Hi from Ballarat!

[stustustu123]

Hi

Just a (not so) small intro to say hello.  I've been a member on here for a little while but hadn't got around to writing an intro post.  It's a quiet day here at work so perfect time to do just that!!

I've recently moved up to Ballarat (from Brunswick) &  there are currently 3 Alfas in the family - a white 1989 164 3.0, a black 1992 164Q, and my g/f drives a metallic grey (grigio) 1988 75 3.0.

Have been an Alfa (& Italian car) lover for years.  My first Alfa was a red 1983 AlfaSud Ti that I bought from Peter Stapleton here in Ballarat.  Last I heard it was owned by Damon from LD who has dropped a 1.7 into it.  Not sure if it's still around...

I traded the Sud at Lorbeks for the white 164 which was probably 9-10 years ago now.  The white 164 is just about to clock 300,000kms and has promptly started leaking coolant into the oil!  Not sure what to do with it now - it would make a good parts car but I find it really hard to do that with a car I've owned for so long.

The black '92 164Q I bought from Benincas approx 2yrs ago.  Its the one they'd had sitting there for a while with lots of dust on it and I'm told it belonged to Domenic Beninca.  Has now done 270,000kms (was 230,000 when purchased) and could do with some re-upholstering and a re-spray.  Black looks great when the paint is perfect but man it is soooooooo hard to look after!!

My g/f bought the 75 privately approx 6mths ago on a whim.  She needed a new car to replace her old Datsun 180B & I'd turned her into an Alfa fan over the years - the 75 seemed an obvious choice - cheap & potentially lots of fun!  Actually she wasn't THAT keen on an older car & I kind of pushed her towards one I liked - possibly a bad move as we had to spend over $3k getting lots of crap sorted after the roadworthy guys failed to flag quite a few issues it had.  Anyway, lesson learned (the hard way) - I'll get a 3rd party to inspect any future purchases.  The car has been lowered a bit too much for my liking but it had some nice Momo wheels on it so it looks great (even if it scrapes on the tiniest speed hump if you aren't careful).

The 75 is the first rear wheel drive Alfa I've driven and I really love the way it feels around corners.  The 164s are great cars for the commute back and forth to Melbourne though and just eat up the miles (and continually beg to exceed the speed limit too).

Not sure what the future holds in terms of the next Alfa for us.  On one hand I'd love to have a 75 to play with as a track toy, but on the other I'm excited about the new Giulietta, particularly with the 1750tbi.  It would be nice to have a new Alfa that doesn't use much fuel.  The Arese V6 is such an incredibly lovely engine but we cover a lot of kms and they aren't the cheapest things to run!

Anyway, that's my blurb.  Looking forward to catching up with some of you at a future club event (my last was the Alfa dyno day).

Ciao,
Stuart.

[Evan Bottcher]

Welcome to the forum Stuart!

I live around the corner from where you were in Brunswick - used to drive our silver 164 past your white one parked out the front, and occasionally see the black one too.  I wondered where you'd got to...

Your ex-Sud now belongs to another club member - still has the 1.7ie motor, and has run in the last 6 hour and various club track events.  Very nice car.

See you at a club outing soon.

cheers,
Evan.

[stustustu123]

Hi Evan

Ahhh, so you owned the silver 164!  I saw it go up the street occasionally & meant to catch the owner to say hi at some stage.  Does your wife drive it sometimes too?

Nice to hear the Sud is still going, I'm sure it would be a lot of fun on the track.

Cheers,
Stu.

[Evan Bottcher]

Yep my wife drives it most of the time.  You might also have occasionally heard me test-driving our Sud track car up your old street - bit hard to miss the side exhaust...

Here's a photo of your old Sud from Phillip Island in December: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottwallace/4181198308/in/set-72157622990488252