*****UPDATE***** Saturday Aeronca Champ Flight: Mission Alfa Romeo

This morning I awoke early (3:00 a.m.) eager to get my day underway. I am going to look at a 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider Graduate not too far from Tampa, Florida.

My plan was to ride the Guzzi Breva there this morning, but after I mentioned where I was intending to go to Champ Pilot Jim, he suggested we take flight in the 1946 Aeronca Champion and take it to the Crystal River Airport, just 10 miles from the Alfa owner's home. The Alfa owner will meet us there this morning and whisk us away to see/drive the Alfa.

It just so happens that the Alfa's owner is a vintage motorcycle racer and it also just so happens he knows two of my Guzzi friends down here in Florida! What a small world and once again, Moto Guzzi is a key part of the equation!

Expect a full report on the trip and the Alfa upon my return later today!

***************UPDATE***************

What a morning and afternoon it has been! I picked up CPJ bright n early in the mighty Soob-a-roo and we made our way out to Bob White Field. The grass was dewy as the sun rose, the Champ awaiting another skybound mission.

CPJ turn on the fuel in order to visually check the fuel via the gascolator device....and things were not looking good immediately. Fuel was streaming out of the gascolator at an alarming rate...it was leaking :(

CPJ quickly determined flying was not to be today, so we headed back to the Soob and headed east toward Hernando, Florida, home of Bion St. Bernard, his marvelous motorcycles and the 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider Graduate. NOTE: BIG THANK YOU to Champ Pilot Jim for taking a lot of his day to head out with me to view the Spider and lend his expertise. I owe you big CPJ!!


We arrive shortly before 9:00 a.m. and Bion and his wife could not have been nicer people. We talked for a while and visually inspected the Spider. It was in MUCH better condition than I expected it to be given the asking price ($2500). There were some dings and a couple places where the clear coat paint was peeling away but overall the paint and body were nice, no rust to be seen anywhere.

The undercarriage as well was nice and clean and the engine was looking quite good too. I was surprised that the interior was in decent shape, with a rip in the passenger seat being the main fault.

The convertible top was in great condition, no rips at all and not even worn looking.

So visually I was pretty impressed...certainly it had numerous little faults but overall was really nice.

Bion then fired it up to take it for a test ride. It started right away and sounded good. Nice idle, good steady throttle. CPJ and I climbed in and started out for a ride. The first thing I noticed was the lack of power steering as some effort was required to steer the car in the driveway. But as we drove along it felt good. Suspension showed its age somewhat as it was not too firm but certainly good enough to drive around in. The motor moved the Spider forward at a decent pace and the clutch and gearbox seemed to be fine.

After more discussion with Bion we made a deal! We settled on a price of $2000, which I think is quite a good deal for the car.

Being the great fella that he is Bion accepted my personal check, signed the title over to me and allowed me to drive the car home!

This is where things got interesting. About 10-15 miles into the trip the clutch pedal lost pressure....and I quickly became Cap'n Crunch as I struggle to get the car into gear, especially at stop lights. Several times I had traffic backed up behind me as I tried again and again to get the car into gear, painfully grinding gears. Man that sucked! I finally figured out that if I shut off the car at stoplights I could easily get it into first gear and then I would start it in first gear and give it plenty of throttle to lurch forward.

Anyway, this was how it went for like 40-50 miles but we finally made it to CPJ's house and decided to assess the situation. Fearing I might cause (more?) damage to the Spider if I tried to drive it the 20 miles home, I decided to have a flatbed come and haul it home.

So now it sits in my garage, lookin' all purty and just smiling at me like it didn't do anything wrong :=)

Lucky for me I have the Guzzi Breva and the Subaru, two very reliable vehicles, 'cause I think this little Alfa has a lot more tricks up its sleeves.....

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