‘91 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce
&title='91 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce "Elaina, feeling at home among the Mediterranean colors in Fremont, CA. Her official color is Foglio Green, a type of forest green. (Sep 27'03 Sat)")
Elaina, feeling at home among the Mediterranean colors in Fremont, CA. Her official color is Foglio Green, a type of forest green. (Sep 27'03 Sat)
Welcome to the page of my Foglio Green Italian steed, “Elaina”!
Her body was styled by Pininfarina, the same Italian design studio that penned many Ferraris.
Her cockpit sports other charms shared by those vehicles donning the famed prancing horse: the straight-arm, bent-knee Italian driving position; sumptuous, tanned Italian leather; and circular, rotatable vents, the type that Italians prize.
Her powertrain layout is classic, with a racy overhead-cam engine in front powering a well-controlled live-axle setup in the rear, matched by disc brakes all around.
And yet, her soul is uniquely Alfa: a descendent of a race-bred pedigree imbued with tradition, elegance, and passion; the type that gets one’s pulse beating just a little bit quicker and the mind conjuring up the possibilities…
“Because beauty is not enough” is her automaker’s motto. This is, after all, a romance… A Romance named Alfa Romeo.
Elaina’s Custom Plates (since 2006, in Colorado)
These plates mean a few things:
- “Rock and Sol” (with Sol = Sun in Spanish), appropriate due to my new location near the Rocky Mountains that features 300 days of sunshine each year. Or, an allusion to my fondness for rock climbing and sunny weather.
- “Rock and Soul,” two genres of music I enjoy. Also: because Elaina has been as tough as a rock and has a lot of soul.
- “Rock and SOL,” as in “stuck in a hard place and sh*t-out-of-luck,” something owners of vintage British and Italian car owners find themselves. (SOL, or the Scions of Lucas who were British car owners, was also the first e-mail list I ever subscribed to back in 1994.)
Elaina’s Custom Plates (2003-2005, in California)
The plates mean, “To see stars” (an allusion to warm summer nights, for wonderful top-down motoring under a clear, sparkling sky… or to see movie stars.) Or, when she is carrying Canny, perhaps the plates could mean “double century stars”? Well, one can pretend! 
A hi-mpg.org Vehicle
Elaina is even featured as a Hot Green Machine on hi-mpg.org. That’s right, she has an EPA rating of 30 mpg on the highway (and has gotten a consistent 35 mpg on longer trips…)
mark said:
i have a sweet 91 silver spider here in fremont as well
google’d you & you came out on top
of all places.
i have like 20 other alfas to
see you& elaina roun’ town