The Ebony Snake

 

This page is dedicated to my ’72 spider, AKA “The Ebony Snake”.

 

 

When the Wounded Warrior, my ’75 Spider, went up in flames, I was heart broken.  I fully intended to restore the car, however the body was quite badly melted and it represented a major undertaking.  Just before I got started, however, I stumbled across a ’72 Spider that looked like it might fit the bill.  The basic body from a ’72 Spider is lighter than the ’75, and this particular car had been driven a couple of summers by a traveling salesman, up and down the coast between Mass and Florida.  It had approximately 80k miles on it, had been stripped completely, and ended up sitting in front of somebody’s house in Marblehead MA.

 

This gent owed Paul Glynn some money, and ended up giving him the car instead.  The deal I struck with Paul was pretty simple – I paid $1500 for the car, got to pick from the used parts in his loft for things I might need to put it back together, and I got to hang out at his shop to do the work (hopefully with Paul giving me pointers along the way).

 

The car actually drove, it had a 1750 engine, a transmission, a windshield, a dash, a steering wheel, and a drivers seat.  Not much else – no doors, no trunk, no hood.  With Pauls repair plate I drove it home like that, then over to his shop.

 

I picked the car up on a Wednesday night, then got laid off from my job the next day.  When I showed up at Pauls shop he was a little surprised, as he was expecting some after hours work, nothing during the day.  I explained what happened, he just shrugged and told me what to start work on.

 

I was young, stupid, and living at home.  With minimal expenses I figured I’d make the most of this education.  At this point I still had my original Berlina, which I took off the road (save some $$$).  I borrowed my younger brothers moped for the ride back and forth to the shop, ‘looked’ for a job to satisfy the unemployment requirements, and pretty much signed my checks over to Paul every week for some work or parts that he would provide.

 

The car was completely stripped of everything, right down to the bare shell, then sand blasted and reassembled.

 

I ended up building pretty much as wild a street Alfa as you could build in the early 80’s.  Wild 2000 motor with 48mm Dellortos, radical suspension, 7” wheels (now 8") with flared fenders, custom molded air dam, headers into straight pipe w/SuperTrapp, the list goes on and on.

 

I remember getting 28 weeks of unemployment, then another 7 weeks through extensions, for a total of 35 weeks.  The week I collected my last pay check the car was mechanically finished, and ready to be driven to my older brothers body shop for the fender flaring, paint, etc.  Again, I borrowed Pauls repair plate for another somewhat illegal ride.

 

After milking unemployement for the maximum, I dropped the car off on a Tuesday and got home around 5:30 or so.  At 7:00 the phone rang, and I was offered a contracting position at Digital.  Blind, dumb luck, however my mother swore up and down that I had planned it that way all along.

 

Pictures of the restoration can be found <here>.

 

It’s funny, but after I finished the car I took it to a few events, but I also seemed to have grown up a little during the time I was building it.  I got back into school, finished my undergrad and graduate degrees, got married, had kids, and didn’t have a lot of time for cars.  The Spider spent a lot of time sitting, at one point it only got driven 3 times in a 5 year period.  I contemplated selling it, but figured I regret it, so just left the cover on.

 

Then one summer day I pulled the cover off, got it running, and it all came back in a rush!  I started playing with it on a regular basis, track events, etc.  For a while, even 15 years after I built it, it was the four cylinder Alfa to beat at our annual Lime Rock event – as one friend told me, this was the car “we all aspider to” (get it – aspire, aspider).

 

I’ve done a few more things to it over the years, full race height bar with fore/aft support, close ratio lightened gearbox, 8” wheels (!), and a muffler in front of the SuperTrapp.  However it’s now seriously outclassed by the 3.0 GTV6’s and some phenomenal drivers in ‘lesser’ cars.

 

It’s still a blast though.  Here you see it in it’s natural habitat.  Might not be the fastest anymore, but it’s still the best looking, and the best sounding, and always gets plenty of compliments.

 

 

 

Last updated: October 4, 2006