Re:Gear shifting, Montreals, & Alfa Loyalty

[Regan Dale Copple <copple@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings Alfisti, from the land of the walking wounded,

	First off, many thanks to Roger F. LaFerriere at 
<rogerlaf@domain.elided> for posting his wisdom and advice on optimum shifting.

	Secondly

On  Thu, 19 Nov 1998 Tom Callahan at TJCallahan@domain.elided wrote:

> I, on the other hand, would love to ride in one. Not sure what I would do
> should I have the opportunity to actually DRIVE one. Probably take the
> opportunity, however. :-)
> 
> Offers? Anyone? OK, write when you're ready ...

	Tom, I have one available in the Bay area and one available in the
Los Angeles area, a 72 and a 73 respectively.  Just let me know when you
are coming.  For Thanksgiving I may take the 72 to Sacramento with me and
scare the pants off of Mike Williams when I go to visit him and take him
for a ride.  For anyone unfamiliar with the acceleration of the Montreal,
from a dead stop through the first four gears, it will press you into the
seat quite a bit.  And the roar of the engine is in the words of Homer
Simpson "loud enough to make you think that the world is coming to an
end", although I will confess to the 73 being louder than the 72.
(Probably due to the straight pipes on the 73 and the fact that I boosted
the compression ratio when the engine was overhauled by boring out the
engine to 3 litres and used larger pistons. =^>) Even at low idle while
rumbling through parking garages at 10-20 kph (6-12 mph for us stupid
Americans) I hear quite a few car alarms giving their tremulous burps,
chirps, and beeps letting you know that the engine noise is vibrating them
to the edge of setting off the alarm, if it doesn't already go off as you
pass.  It is in these parking garages that I truly get the most number of
stares as the engine noise is optimally magnified to a magnificent
resonant growling rumble, like that of an extremely large, pissed-off
feline.  And if I get a short bit of straight-a-way to goose the pedal, I
do it with gusto, knowing that on the deceleration I will get a number of
satisfyingly loud pops and crackles.  This plus the knowledge that most
everyone in the garage including the booth attendants down on the ground
level have heard the car coming.  I know this as I have been the recipient
of the incredulously asked "Was That You?" on several occasions as I
exited the various parking garages in the Los Angeles, West Los Angeles,
and Santa Monica areas.  I like to listen to the engine so much that I
rarely listen to the radio even though it's a Blaupunkt with an excellent
sound system.  And on those occasions when I do listen to the radio I turn
the volume down low enough so that I can change gears effectively.  I
don't use the tachometer to know when to change, I listen to that sweet
sound of the revs hitting that just oh-so-perfect point that tells me to
up-shift.  Even in the open air in a quiet residential neighborhood you
cna hear the car coming at more than two blocks distance.  One block if
it's a noisy commercial district.  And listening to my Spider is just like
listening to its little brother, I have never set off any alarms in it but
the Spider has made some oversensitive car alarms chirp at my passing in
parking garages here in Berkeley and Oakland.  It has that same growl,
although in a higher register than that of the V-8 Montreal.  Of course
the downside to all of this (yes there is a downside, every rose must have
a thorn, just like the old song sung by the overly made-up Kiss wanna-be's
Poison) is that I am occasionally stopped by some overly curious
policeman, sheriff's deputy, or CHP and asked "What kind of car is that?",
or given a ticket because the engine noise convinces them that I am going
faster than I really am.  But I look on all this as an extra challenge, I
make a game out of it.

	Which leads into my final point.

On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 Maximillien Hendrickx at 
<Max_hendrickx@domain.elided> wrote:

> Subject: I'll stick to Alfa! I love them
> 
> Will wrote:
> >Now, Masers and Ferraris and the like never have been the best choice
> >for grocery shopping and the like, but they're good, stout machines,
> >and *IF* you can afford to maintain one properly it should last and be
> >usable as a fast touring car damn near forever. Sensible equipment
> >upgrades - electronic ignition, better lights and tires etc. - can
> >also make a lot of older cars work better than they did when new.
> 
> Of course you are absolutely correct Will. But that is just what I mean.
> "IF" I could afford to properly maintain one. If I ever get the bucks to
> actually buy one, I think I will have no more cash left to spend for
> maintenance... 8(
> 
> I think I'll just stick to good old reliable Alfa's. I think that for the
> fraction of the price of one old Maserati, I could get a nice good old
> secondhand 80's GTV or Sprint for weekends and maybe racing AND keep my
> beloved 33.
> 
> Please keep in mind that all of this is pure fantasy of mine, since I have
> only just finished Univ. and only started working 2 months ago. Besides I
> would have a really hard time giving up my 33. Do other Alfisti out there
> have the same bonding-feeling with their Alfa's as I do? Or could you guys
> swap cars as easily as you swap socks?

	
	I bonded with my Alfa the very first time I saw it sitting there
in the driveway of the previous owner and I heard the engine sound for the
very first time when he handed me the keys for a test drive.  So now some
of you may have a little inkling of what it's like to drive a V-8 Alfa.
Ciao, I Am Going Driving!!!

						Typing with five fingers,
						Regan Copple
						79 Spider-black
				(coming soon)-->72 Montreal-silver
						73 Montreal-black

"It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness."
					-Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

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End of alfa-digest V7 #274
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