Val, with that out of the way,
Start looking for a good used car. I bought mine from an ad on this web site and saved myself some money by purchasing a 1 year old car. Even after paying the shipping costs, I saved big time. After receiving the car, I made the necessary repairs that were disclosed prior to the deal and did my "add ons" and I'm still ahead of the game.
My advantage over "some" of the car owners on this web site and on www.spyderclub.com is that for many years I had a side line business building stock and high performance VW engines for the street and for sandrails. There used to be a time where people would virtually line up at the dunes for me to make repairs.
In my humble opinion, there isn't anything "technical" on a Spyder. With a little bit of research and a standard set of SAE and Metric tools you'll get by just fine and be albe to accomplish most service requirements and tune ups. About the most technical tool needed for this car will be a carburetor flow meter for balancing the air flow through the dual carbs. This tool is readily available and the price ranges between 20 and 50 bucks depending on how sophisticated you want to get. Valve adjustments usually take about 30 minutes and the total cost is nothing more than a set of valve cover gaskets.
Just remember, in most cases (Unless you're using exotic high dollar components), these engines and transmissions were engineered for 53 horsepower. Don't over rev the engine, keep the valves and carb's adjusted, change the oil in both the trans and engine and don't dump the clutch and everything should live for a long time