William Oliver posted this somewhat enigmatic picture of a a Fiat x1/9 and 850 Spider sitting on top of a container. I’ll let you guess as to what to make of it.
Cohort Outtake: Two Fiats; Circumstances Unknown
– Posted on May 21, 2015
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Curbside Classics Archives
Romulus and Remus waiting for some succour.
Obviously, they were put there to keep the container from blowing away in a strong wind.
What I make of it is what it looks like they’re sitting on, which is far more significant: the humble intermodal container. While this isn’t a totally new idea, this N. Carolina entrepreneur almost single-handedly popularized it in the modern era:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcom_McLean
and this engineer developed much enabling technology for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Tantlinger
This is why we can buy stuff cheaply at Wal-Mart & Costco. BTW, it idled a lot of dockworkers.
Interesting links, thanks.
In the mid-thirties DAF developed the DAF-losser (losser means unloader).
With standard sized cargo boxes, it could put the boxes on the ground or on the bed of a freight car. The tractor is a Ford, built in the Amsterdam plant.
Probably an effort to keep the cars out of harm’s way, but Don’s idea is much better.
Or perhaps a modern version of Michelangelo’s tomb:
I like this!
They are there to keep the container from rusting, sacrificing oneself for the container.
As usual, Fiats take up that job of rusting, which they are known to be highly qualified for.
I like that. Sorta like highly styled sacrificial anodes.
That’s what I was thinking.
I had an old beater Spider 850 beach car until one day I went over the railroad tracks and the seat went through the floor. It created a spectacular spark show and scared the crap out of me, off to the bone yard it went.
The 850 darn sure didn’t drive itself up there. Years ago, I started joking about how “the natural habitat of an 850 Spider is the bed of a trailer”. I have never in my lifetime (and I’m getting up there) seen one moving under its own power.
X-19’s are different though. I see a reasonable number of them even today at car shows and everyone who has driven them seem to love them.
About 10 years ago, there was a faculty or staff member at NC State university who daily drove an 850 Spider. Assuming the weather wasn’t nasty, it was their primary work transportation. Very cool little car, though something that small would be a little terrifying on the highway.
It clearly wasn’t stock though (bumpers gone, slot mags, small roll cage, SCCA sticker) so who knows whether the original engine was still on board or not.
To prevent theft/vandalism.
Yeah, someone might start putting rusty Fiat parts on eBay.
They were chased up there by that menacing trailer in the foreground of the picture.
In the early 80s I passed an 850 spyder on I-5 on a trip between L.A. and San Francisco. I was amazed by the rear camber change that 1 person/the driver made to a 850.
In the 70s a co-worker had an 850 coupe that I just missed buying.
Fill It Again Tony?
I suspect the reasoning involved access to a forklift and several cases of beer.
It is to prevent theft of the cars and/or container, but that is just a theory.
Good links to the history of shipping containers. It is a bit jarring to see a cargo container being transported on a flatbed and held down with some straps.
Truckers don’t like them if I can believe a friend of mine.
These things catch crosswinds like a schooner. He was pulling one and the trailer went on the bicycle. He was lucky. It came back down on the other wheels and he called it a day.
This is what I would like to do with one:
The Box Office in Providence, RI
It’s like a life-sized lego building. Love it!
A Porsche 928 here
I think two Fiat owners are going to be very POed when they get back from lunch.
They been “punked”!!
This looks much like every salvage yard around here. Multiple cars on top of fences/rooftops/cargo containers/pedestals, with one or more of them having the place’s name crudely painted on the side.
They are advertising for Rust and Rust.eze
The local Fiat/Alfa dismantler has an X1/9 on a container behind his front wall – simple and effective advertising I guess!