The very recent blown head gasket aside, in the six years I've owned my 850 Spider it's truly been a daily (by which I mean, one or two days a week) driver. Good working condition with many cosmetic flaws, but reliable and practical enough for commuting to work, frequent 1-2 hour drives, and the occasional business or pleasure drive of up to maybe 400 miles round-trip. A couple of summers ago, when we had a long stretch of really hot days (95-105 degrees) in the DC area, and my X1/9 was out of commission for clutch master cylinder work, I drove the 850 Spider on my nasty commute to work just about every day --- only 50 miles/day round trip, but in such heavy traffic that I was on the road between three and 4-1/2 hours a day. The mighty 850 never let me down. I've driven on club drives with the DCFiats crew and can keep up with the 124s and X1/9s on the flats and downhill; it's only on the long uphill stretches that I fall behind --- same for highway driving, I can maintain 70 mph on level highway all day long, but in the hilly areas I drop down to 55-60 going uphill. That's the only scary part for me --- getting passed UPHILL by semis.......
