Mr. G's Lancia Aurelia B20 coupe. Since the T57 was also a coupe, he decided he wanted an open car.
By Brandes Elitch
In the previous column we related how our hero discovered a Bugatti while in military service in France and brought it home to Florida. He towed it to California to begin restoration at the same time he was a graduate student at Stanford University. He then acquired a Lancia Aurelia Spider and joined Hayden Shepley’s American Lancia Club as member number 7. We pick up the story in 1970 after he has graduated, married and is living in Carmel Valley, California. By now he has traded the Spider for an Aurelia Gran Turismo coupe, better suited to commuting to his job in Monterey. One day he saw an ad in the Monterey Herald newspaper for a 1954 Maserati 2 liter spider (S/N 2101). He had always coveted a Maserati, but already had the Bugatti and Lancia in the garage. A friend advised him that he really needed to have an open car because the other two were coupes. When he asked his wife for her opinion she replied, “The main vices in your character are the ones in the garage. Go ahead and buy what you really want!” It should be obvious to any car enthusiast that when this happens it is proof you married the right person. [Read more…] about A Lifetime of Cars of a Lifetime Part 2: Lancia to Maserati