Owning a Fiat 124 Sport Spider

Marc Gordon says, ‘I bought my 124 Sport Spider as a daily driver in 1990; it kept that role until 1995 and then remained my second car until 2012. It was parked on the street in central London for all that time.

‘In 2013 the engine no longer met MOT emissions requirements, so DTR European Sports Cars rebuilt it with the twin Weber carburettors it has now. There was rust on the floorpans and ahead of the boot, so we also rectified that, carried out a bare-metal repaint and changed the original beige roof for a black replacement.’

‘I believe there was an element of luck to my relatively pain-free experience. When I bought this car, I visited the seller to view an okay blue 124 but this car was clearly different. I went for the one that gave me a better feeling! It’s a Californian car, which helped with its general condition, and it’s always been unbelievably reliable.’