1st Alfa Romeo experience

[Big Black]

It was about 1968 and I was feeling like the King of the Road. Between Geelong and Warrnambool,  I was nudging 99.5 mph, 100 mph , absolutely shaking in my Falcon XM.
Suddenly and without warning beside me a Giulia changed gears as he passed and headed off into the sunset.
My 3.2 Spider would eat him alive now, but alas he is nowhere to be seen.
Ross

[bonkfrog]

Ah yes, Big Black

I think I remember a club member then who drove a Super around that time - a white one. He used to enjoy doing that; changing into 5th at around 100mph, right by the driver's door!

[MD]

Hahaa. I used to be in that lunney club too.

Get to the driver's door and change up to fifth just as the Ford would get light on the steering from all the lift and the guy behind the wheel white knuckling it to stop it wandering all over the road and then a quick glance in the rear view to see a pair of popped eyeballs sticking out like organ stop and the lips mimming, WTF was that ??!!

The usual answer being, it's a Fiat, I think it's a Fiat..

[colcol]

And some of the American based local cars would go faster than our cars that were 'only' 4 cylinders, but our cars were a joy to drive at high speeds and rock solid on the road, where other cars of less sophistication would lift and go light and wander all over the road, 'unsafe at any speed', as someone once said, Colin.

[Big Black]

Ah yes, Big Black

I think I remember a club member then who drove a Super around that time - a white one. He used to enjoy doing that; changing into 5th at around 100mph, right by the driver's door!

It seems to me that the 3.2 Spider I have with six gears really only needs one, third actually. It is good for 0 to 160. So now I could pass the Ford, change into 4th, then 5th, then 6th...

[Big Black]

And some of the American based local cars would go faster than our cars that were 'only' 4 cylinders, but our cars were a joy to drive at high speeds and rock solid on the road, where other cars of less sophistication would lift and go light and wander all over the road, 'unsafe at any speed', as someone once said, Colin.

Since this is general discussion perhaps I can give you another Ford story. Those non-speed limits were something else.
Usually on the trips back home from courting in Warrnambool I used to chase a Bolwell, but that thing was really fast.
I had a '68 XT Falcon which would do 108 mph, and couldn't get near him. The Falcon had been a demo at Nu Brent Ford and I think they hotted it up a bit to impress the customers. I usually cruised at 103 and backed off to 100 to go through those little towns like Winchelsea.

However one night I came across a Mini with a blown head gasket so I (kindly) offered him a tow.
I said, put your lights on when you think you are going fast enough.
No lights came on. 50 mph. 60 mph. 70 mph. I saw in the mirror that he lit a cigarette, so, 80 mph...still no lights
QWe were hitting the ton coming over the brow of the hill before Waurn Ponds, and there across the road was an accident. Well we dodged it all, and pulled in for petrol just after.
Wwwwwwwhat ssssspeed wwwwere wwwe dddddoing back there, he goes.
Over 60, I replied.
As we pottered through Geelong he saw an RACV van, so he ran over the rope, broke it, and I never saw him again.

I once had a Fiat 1100 and towed a VW back from Bendigo to Ringwood. We had to get up speed to get up the hills at all, and I'll never forget passing a semi-trailer going uphill (dark, raining, no lights on the VW), at 75 mph.

Driving is boring these days. I learned on the farm at 7 yo, then had a T model Ford at 13 and an Austin 7 at 14.  So I did a lot of towing. Fabulous experiences.

[MD]

....Driving is boring these days.....

Truer words were never spoken.

Between the revenue raising and the do gooders league, the system has radar trained koalas, low flying aircraft with exhaust heat seeking video, a stop-go paddle merchant at road works at every 200 metres and now they talking about introducing 40 kph speed limits. FAAAAAAARK ! The only thing not happening yet is an option to front a firing squad instead of paying the fine for offenders !! I hear they are considering it..

Nah, I'm afraid the glory days of actually enjoying legal touring are long gone. The thrill of going past the white knuckle pilots is now pushing up daisies.

The only substitute today is track time. Hence the rising popularity of amateur motorsport.

Now if I can only turbo my wheelchair.... ( I am getting the blueprints of this one )

[colcol]

Just off the Eastern tollway here in Victoria 100k speed limit down to FORTY kays due to roadworks, on a Saturday, except there are no roadworks!, how dangerous is that, doing 100, then down to 40, i wonder how many cars will get rear ended in that part of the road, when my brother and i used to sprint our Suds and 33's, and on the odd ocasion one would break down, we used to tow each other home, bit boring, but no harm come of it, do it now and you would be locked up, latest 'speed kills' campaign on the radio here in Victoria, one of the lines is "we are everywhere", [hiding behind trees], "we will get you, so watch your speedo", [don't watch for kids running out in front of you], just watch your speedo, it doesn't matter what mob of pollies you have in, they are all hopelessly addicted to the revenue, Colin.

[Davidm1600]

Yep 'fraid so Col, the days of pure unadulterated driving pleasure are mostly but a dream/memory now.  And boy I sure have some good memories of such drives.  I also have to agree the speed limit thingy is really starting to become actually quite dangerous at times. So hard to keep track of and speedo watching is plain irresponsible for the pollies and do-gooders to be pushing down our throats.  Shortly we will need the man with a red flag walking in front of us as we drive at that rate.

However, despite all that, down here in the little island, if you are prepared to travel a little there are still plenty of great driving roads with very few to no 'fun police', killjoy cameras, to harass you.  I am not advocating being stupid or dangerous on the roads, for that is silly, but still to enjoy our cars as they were intended is very much possible.

[Kiwiboy105]

I agree with all of your comments regarding the joy of driving has been taken away.  There are so many more distractions on the roads now - road works, speed cameras, those who can't drive (sitting on 80 in a 100 zone or don't indicate and can't merge into traffic), so many different speed limits in a short stretch of road, etc... 

These distractions have caused us to concentrate on our speedo rather than the road itself.  Better education around speed is the way to go.  This idea that speed kills and speed cameras are there for "road safety" is total BS!

If the pollies, etc are serious about road safety, they should be building better roads with the taxes generated from fuel and rego, have compulsory driving training for new drivers, make getting a licence tougher so people appreciate it more (see how they do it in Germany), have cars checked for roadworthy every year or 2 years (get rid of the trash off the roads), and get rid of the speed variations i.e 50/70/75/85/90 km/hr etc. 

Well that's my 2c worth not that 2c coins even exist anymore!  Driving is a privilege and should be enjoyed without all this so called political road safety and the red tape it is wrapped up in!

[oz3litre]

I grew up in a family of motor mechanics and I spent many years driving and modifying VW Beetles, including drag racing one of my 1956 cars quite successfully in the mid 70s to 90s. I used to see Alfas around the streets and on the racetrack and always respected them. I knew that Alfa always made cars that were a complete package, with the engine, brakes and handling all complimenting each other. They were way out of my price range though. A friend of mine had a 1600 GT Junior that he bought new and kept for many years and I drove it a couple of times in the early 1980s. I loved the sound of the Webers, but didn't drive it far enough to get a feel for the handling. Even when I started teaching in the early 80s and earning a good wage, it didn't occur to me that I could have easily got a loan to buy a new Alfetta GTV. I owned various cars over the next twenty years, including P76s and still kept my VWs. It wasn't until my wife and I decided to travel to Italy with our kids in 2002 that I got well and truly bitten by the Alfa bug. We were planning to try and live there for a year, so I started searching the web for second hand cars to buy in Italy. One car that kept coming up was the Alfa 33. I didn't know much about them so I went to have a look at a 1988 1.5 for sale in a car yard. After years of driving all sorts of cars, that 33 was a revelation. It felt like it was glued to the road like nothing I had ever driven. I took my wife out there to drive it and she felt the same, so we bought it and stored it at my sister's place while we were in Italy, for what turned out to be six months. We sold the 33 just prior to returning to Italy for 12 months in 2005. While we were there I bought a red 75 3 litre over the internet and a 33 1.7 which was intended for my daughter to drive when she got her learners upon our return to Australia. Since then we have had a total of nine Alfas, including two 33s, two 164s, three 75 3 litres, (two of which are Potenziatas), and two Alfetta GTVs. We currently have the original red 75 which my son now drives, (although it is off the road awaiting a steering rack rebuild at present), a red 164 which my wife drives, my black 75 Potenziata and my daughter's 1981 GTV 2.0. My first Potenziata sadly caught fire due to a fuel leak two years ago and is sitting in the garage with the possibility of being a long term project for my son.

We have just got back from driving the 164 and my Potenziata to Beachport and back for ten days. They both performed beautifully. My family and I are all involved in the Alfa club. I have been a committee member for the last few years and am currently Vice President for the second time. I was President last year. My 19 year old son is club secretary this year. So even though I was a late starter as an Alfa owner, I think I have made up for it since.

[TFJ100]

Our next door neighbour in NZ had an Alfasud. I knew the car from from reading the price lists at the back of the AA magazine. It cost more than a Kingswood! I also couldn't understand why it was called a SUD. Further up the street, my best friend's mum had a 1750 Berlina. I loved being in the back watching the wacky dials where the needles would bounce all over the place, and it smelt good too.

My first car "crush" was a Audi 80GLE which I was trying to convince my Dad to buy to replace a Kingswood. Didn't happen but the next year I got my driver's licence at 15 (gotta love NZ!). My dad introduced me to a friend of his who was a car nut as well. He asked me if I wanted to take his Alfa 105 GTV for a drive. Didn't need a 2nd invitation! As I was cruising down the motorway, he told me to put my foot down, so I cranked it up to about 170km/h before we headed home. I was hooked!

My dad felt left out and bought a new 75 after that which he generously lent me whenever required. (Often required for dates ;-))

My first car was a Vauxhall Victor which frankly wasn't a great choice. However a guy I knew who helped me change a head gasket, and we went to get the spare parts in his Alfasud...Only 1200cc but I couldn't believe it when he kept wringing it out to 8000 revs. He didn't spare the horses either.

The Victor left in favour of a Fiat 124 AC Sport (and then a 2nd one, sold for twice what I paid for it) before a Lancia HPE, a Fiat 131 Racing and a Lancia Montecarlo which I bought on behalf of my folks as an investment. My mum used to take it shopping all the time and apart from being a little impractical, she got stared at a lot!

Finally a rusty Sud became my first official Alfa, and was followed by a couple of 75s, a 1985 Sprint and finally a 2001 GTV V6.

Torben

[Evan Bottcher]

A beige rusty sud!  Great colour choice - very inspiring!