[Jack]

Road & Track has published a piece titled, "How the Original Fiat 124 Spider Helped Shape my Youth." Here I've put a quote from the article to give you the idea, but click through the link so read the full text.

Strictly speaking, there's no real reason for me to care about the Fiat 124 Spider, also known as the "Fiata" to some. The small-roadster hole in my garage has been filled by a Boxster S for the past 12 years, and that's unlikely to change any time soon. Nor should I be particularly interested in the Fiat 124 Spider Elaborazione Abarth that debuted earlier this week. I don't see any changes to this model that couldn't be accomplished in a weekend with a decent set of tools, a call to my local Koni dealer, and a roller loaded with flat-black house paint.

Why, then, does merely seeing a picture of the red Elaborazione press my personal "Buy It Now" button? Perhaps it's because you never truly forget your first love. And if the three Seventies-era 124 Spiders that warped their threads through the weave of my teen years don't strictly qualify as such, neither can I truly separate them from the joy and sorrow that forged my current self from the undifferentiated blank of a 13-year-old child.

 

[Greg]

I didn't really like it. A lot of automotive journalists are journalists first and automotive guys second. This article seemed like a prime example of that. There was nothing in that article that indicated to me that this guy every actually worked on a 124 Spider, or understood the least bit about the car.

Greg

 

[Jack]

I understand your point, but I do think that this article has appeal to a certain group. There are people who are interested in car culture, but they aren't as into the technical aspects of cars. I imagine this to be true especially for younger people into cars. I think its good for Road and Track to have a combination so they cater to a broad audience.

 

[davhamm]

Greg,
You might want to check out the author.

 

[Jack]

Born in Brooklyn but banished to Ohio, Jack Baruth has won races on four different kinds of bicycles and in seven different kinds of cars. Everything he writes should probably come with a trigger warning. His column, Avoidable Contact, runs twice a week.

I guess he could have won races in more than 7 different types of cars.

 

[Greg]

He might be a great driver, but I still stand on the statements I made. Read the article and substitute just about any other old convertible everywhere he mentions the Fiat Spider and the article still works. That's because he is a writer that likely doesn't know anything about the car at all, he just wanted to write a quaint story somehow related to the new Spider.

Greg

 

[Jack]

Like I said before, automotive media needs to play to both the technical and spiritual parts of auto enthusiasts. This is pkaying more to the latter.

 

[Greg]

Like I said before, automotive media needs to play to both the technical and spiritual parts of auto enthusiasts. This is pkaying more to the latter.

I don't see it. He is basically saying he had a friend with a Fiat 124 Spider when he was young, good times, the end. I'm sure we will have good 124 articles soon, but that one is entirely forgettable.

Greg

 

[davhamm]

I liked the story.. It was that a nice story of his life tied around his memories of the Fiat 124. It was not nor do I believe it was meant to be a story about the 124, note the title ...how it shaped my youth.