1987 Alfa Romero Spider Quadrifoglio 24,000 Mi on 2040-cars

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Drive like Mario Andretti in his 1981 Alfa Romeo GTV-6

In the United States, Mario Andretti is the racing driver whose name is likely best known among the general public. Over his decades-long career, Andretti has driven into the winner's circle numerous times and in a variety of racing series and venues. He is an ex-Formula One champion (1978), a four-time IndyCar champion, as well as an Indy 500 winner (1969). And while we mere mortals probably cannot drive like Mario Andretti, we can drive one of Mario Andretti's cars, specifically this 1981 Alfa Romeo GTV-6, which is currently for sale at classic-car vendor LBI Limited. Based on the pictures of this Alfa, the car shows just under 36,000 miles. This GTV-6 is finished in Grigio over a tan leather interior. Power is by a 2.5-liter DOHC V6. Equipment includes a five-speed manual, power windows, air conditioning, a wood-rim steering wheel and a Blaupunkt cassette stereo. Andretti drove for the Alfa Romeo F1 team in 1981, and he also appeared in ads for the GTV-6. There was even a Mario Andretti limited edition of the earlier European-market Alfa Romeo GTV in 1976. This car reportedly was a gift from the automaker and was delivered in May 1981. He reportedly kept it for a year, although his ownership is documented (click the "View Documents" tab on the listing). The current asking price for this Alfa is $48,000, although there may be some wiggle room there, given that this car appears to have been a no-sale in a May 2020 RM Sotheby's auction where it garnered a high bid of $28,000. That's about $8K more than is sold for at auction in 2016, although the car is said to have since had thousands of dollars in service. Regardless of the price, this is a cool Alfa with a direct connection to America's most famous racing driver. Related video:

Scrapyard Gem: 1999 Alfa Romeo 166, Screwball Rally Edition

SHERBURN-IN-ELMET, England — Alfa Romeo took a break from selling new cars in the United States after 1995, when the final Spider Veloces and 164s were sold here. That beat Fiat and Lancia (both of which departed after 1982), but still deprived us of the Alfa 164's handsome successor: the 166. The easiest way to find discarded 166s is to cross the Atlantic, so that's what I did recently. I've been spending a lot of time in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in recent years, being the descendant of immigrants from that tiny but proud nation, and there are still quite a few 166s prowling the streets of Luxembourg City. Despite their reputation for unreliability and horrifically rapid depreciation, the 166 looks so good that I remain tempted to ship one home. The facelifted model in the photo above had its debut as a 2003 model and thus won't be legal in the United States until 2028, but the first-year '99s shouldn't raise any U.S. Customs eyebrows when you pick one up at your local port. I was hoping to shoot plenty of interesting Italian iron during my trip to the scrapyards of Yorkshire in January, so I headed over to Sherburn Motor Spares, located on the very land in Sherburn-in-Elmet where the famous Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of Bismarck-crippling fame were built. This yard specialises in Italian and French cars; it's what we'd call a dismantler in the United States, so customers aren't allowed to pull their own parts unless they get permission beforehand. There's a nice little breakfast joint located just out front, which was welcome on a below-freezing Yorkshire morning, and the employees are very friendly (though a bit difficult to understand if you come from anywhere else in the English-speaking world). Inside, you'll find plenty of Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Peugeots, Citroens, Renaults and even a few Toyota MR2s; I spotted an extremely rare Alfa Romeo Brera S, which was one of a mere 500 built. Cars rust quickly and inspections are rigorous in England, so I didn't see many machines built prior to our current century. Well back in one of the rows, however, was this first-year 166 done up in some kind of racing livery. The cars were packed and stacked so closely that I wasn't able to get great photos of this car, but Sherburn Motor Spares has included some pre-stacking photos in their eBay store.

Alfa Romeo flagship EV due in 2027 with 18-minute recharge time

Last July, Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato said his Italian concern would develop a new battery-electric vehicle in the U.S. that would launch here in 2027. It would take the new top spot in the lineup, being larger than the Stelvio, full of tech and full of performance. During the launch of the Tonale in Japan, the boss shared provisional specs of the "high-performance SUV" with Automotive News Europe. The pack of some unknown size would juice motors putting out from 300 to 800 horsepower in the standard range, and around 1,000 horsepower in a Quadrifoglio trim. Here's the big stat: In ANE's words, an 800-volt architecture would enable "recharging times of 18 minutes max, [Imparato] said." We'd sure like to know the qualifications required to get an 18-minute charge. Porsche advertises the Taycan's 93.4-kWh Performance Battery Plus as being able to go from 5% state-of-charge to 80% in 22.5 minutes when the sedan's been optioned with the $460 On-Board DC Charger. Naturally, that's under ideal conditions and when plugged into a charger that can feed the Taycan at its max 270-kW rate. When veteran hypermiler Wayne Gerdes took a Taycan across the U.S. in five days, he said his first charge at a 350-kW Electrify America unit took 22 minutes to get the battery from 6% to 82%. Knowing that the initial few percent and those last 20% take longer than the meaty bit in the middle, we going to guess Imparato's time assessment leaves out the time-consuming portions of charging the battery near empty and close to full. But hey, four years is a long way away in the EV-verse.  The CEO said the Alfa Romeo will compete with the BMW X5, a crossover almost exactly ten inches longer than the Stelvio (pictured), which is currently the largest product in the portfolio and the best-seller in the U.S. The Italian might not share a traditional CUV shape with the German, Imparato having said that aerodynamic needs could lead to a shape between a sedan and a crossover. If things are on track in Milan, executives approved the design before the end of 2022.  We'll begin to see what Alfa Romeo's EV-only future when the brand's first dedicated EV shows in 2025. Related video: