Ones that got away

[AndyS]

I still have my great running 67 Euro spec Spider that i posted some photos of recently, but I still think about a pristine 68 I used to own that I needed to sell 16 years ago to fund and make space for an Abarth Allemano Coupe project i picked up (and restored still own). I bet there are a few of you here that wished you had been able to keep a particular car that parted ways at some point or was damaged beyond repair. post up some of your gone but not forgotten babies .


My old 1968 1400 spider below. I loved that car, and it won the local Fiat club car show hands down the year i restored it. The 1438 was a sweet running high revving engine. It is more common now to see concourse level restorations on 124's, but 15 years ago, that was not the case. I spent a ton of time on the car to get the level of detail high inside and out. This car also had the best fitting top I have ever seen on a Fiat 124, and did not leak a drop even when washing the car with a powerful hose.

I saw recently it was for sale again in Europe, for about 5 times what i sold it for in 1995!

[leftfield6]

Well, I have a couple. I'll start with a (blasphemy to follow) Triumph TR8 that I had in my early 20s. That would be about 25 years ago. I bought it from someone who had no idea what they were selling, and had priced it as a TR7. The TR8 decals were missing, so imagine my barely contained enthusiasm when the hood was opened to reveal not the TR7's four banger, but a dual carbed, all aluminum 3.5L V-8!! Poker face barely still in place, I bought it on the spot.

A quality repaint and a few Lucas electrical gremlins chased later, and I had just about the coolest car anywhere around. I wound up selling it to pay for my last year of college. The guy I sold it to kept it for years and then resold it through a consignment collectors auto shop in NC. I lost track of it after that. Here is a pic of it when it was up for sale in NC.



I bought it for $2500, sold it for $10,500, and, IIRC, the next owner sold it for even more through the consignment dealer.

I'll see if I can find any pics of the X1/9 I had to sell a few years back. I regret that one as well.

[azruss]

hard for me to make a short list as i would like to have every car i ever owned. anyhow, here is the short list

1956 Packard Caribean. took my drivers test in this car. sold it to my college roomy for $50
64 500D. bought for $50, sold for $100
68 124 coupe; bought for $1100 (way too much). parted it out
70 124 spider. daily driver for 23 years and 295k miles. parted it out. (still lives today within my 80 FI)
91 MR-2 turbo. sweeeet car!

[rlux4]

There have been a bunch, but the one that I always wish I'd kept was a 63 Impala convertible. Light blue metallic, white interior and was in perfect condition when I sold it while I was in college back in 1972 for $500. Little did I know.
Ron

[Exit98]

Ron, how about that. My sorry it got away was my 63 Impala SS 409 4 speed ragtop. Teal over Teal with a black top and Crager mags. Bought it used and it was a little rough, but man was it cool. Embarassed to say I hit the front end hard and beer was involved. Pictures have disappeared.

If I had the disposable $, well, I guess I do, but my honey wouldn't agree, I'd a bought a 63 SS instead of my Spider. Not likely to happen, SS ragtops start at $50K and go from there. I saw a perfect one at BJ's 3 years ago sell for $125K.

Andy your Spider was stunning. That's one was a keeper.

I suppose I wished I'd kept my 72 Spider which I bought new, but fact is it was s my transportation for 3 years. I loved it but it was just my car. Gas crisis, blizzards, NYC driving. Got rear-ended hard at 3rd Ave and 72nd St. late one night. Car was 3 months old. Broke the seatback too. Ran good to the end but was hit 3 times and just about used up physically.

[rlux4]

SS409! Four speed! Mine was a 283 with a powerglide tranny. It wasn't fast, but man was it purty. I had a fast car once, a 69 GTO, but it got me too many tickets, so I've stayed away from fast cars ever since.
And by the way, thanks for reminding me what they're worth now.
Ron

[Redline]

I saw recently it was for sale again in Europe, for about 5 times what i sold it for in 1995!

Was that the one I posted for sale in Zürich? Nice looking car.

[thechadzone]

I really miss my '77 Alfa Spider. Had to sell it after I graduated from the U of Oregon last year. It's 2.0 with side drafting DCOE carbs and side exiting Monza twin tip exhaust was amazing. I really miss it. Now that I've got a decent after college job, there will be another one some day. Maybe in GTV form...

This :38 second induction symphony is worth it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afF8iy6BCsk

[AndyS]

I saw recently it was for sale again in Europe, for about 5 times what i sold it for in 1995!

Was that the one I posted for sale in Zürich? Nice looking car.

Yes it was. they had the CD 30 wheels on it now I believe, and a different steering wheel.

[ga.spyder]

Ron,once again we have a common thread.I had a 69 GTO Judge ( orange) with a rare Ram AirIII engine and a 4-speed.It was bad fast,but didnt handle or stop worth a crap!!! God,I loved that car.Life got in the way,and I traded it for a Toyota Celica GT and some cash.No telling what it would be worth now.I saw one just like it at a car show last week..$35000 and it didnt have the Ram Air motor!!

[kmac33]

The main cars that come to mind for me are a Datsun 240 Z that I did a rolling restoration on and a Nissan 300 ZX Twin Turbo that I resto-modded. The 240 Z was just a great classic sports car. When I finished with the 300, it was putting down 429 rear wheel hp - now that was an "entertaining" daily driver . Sold the 300 to get a "family" car .
What really brings tears to my eyes though is hearing about some of the cars my dad had the opportunity to buy:
1. An original AC Cobra that the next door neighbor was selling for $1600 because he was being transferred over seas.
2. A Mercedes 300SLGullwing that one of his partners was selling for $4500. At the time my dad thought that was just too much money to spend on a used car!
3. Jaguar E Type (Series III) V-12 that another partner was selling for $2500. No one at his office even considered this one as it was in the shop so often, the owner bought a cheap Chevy to drive as his "spare".
4. 1965 Corvette Convertible 427. Could have gotten this one for $1200. His brother -in-law was selling it due to divorcing his sister.

[BEEK]

when i was 16, a shop just down the road in roswell ga, had a ferrari dino 246 gts for sale for 2500.00, at this time it was a fair price. my mother told me that "no kid of mine was driving a ferrari" so i bought my first fiat spider a baby blue 74 for 2500.00 instead.. i keep reminding her how much money she cost me when the dinos hit top of their market a few years ago

[WYSpider]

BEEK, did she feel guilty?

[leftfield6]

when i was 16, a shop just down the road in roswell ga, had a ferrari dino 246 gts for sale for 2500.00, at this time it was a fair price. my mother told me that "no kid of mine was driving a ferrari" so i bought my first fiat spider a baby blue 74 for 2500.00 instead.. i keep reminding her how much money she cost me when the dinos hit top of their market a few years ago

Hmm, seems like Atlanta has been the home of a couple of these "I should have" stories. Around 1995 or so, a Dino Spyder in decent condition was sitting out in front of a antiques dealer near the Brookhaven MARTA stop. Belonged to the guy who ran the business, and he "kinda" knew what he had, and was asking $7000 dollars for it. It ran great, but both the exterior and interior were about a 6-7 on a 10 point scale, so it needed some TLC.

I just happened to have about $7K to spend on a car, as I had just sold a GTI I had restored. I debated whether I could "afford" to drive mini-Ferrari as a daily driver, and decided I could not.

In retrospect it probably was the right decision, but I still wonder about it.

[launieg]

Well not so fancy as many of yours'. But I do regret these two: my first car, a 1959 Biscayne, which was in very fine shape but I called the wreckers to pick it up when the starter went! Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Later, I had a '70 Parisienne (Bonneville in the USA) that was in great condition, but I sold it for $50 simply because it had about 80,000 miles on it! Stupid, stupid, stupid.......stupid

Then I had a '64 Galaxie 500 hardtop in black with red interior. Pristine condition, but I sold it for $500 to a friend who trashed it over about 4 years. Sure it sucked up the gas, but....Yeah, you know the refrain...