CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 13 The first mile "We've always had a sports car," Diehl says. "I've always fallen down on the sports car side of the car hobby." Forty-seven years ago, when Diehl Jones got out of the Army, he bought a Fiat Spider. He cycled through another car which he sold to buy his 1980 Rosso Dino Ferrari. "Rosso Dino, or orange for the rest of us," Diehl jokes. He liked that the color wasn't red like every other sports car out there and to this day the original 36-year-old Rosso Dino paint barely has a chip. "e only thing I've done is kept it running well. Last year I had to change the seat covers because they were just absolutely worn out." Diehl also owns a 1966 silver Mustang with red vinyl seats. It is more his wife's car. She found the car on Ebay and it came all the way from Arizona. "It won the Dogwood Festival last year—Best Mustang in its class," Diehl says, proudly. Pat drives the car year-round. She drives the car to work, especially if it is a nice day. "ese cars, if you get caught in the rain, it's no big deal, but if you know it's raining, you take something else," Diehl said. e next car Diehl and his wife acquired was a Chrysler—a '53 Chrysler New Yorker. If it had the yellow body and the checkered border, you'd want to hail it as a cab in New York, but this Chrysler is a burgundy color, or, of- ficially "pimento red." "A friend of ours bought this car for his wife. He was going to restore it for her, but she developed a brain tumor and died. is was back in the early nineties and he went ahead and restored it." Diehl told his friend if he ever wanted to sell it, since Pat and Linda were such good friends, they would want to buy it. ey did. e car itself came out of Connecticut. Diehl opens the door. "is is called—it's a very rare interior—Highlander plaid. Around here, it fits very well. is is the original Chrysler plaid—it's their own tartan." "In the '40s and '50s, many of the Chrysler cars had this. ey only made 950 back then, and according to Chrysler, only 16 are le," Diehl mentions. "We haven't won anything yet," Diehl says, "but it's a lot of fun." Next on the tour is his "almond-green" MG, the same kind of car that started the sports car movement in America. Restored in Virginia back in the '90s, this car, Diehl says is "the bucket- list car." "It's one of the things I always wanted, but I couldn't find one. is car belonged to Wilson Yarborough Jr. Before Wilson died, his grandson, Dax, said he was ready to sell it, so I bought it." "is is a sunny day car because there's no heater, no nothing with it." Tucked in the back of the garage is a small yellow car. It has the shape and form of some kind of VW Bug, but less "bug" and more "turtle." is, I learn, is a 1957 BMW Isetta with 13 horsepower and a one-cylinder engine. I can't take my eyes off of it. "I inherited this car and the story goes back to the fiies. My father was in the Army and we lived in Pittsburgh. He came home one day in a blue Isetta. And it didn't matter how deep the snow was, that thing would just go right put-put-put through it." When Diehl opens the door (the only door on the car), the steering wheel comes with it. e car was designed by Renza Rivolty, who, before he de-

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