All Italian Day 2008

As usual I had a good time at the All Italian day in Alameda at the Lincoln elementary school. Vehicles on display were diverse on many levels but united in their statement about Italian mastery of design, from the humble small bore Fiats to the majestic Alfa 8C, evidence of the hand of the master craftsman, the cleverness of the engineer and the eye of the artist can be seen. The exhibitors and spectators alike are a polite, if odd bunch and the discussions I overheard ranged from minutiae of restoration details to hairy-chested boasts about speed and agility ‘back then’.

This Fiat was one of my favorites. I’ve got a thing for stationwagons (especially goofy early 60’s ones), a thing for gray cars, a thing for original black plate cars and as I find myself checking out Fiats more and more while casually browsing eBay and Craigslist, I guess I’m developing a thing for fiats. And why not, you can get a lot of car for your money.

Jano’s 8C is exotic even by todays standards. The sensuous finned castings could have been sculpted by Michelangelo himself. Note the restorers attention to detail and the two-tone red on red is fabulous.

This is my attempt to replicate Pat Braden’s ‘Owners Bible’ cover, but I got the angle wrong. This is SS number 116. None of the SS guys I know had seen this car before.

I would love to have one of these early Fiat 850 Spiders with the covered headlights, no bumper over-riders and Campagnolo Elektron wheels. Of course, I’d rather have the Bertone coupe version but I guess it’s in the nature of small dreams, that it’s easy to improve on them. Make mine either that light lime green or dark blue.

An old friend. I traded a rusty, crusty Iso Rivolta 300GT for this car in 2002. I drove it to college for about a year, took it on the California Melee and then sold it to buy a 1964 Giulia TI. The current owner loves it and has made it a very nice car. It’s a European market 1.3S with aluminum doors, hood and trunk lid.

Ah, speaking of TI’s. This car lives near me and I see it rolling in Oakland occasionally. Aaron actually drove this thing home from Florida where he bought it. I dig the patina this thing has! If I had finished getting the Berlina on the road and been able to bring it to the show we would have had a close race for the scrappiest car award.

I think these cars were REALLY expensive when new. The Maserati Trident inside the Crysler pentagon is I’m sure something Maserati would rather forget about. This car was exceptionally clean but not my cup of tea as they say.

A link to the full event photo set can be found on the events photos page. If I could change one thing I would add some shade. Being out in the sun all day is tiresome. Thus it ended with a trip to Forbidden Island, Alameda’s amazing tiki bar, for some tropical drinks to make me forget my sunburned nose.

Next up: The Pedal Pushers every few years presentation ‘The Pullover Rally’. If you are in the area and would enjoy a scenic tour of East Bay backroads, be at the parking lot of Fellini’s Coffee on University at Acton in Berkeley the morning of November 15th.