Fiat

1972 Fiat 124 Wagon

Manual transmission entry-level station wagons have exited the US market entirely, leaving only a handful of wagon options in their wake. Nobody paying attention should be surprised by this - the manual transmission faces near-certain demise in North America, and crossovers have replaced the station wagon as the most practical family car.

Today's Fiat 124 is comparable to the recently departed Golf Sportwagen, taking up entry level family transportation duty. The twin cam Lampredi engines were not available on the wagons; in their place came a trusty OHV 4-cylinder. The 64hp unit wasn't overly burdened by the ~2000lb curb weight, but upgrading to a classic SOHC 1300 or 1500cc unit from an X1/9, or perhaps a DOHC unit from the 124 model-range would be a good upgrade.

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Ferrari, Pininfarina

1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi

This thing won its spot on the site because of the yellow/tan color combination. We saw our first of these in these colors a couple of falls ago when we were visiting the local Alfa shop, where an old friend of the shop was borrowing some time on the lift to check over his 308. Having spotted the yellow paint through the glass in the garage doors, we were relieved to see the tan interior when we walked into the garage; the yellow on black look has too much of a bumblebee feel for our taste.

As far as the Ferrari 308 series goes, this is the least desirable to us. Bosch K-jet is fine on a Volkswagen (where it actually sounds great and provides a nice, natural crackle and pop exhaust), but a Ferrari deserves to breathe. The earlier carb'd cars make significantly more power than the injected cars, and the later quattrovalvole cars made up for the restrictive emissions equipment on fuel-injected cars by using 4 valves per cylinder. Add to that the TRX metric tires from the factory, and you have what we would say is the least desirable of the 308 series - and yet, we would be perfectly happy with one if that's what we ended up with. It's only relative - these probably drive great.

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Alfa Romeo, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo

1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde

We know this car well. After posting on the AlfaBB about the mechanical work we had done on our personal hot-rodded Milano Verde, we got a call from a Lancia enthusiast who wanted to see the same level of sorting - minus the performance upgrades - performed on his Verde. He had purchased a Milano Verde in the hopes that the alloy V6 and DeDion rear suspension would remind him of his prized Aurelia. After spending a year enjoying the results of our work on the car, he's decided to downsize, but not due to any fault of the Milano platform - word is, with a relatively small garage, the Milano doesn't play well with its Lancia Appia stablemate, and the current owner needs to remedy the tight packing.

This car is from Chicago, so any hopes of dry, California provenance are immediately squashed. And yet, as the owner of a dry, California Milano, I am personally very tempted - but prevented by all limitations imaginable - to buy this very car. See, after the owner spent $15,000 in maintenance, over $9,000 of which went to parts alone, the car is absolutely sorted. It's even been accused of having a Germanic competence completely unexpected in an Italian sedan. Having driven this thing from Chicago to Detroit in order to prepare it for sale, I would tend to agree with that assessment.

Rust, for the most part, has been remedied. The spare tire well, wheel arches, and driver front jack point were all professionally repaired with fresh metal by the same man who did the bodywork on Ralph Gilles' personal Giulia GTV-R (the R is for Ralph). The surface rust under the trunk was all wire-wheeled and treated with POR-15 before being undercoated. You will find minor rust in the the passenger door arch and underneath the passenger taillight - typical Milano spots - but overall the car rust is under control and the car is in no danger of rotting away.

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Lamborghini

1967 LAMBORGHINI 400 GT 2+2

The Lamborghini 400 GT built upon the platform introduced by the 350 GT, allowing Lamborghini engineers to make technical improvements while doubling sales for the brand. And, while engineers may love to get their best designs to the market from the outset, to keep a brand alive, sales of safe, reliable vehicles outweigh optimized performance.

So, with some sales under theirthe 400 GT replaced the 350 GT's 3.5L V12 engine with a 3.9L unit, increasing available power from 280bhp to 320bhp with a healthy increase in available engine torque across the power band. 40hp might seem like a small power increase to justify the development of a larger engine, but the thrust available to the driver at all engine speeds can be felt pretty easily with a 34 lb-ft increase in maximum torque.

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Alfa Romeo, Bertone

1969 Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlina

Verdant Vermont, poised for fall but summer holding its ground, is to thank for today's featured vehicle. This Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina looked too good under the cloudy skies and walls of trees in its for sale shots to pass over. We can just imagine the exhaust crackle bouncing off of the hills on a jaunt through hill and dale on the way into a sleepy New England town.

These Berlinas were meant to top the Alfa Romeo range of sedan offerings. Longer and smoother than the Giulia they are positioned above, the Berlina has a reputation for being a bit less engaging than the Giulia when the rubber hits the road. We'd recommend driving one before turning your nose up - maybe the smoother styling is worth a small reduction in driving enjoyment to you!

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Alfa Romeo, Bertone

1968 Alfa Romeo Giulia GT 1300 Junior

I was reminded of the GT Junior earlier this week when I was out picking up parts for my project from north of the Alps. The man working the VW warehouse I was visiting saw my Verde and offered the GT Junior as his favorite Italian car of all time. As the story went, he used to admire the green example that his neighbor spent a lot of time waxing in their Detroit driveway in the 1970s.

It's fun to imagine what the modern take on a GT Junior would look like. Let's pretend for a moment that Alfa had the cash to actually go through with the Giulia GTV - yeah, they announced it as a future product, but we'll believe it when we see it. So, if the GTV magically appeared on the streets, how would we make a Junior version of it? We'd probably power it with something like the 1.3L GSE powertrain found in the newer Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X. There, it's good for 177hp in top trim, which seems to be just about right for an entry-level coupe. We can't think of a current 6-speed manual from the FCA parts bin that would make sense for this RWD application, so just use your imagination there. As for wheels, would silver 16" steel wheels look out of place? We think they'd work.

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Alfa Romeo, Bertone

1983 Alfa Romeo Alfa 6

eBay is down this morning, so we took a look at what is currently available on the Italian classifieds. Italian sellers are wise to the worldwide interest in Italian cars that were once outdated and obsolete, and optimistic pricing abounds as a result. On the one hand, it can act as a barrier to entry for some enthusiasts, but on the other hand, the strong pricing has ensured the survival of some unique vehicles without a storied past. For example: today's 1983 Alfa Romeo Alfa 6.

The Alfa 6 is largely based on the Alfetta chassis, adding length and wheelbase to that vehicle's torsion bar double wishbone front and DeDion rear suspension. It shares a rear-mounted transaxle with the Alfetta with LSD as standard, and maintains the Alfettas inboard rear brake configuration. Its namesake V6 engine displaces 2.0L in this tax-avoidance model aimed at the Italian market. 2.5L versions saw the use of a Bosch L-jet fuel-injection system after the 1983 refresh, though the 2.0L versions kept the carburetors of the early cars. An odd feature of the refreshed cars is the Bertone logo on the C-pillar, added when Bertone updated the styling of the cars.

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Alfa Romeo, Giugiaro

1976 Alfa Romeo GT

For a spell, we were convinced that the best way to get a sample of Alfa history was to bridge the gap between the new and the old. New to us was the torsion bar front suspension and DeDion rear suspension with rear transaxle and inboard rear brakes. And old was the venerable 4-cylinder hemi Alfa powertrain. We took one on as a project for our dad, and never managed to piece it together before it became apparent that it was never going to get the attention that it deserved. Then along came a running a driving example that wouldn't require assembly - today's blue Alfetta GT.

We remember late spring snow flurries coming down as we insisted that our dad purchase this clean, low-mileage Texas car in 2016. It came in on a transporter, and while the car was dry as expected, it was pretty apparent that the original paint wouldn't clean up. Add to the fact that 1976 wasn't the best year to be a SPICA car, and the Alfetta was clean, original, and dry, but not the most inspiring car to have taking up a garage space.

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Fiat

2013 Fiat 500 Turbo Cattiva

We hadn't heard of the Cattiva edition of the Fiat 500 until we found this example during our search this evening. The special appearance package includes a darkened headlights, taillights, and side markers, as well as a black paint on the roof and spoiler, and a dark finish to the wheels.

More interesting than the Cattiva package is the fact that this 500 is a Turbo model. To end up with a 500 Turbo, you start with an Abarth, detune the engine somewhat to 135hp (basically remove the sport button overboost on the Abarth), and add some comfort back in the form of a muffler, soft suspension tuning, and a bit of suspension travel. To us, it represents the best of both worlds, though we might be convinced to delete the muffler to achieve that Abarth growl.

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Giugiaro, Maserati

2002 Maserati Coupe GT

Yesterday we discussed the bold designs of European cars during the early 2000s. Todays Maserati Coupe GT originates from that era, but lacks the boldness that we associate with cars out of the same period. The milquetoast exterior of the Coupe GT can be partially attributed to the fact that it is itself a refreshed edition of the Maserati 3200 GT, abandoning the boomerang taillights that set the 3200 GT apart on the road. Evaluating the contemporary Ferrari 456 and 550, the designs for front-engined exotic Italian coupes at the time were pretty restrained in comparison to what was offered from Alfa Romeo and Fiat.

This Coupe GT features the 6-speed manual transmission that is a less common sight among Coupes. As a refresher, the GT moniker denotes the manual transmission option, but many listings seem to stumble on this naming convention, so when shopping for a manual example, it's a good idea to comb through the Cambiocorsa offerings to make sure that you don't miss out on any mislabeled GT cars.

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