Tucson Coffee Roasters

Ian at Tucson Coffee Roasters has expressed interest in hosting our group's meet-ups!  TCR is located in the Basha's Shopping Center on the NW corner of Camp Lowell & Swan in Tucson.  TCR roasts its own beans.  Their lattes are smooth and delicious based on personal experience.  Try their green tea lemonade, too.  It's a great thirst quencher.

During meet-ups Ian said he'd provide regular black coffee for free to our members.  Awesome!

Check them out on their web site or Facebook page.  Better yet, stop by and them check out in person -- tell them you saw a posting for their business on the FIAT blog!

Ciao!

A birthday, Sunday drives, and a borrowed Fiat Spider

Photo: Erin Shearer

The other day I ran across an article titled "Me, a big road and a little Spider" by Dan Shearer, editor of the Green Valley News and The Sahuarita Sun here in Southern Arizona.  The article is from May 1, 2012.  It's an enjoyable read about his wife's birthday and the fun of a Fiat Spider.  > Select here < to read the article.

Does anyone want to tell Dan how difficult it is to cure a Spider bite?

 :-)

Ciao!

2014 Santa Cruz Valley Car Nuts Collector Car Show

This show is typically held at the Tubac Golf Resort south of Tucson at the end of January.  There were only a handful of Italian cars at this show: an Alfa Romeo "Iniezone" Spider, a Ferrari 308GTB and Testarossa, a Lamborghini Gallardo, and about 4 Panteras.  There were acres of typical American muscle cars and plenty of classics from the early 1900's through the 1960's.  The Brits and Germans had a great showing with plenty of MGs, Jaguars, a Lotus Esprit, and Mercedes and Porsche respectively.

All in all a nice show.  The drive down and back was a blast. I took the frontage roads most of the way and there was not much traffic.  The temperature was just about perfect for a top-down cruise!  Can't believe it's January with the nice weather we've had while most of the rest of the nation is freezing.

If that silver car behind the Alfa pictures above peeked your interest... I believe it's a Renault Alpine. RARE sight here in the States!  It's French, but I'm including it here because it's so unique.

Autocrossed X

One of our group members, John Lawson, is also a member of the Sierra Sports Car Club.  He ran his X1/9 in that club's autocross event over the weekend.  Good car.  Excellent driver!  Here's a sample of what it's like to run last Sunday's course:  http://youtu.be/fRM_gGKvpm4

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to one and all!  The weather has been really nice in southern Arizona lately.  So much so that I have not gotten to my planned down time for some upgrade work on my Spider!  The mornings have been chilly with afternoons being in the '60s with clear skies and calm winds.  I'm taking advantage of these nice days to take care of some items around the home along with running the Spider around a bit more before the weather changes for the worse. 

The FIAT group doesn't have a planned meeting this month.  Instead, members have been sent an email questionnaire regarding plans for 2014.  Once I have everyone's input back (January 10) I'll post a calendar of events for this year.

Best wishes to all for a safe and sane 2014!

Tucson Cars & Coffee - November 9, 2013

My better half and I took our Spider up to Tucson Cars & Coffee (2nd Saturday of the month, La Encantada Mall).  We had the pleasure of meeting Blair in person and talked shop about his '69 Spider and Fiats in general for a while.  There were 3 Fiats on site - our '82 Spider, a 2013 500 Abarth (welcome to Tucson, Matt!), and a 2012 Pop.  I also met the president of the local Alfa Romeo club and am looking forward to getting together with him at some point in the near future.  There were several exotics at C&C and some great classic sports cars along with the traditional showing of "American muscle." 

If you haven't been to C&C it is worth going once in a while.  There are some cars you just don't normally see at a traditional car show.  It only lasts about 2 hours -- a grass-roots car show "flash mob" style.  By 10:30 AM you'd never know that there had even been a C&C gathering.

A Few Photos From the Best of France and Italy

There were a couple hundred cars on display.  To say the event was overwhelming would be an understatement.  So many cars I've never seen before or even heard of!  A crazy number of Alfas, and an equally alarming collection of Citroens.  Who knew they were still making the 2CV in 1985?  If you have never been to this event, you have to make the pilgrimage.  It was a 25 hour round trip for us, towing at 70 mph.  We were welcomed on Sunday morning with a pancake breakfast at a local body shop, and met some great people from the SoCal X 1/9 Club and FIAT America.com.  We rolled out en masse and made a strong showing in the FIAT camp.  There were a handful of exotics, but mostly people's pride and joy on display, warts and all.  Many of the Alfas were in race form.  After playing with them in video games for all these years, it was awesome to see them in person.  Two Lancia Scorpions showed, which was also a first for us.  Theresa had never seen another X 1/9 until the event, where there were probably 20 of them on display.