Old-World Classic Has Brooklyn Home

Keith Helmetag, 71, a co-founder of C&G Partners, a multispecialty design studio, on his 1969 Alfa Romeo Spider "Duetto," as told to A.J. Baime.

- A.J. BAIME

I first started driving when I was15, in 1968, right when there were a number of great sports cars on the road. The Alfa Romeo “Duetto,” as it is nicknamed, comes from that era, and is most known from its appearance in the film “The Graduate.”

I have lived in Brooklyn for 26 years, longer than I have lived anywhere else, and, for 21 of those years, I have driven this Alfa Romeo. One of the allures is the connection it gives me to where I live. New York is a city of immigrants.

This car was first imported into America from Italy in the ’60s in three colors—the colors of the Italian flag: red, white and green, like my car.