From Road & Track

If you’ve ever wondered about the precise point of vehicular intersection between 55 year-old Irish former Formula One racer Eddie Irvine and 34 year-old bombastic musical/acting juggernaut Lady Gaga, look no further than this: A 53,000-mile Rosso Metallico 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider Graduate which was owned by both stars. And if you're interested in adding your name to this car's amusing list of owners, the Spider is currently up for sale at Miami exotic car dealer The Barn.

The car’s odd provenance was discovered at random. Irvine, who splits his time between Europe, the Bahamas, and Miami, recently dropped by The Barn to check on a car he was storing there. (A Porsche 930, naturally.) "We started talking and he told me he was interested in selling this Alfa he has," says Gaston Rossato, co-proprietor of the shop. "I told him I was interested, mostly because it was his car. But then he said that he bought the car because it was Lady Gaga’s."

Gaga has compelling and eclectic taste in vehicles, having been seen in modern supercars like an Audi R8 and Lamborghini Huracan; vintage icons like a Chevy El Camino, Ford Mustang, and Lincoln Continental convertible; trucks including a Ford Lightning and classic first-gen Bronco; as well as posh boulevardiers like a Rolls Royce Phantom and Corniche Convertible. She gravitates toward collectible, high-visibility vehicles, which a decades-old, driver-quality Alfa certainly is not. We can guess that she was drawn to the car because it is Italian, versatile, and made in 1986, just like her.

"I don’t know why she wanted it, but I have a feeling I know why she didn’t want it anymore," says Rossato. "She and her boyfriend [Rob Fusari] had broken up. In fact, some of the paparazzi pictures of her with the car show him in the car with her." Fusari, who was also writer and producer on Gaga’s debut album, later sued the megastar for $30 million, claiming that she hadn’t paid him a contractually deserved cut of her massive royalties. Gaga settled out of court for $12 million. "So I think it was a getting-rid-of-things-that-remind-you-of-an-ex-boyfriend situation," says Rossato.

 

Irvine has different reasons for selling the Alfa. He had purchased it from a California dealer with the intention of keeping it at one of his many waterfront rental properties in Miami. "He thought it was a cute little car, and he envisioned himself here, driving around Miami Beach with a convertible," says Rossato. "But he also loved the story. The Gaga connection. He told me, 'She’s pop culture royalty.'"

Instead, the Alfa has been hopping from one house to another as tenants move in and out. For the F1 driver-turned-remote landlord, the car had gone from being a jaunty runabout to a four-cylinder headache. The last straw came when he took the car to visit one of his more prominent renters. "Lady Gaga coincidentally became the renter of one of his homes," Rossato says. "Eddie had the car, and he thought, I’m going to take advantage of the situation. I’m going to bring the car to the house, and I’m going to have her sign it for me.

"So he brought the car to her. But when she found out it was there, all she said was, 'Get that shit out of here, now!'"