Enjoyable Investment

Sir,

I fear it is a sad fact of life that many of the desirable motor cars advertised in your pages are purchased as part of a portfolio rather than for the purpose for which they were designed.

However, I am prompted to write to you by the Assistant Editor’s article on the Alfa Spider in your current issue, such article being a timely reminder to the “small investor” who wishes to enjoy driving his “investment” that all is not lost.

Being what I am constantly told is the wrong side of 40 and sceptical of the claims of certain pill-makers as to the ability of their products to fortify me, I decided that rejuvenation might be at least partially achieved by other means. Having an affinity for the Alfa promoted by the Giulietta Ti, and Giulia Super, I decided that the appropriate panacea was a Duetto.

It seemed to me to be one of the few civilised open sports cars still to be found at a price which one might be prepared to pay without having to justify it as a giltedge investment! A car not given to excessive pancreas shaking. (as the Assistant Editor so delightfully puts it), nor liable to promote the removal of skin from the right elbow by dint of contact with the road or off-side rear tyre.

The search for this investment was infinitely more pleasurable than the perusal of brokers’ letters, and the satisfaction of finding a 1967 specimen in reasonable order was considerable. I have not been disappointed. Despite its own age I find it capable of inducing a feeling of reduction in mine together with a general feeling of well-being.

So, Sir, to those would-be “investors” of a few hard-saved over-taxed pounds may I suggest they go after a Spider . . . not necessarily a Duetto which they may find difficult to come by, but a “sawn-off” one will give the same physical effect if not (to me at least) the same visual satisfaction.

If they must seek to view it as an investment it seems unlikely that it will depreciate, the short walk to look at it is infinitely more pleasureable than the study of the plus and minus figures on the City page!

Costock, Leics., J. B. C. BLOOM