Five from left field

Aesthete's Fleet.

Like athlete's foot, a painful condition involving Italian car ownership.

Only the modern side of the fleet is in running condition this week. I set myself to fixing a fuel problem that had made driving the Alfa 1750 GTV unpredictable for the past 29 years. It exhibited the same behavior in Auckland in 1984 and it has taken me this long to fix it. A previous owner had cleverly bypassed the mechanical fuel pump and installed an electric one. It all looked professional so I left it alone after its big rebuild in 2006 but it faded on long uphill runs and refitting the old pump worked wonders. Now I have blown the clutch up but here is a picture from today's AROC run to Macraes Mine as evidence that it has been running. Below that a shot of the Lancia on the Costa del Kingston next to a delightful Guilietta Ti.

 

That one developed a worrying gearbox noise that sounds like a slowly collapsing bearing near the differential. I pulled a scrap gearbox apart to educate myself and found it was jammed full of expensive and hard to find bearings, which is what one might have expected. Most of my off-shore Flavia friends seem happy to whang in another gearbox, of which they have half a dozen or so sitting ready to go on shelves in their heated workshops. With only four of these cars in the country, that was a possibility not availed to me and I have to actually fix it. More correctly, the mechanic I fondly call Wonder Boy will be fixing it so he can divert a significant proportion my income to his own projects.

The Trade Me Five

1986 MG Metro. The catch phrase this week is 'Well. Why on Earth not?' so why not a Metro? This little car carried the hopes of the massed British car industry on its narrow shoulders and they are actually better than you might think, being a product of the Rover side of the industry. Cheap and abundant performance parts leave you no excuse not to improve it.

For: Still with the venerable but fizzy A-series engine for that authentic tuned Mini rasp.
Against: Depends how you feel about flappy grey plastics.
Investment potential: 6/10. Must be getting down to the last few viable examples now.

1986 TVR 350i. There are two TVRs on Trade Me this week so the Aesthete shrugs insouciantly and says 'Give us the ugly one then'. Oliver Winterbottom's wedgy TVRs are the epitome of 1980s futures trader chic, more-so than a whale-tail Guardsman red 911 in my view. This one has been tastefully improved and will perform to your expectations, however optimistic they may be.

For: It is better without the awful decals that made the original car look like a radio controlled toy.
Against: "U G L Y. You ain't got no alibi, you're ugly" (Apologies to Daphne and Celeste)
Investment potential: 2/10. Have you noticed that some things never quite come back into fashion?

1964 Chevrolet Impala SS Coupe. The SS letters usually meant nothing on these cars but this is not your usual big dumb American but a rare manual big-block four-speed Impala with which to give those pesky white and blue Ford Galaxies a bit of a fright. It is a shame they and all their behemoth ilk have slipped off the classics circuit as nothing looks better being used in the heat of competition than one of these cornering on its door handles.

For: More capable than the run to the beach hop would demand.
Against: Will need some development for what I am thinking about.
Investment potential: 6/10. Rarity and specification may count for something here. Best not wreck it on the track then.

1987 Alfa Romeo Sprint Cloverleaf. Call up that panel-beater friend that owes you a favour so you can sort out this Sud Sprint. Rust is the bane of these cars but if you can halt it you will find little that will afford you as much driving pleasure for the money. The owner's terrifying drive way says it all really. Nowhere to work on it and nowhere to keep it dry.

For: Every day is an adventure with one of these.
Against: You have to be somewhere on the autism spectrum to put up with it. And does anyone really have a panel-beater friend?
Investment potential: 6/10. You might spend 10K on body and paint but a good one must be worth more than that now.

1989 Lancia Thema Turbo. The high milage made me flinch but these are tough cars that belie their Fiat heritage, being developed alongside sensible-Svenson Saab for the 9000 series. Despite the upright executive looks the one I owned consumed open road miles, had third gear performance to wake the dead as well as great surging waves of torque steer. Its broad shouldered looks have weathered the passing years well and you would not be ashamed to be seen in it.

For: All others have gone to the scrapper now. Here is your last chance.
Against: I will hear nothing said against these cars.
Investment potential: 1/10. Always a limited market even though it was the last Lancia that sold in any numbers anywhere outside Italy.

From the Foreign Desk...

1959 Rambler American. True ingenuity knows no boundaries and I guarantee if you left a dozen of our hot rod friends in a shed for forty years with a Rambler, they would not think to do this. The delicate looks of the Italian influenced Rambler compact remain intact and the power plant would not upset the balance, as so many poorly conceived re-powers would.

For: This has everything I would want in an amusing car and is 19K US.
Against: Lots I am sure but I refuse to consider it.
Investment potential: 2/10. Optimistically...

1966 BMW 2000 CS. These BMWs were almost bespoke in comparison to the saloons, being built an small numbers by Karmann. The interiors were beautifully fitted and the avant-garde nose with swooping light covers was rationalised away in the later big coupes. I would like one of these as a companion to the Flavia as that it where sensible comparison lies with the European competition at the time. There is one on Trade Me but the seller wants 9K. We will see...

For: Mid-60s chic.
Against: All that is against owning a Lancia Flavia in New Zealand and perhaps more.
Investment potential: 0/10. You would like to think there would be some but no...