Classics and Coffee in Downtown Boulder:

We showed up for our second Classics & Coffee on Sunday, July 25. The event attracted roughly twice as many cars as the June event (we'd missed the May show), but the supply of coffee may have been tighter because of the long line that soon formed outside of Spruce Confections, perhaps drawn by the jazz outfit that took over the Confections courtyard.  Even though the show is focused on European classics, the idea of "classic" gets stretched to include modern cars like that metallic yellow BMW M4 and modified ones like its ancestor E24 coupe in the foreground…

…as welll as Detroit iron (well, fiberglass) like organizer Mike Burroughs' 1970 Corvette with the small block expanded to 383 cubic inches.  A lineal descendant of the SBC powers the new mid-engined Corvette parked down the line; more on that later. 

The lineup included a 991 Series Porsche GT3 in yellow, a more recent 911 in gray, a Ferrari 328 GTS, a late Series 1 E-Type Jaguar, a hot rod Dodge Aspen from the late Seventies, a first-series modified Camaro, and (not pictured) a Puch.  We covered Puchs awhile ago, but we haven't talked about Ferrari V8s.  The 328s are especially appealing...

Ferrari produced the 328 GTB and GTS from 1985-'89 as a refinement of the 308 series, with a transverse mid-mounted aluminum four-cam V8 and 5-speed gearbox behind this cockpit.  Note the gated shift lever, a Ferrari trademark. The 328 was known to be an especially reliable and user-friendly Ferrari, with many engine maintenance functions possible without dropping the power unit.  In that way it is utterly unlike modern mid-engined cars (insert your example here; they all have designed-in access problems).  The owner told me he's done a lot of work on the car himself; it has 70,000 miles on the clock...

Also shiny, black and Italian, this modern Abarth 124 Spider made the trip to Boulder from California when its owner moved here.  Chassis and suspension design on the new Fiat and Abarth 124, introduced in 2017, is shared with the Mazda Miata, while the engine is the Fiat MultiAir turbo inline 4.  

In stock form the 1.4 liter engine made 168 hp; this car has been modified to produce more.  These 124 Spiders, especially the Abarth versions, are fairly rare in the US, and fated to stay that way now that Fiat has dropped out of the American market…again.

The new mid-engined Corvette C8 created lots of interest, especially when the owner opened the engine lid.  Production of the new car, available in coupe and convertible form, began in February 2020, just before a pandemic distracted human civilization from cars…apparently temporarily. The chassis design features aluminum structure; this keeps weight under 3,400 lb.  The engine placement moves the cockpit forward about 16.5 inches compared with the C7. Like the first Corvette from 1953, which had a 2-speed Powerglide, this one's only available with an automatic, but it's a dual-clutch 8-speed.  Designer Tom Peters has said the transmission choice was made to fit within the structure, which relies on a central tunnel for stiffness.  The owner, however, told me he thinks that tunnel is sized to fit batteries which may be slated to appear in C8 Version 2.0...

The C8 features a small luggage bin behind the engine, and another one ahead of the cabin. Oddly, the displacement of the 495 hp Chevy LT2, at 6.2 liters, is almost the same as the hot-rodder's favorite, the bored and stroked 383 small block sitting in the 1970 Corvette nearby.  In the modern mode, though, engine access is tight, and the attentions of amateur mechanics are deflected by lots of shiny plastic and carbon fiber... 

Engine access was never a problem on the E-Type Jaguar.  This 4.2 liter Series 1 example from 1967 was designed in a period when easy access to the mechanicals was a selling point for weekend racers as well as DIY mechanics.  And the car's biggest target market, Southern California, had plenty of both kinds of buyers. The Series 1 was the first production sports car with 4-wheel disc brakes (inboard at the rear) and 4-wheel independent suspension.  The first E-Type appeared in April 1961, and the twin-cam, aluminum-head inline XK six was replaced in the Series 3 by an aluminum, SOHC V12 exactly ten years later.

Like the Ferrari 328, the body on this Series 4 Alfa Romeo Spider was designed by Pininfarina. It's descended from the Series 1 Duetto on the Giulia chassis which appeared in 1966. The Series 4 went into production in 1990 with 1.6 liter and 2.0 liter versions of the legendary Alfa aluminum twin cam; the US just got the 2.0 liter.  On-board engine diagnostics and Bosch Motronic fuel injectiion were added to familiar Alfa features like 4-wheel disc brakes and a 5-speed gearbox, and an automatic option was added.  The redesigned nose, tail and interior boosted sales, and this essentially 1966 design stayed in production through 1993, with a couple hundred "CE" cars produced for the US and sold as 1994 models.  That's almost as long a production run as the original Porsche 911...

Despite its resemblance to previous models in the 911 Series, the 964 version Porsche introduced in 1989 was claimed by that company to be over 80% new in terms of mechanical content.  The 964 was the first 911 available with all-wheel drive and also the first available with the Tiptronic gearbox. Suspension design was changed as well, with coils replacing torsion bars.  Production gave way to the even smoother-looking 993 version after 1993.  This car, though, is a rare Ruf conversion with special wheels and other mods...

The BMW 2002, launched in 1968, put the struggling manufacturer on the map in the US car market, where it was mostly known for motorcycles. In '71 the 2002tii (Touring International Injection) appeared; 130 hp doesn't sound like much today but it made the 2,300 lb. car a bit of a hot rod.  This recently-restored example came from Montana; the owner noted that only about 10% of the sedans had this car's sunroof option.  Production ended after 1975, and a  Touring hatchback version was offered through 1974, which was also the year the sedans got clunky 5 mph US bumpers and rectangular tail lights...

Perhaps to provide a color-coordinated comparison, an industrial designer brought this modern BMW M4*, an F82 (there's also an F83 convertible). In the tradition of previous BMW coupes, it has an inline six, 3.0 liters like my old '73 CS.  The twin-turbo M4, however, makes over 440 hp. It would make an interesting track-day comparison with the adjacent Porsche and that C8 Corvette. To compete with the noise of all these engines, we recommend that organizers move the jazz from the Spruce courtyard into the garage space at Vanatta Auto Electric.  Then it may be possible to actually hear the music, and get closer to a coffee at Spruce Confections.  The next Classics & Coffee is August 29, from 8 to 10 AM at 8th & Pearl.

*Footnote:  The June edition of Boulder Classics & Coffee was pictured in our post for 7/16/21, along with a session of the Lafayette Cars & Coffee from the pre-pandemic era. "Cars and Coffee in New Canaan" showed up on 10/28/19, and we tried to shed some light on the cultural forebears of the Cars and Coffee movement in "Lost Roadside Attraction:  Before Cars & Coffee There Was Zumbach's", posted 4/11/18.  On the BMW M4, we reviewed the controversial 2021 redesign of the M4 in our post for 6/20/21, entitled "Worst Car Designs Revisited."  

Photo Credits:
All photos are by the author.