Cars and Coffee, Fieros and That Guy

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Hard to believe the 3rd Saturday in October will be the last Cars and Coffee, 2014. I went to September’s the weekend prior and had a good time. I chatted with some new folks and had a nice conversation with John the founder of this “chapter” at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Ann Arbor. By the way John, I take it back. Biking up the Maple hill from Huron is a burn in the waiting. Big hills, even for Michigan.

The ’86 Fiero pictured here I found on Detroit’s Craigslist with only 13,433 miles. Asking price $9,500. It reminded me of another chap I spoke to at C&C. He was driving a Porsche Speedster kit car in red. I don’t have a picture of it but it looked flawless. I asked him about it. “Yeah, well I finally finished it. I’ve had it in the garage for 30 years.” Holy crap, 30 years? “I just never got around to it and moved it with us to three different places.” Sure. I can see that. But 30 years ago you could have bought the real thing for reasonable money – I kept my mouth shut.

It was his first time to Cars and Coffee so I continued the conversation:

“What other cars have you owned?” I asked.

“Well I used to own a Ferrari 348 kit car built on a Fiero chassis.”

“Oh, so you’re the guy that buys those things.” What? It just slipped out. Who buys those things? His gaze tightened up a bit so I tried to soften the blow. “I mean, I’ve see them advertised all the time but they always appear to be in the hands of wanna be drug dealers, trying to make a statement.” There we go, soft like a baby’s bottom.

“Well uh, yeah.” He continued from what seemed like commitment out of politeness to our conversation. “I bought mine from the factory. It was a quality build factory installation, fun to drive.”

Oh, it looks good on you though… “Sounds like you found the right one then. Your Speedster is really gorgeous.” Remove shoe, place on pavement, saunter slowly away.

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