come....better have them prepare a Place for me too!

Have a nice summer everyone!