In 1986, Lee Putman was a nineteen-year-old Marine who went with his girlfriend to visit his aunt and uncle. When they had breakfast the next day, he saw the back of something orange from the window. When he asked his friend about it, she said it was the car her father gave her for graduation. But because the roads in Nevada are dusty and dirty, they don't drive it much. When they pulled him out of the shelter together, Lee saw the older Fiat 124 Spider for the first time. After they washed him, a friend asked him if he wanted to go for a ride, which he couldn't refuse. Although Lee had never heard of Fiat, he immediately fell in love with the car on the winding roads. The wooden instrument panel, large steering wheel and Italian inscriptions simply won it over. The car only had 19k miles and drove like new. Lee couldn't stand it and asked if he could buy the car, which his friend had to change his mind. But she sold him the car after all. Since then, Lee's popularity has grown among his friends, who have always contributed to his gas. Trips to Las Vegas , Lake Havasu or Santa Barbara were full of wonderful experiences. And when something went wrong, the simple little guy went to fix it with a K-Mart tool kit according to the manual. A moment he will never forget was when he met a Mercedes-Benz 300SL in the middle of the desert, whose owner was just sitting next to it on a folding chair and simply enjoying the beauty. During the time he owned it, he fell in love with everything – the chrome accessories, the precise gearshift and the sound of the exhaust. However, Lee was later transferred to Hawaii , where the previous years spent in the desert took their toll. The car began to rust heavily and eventually Lee traded it in for a 1979 Alfa Romeo , which caused him a lot of frustration. But he will miss that little orange fiesta forever.
Source: Petrolicious
