Bastardization

["Eric H." <ejham@domain.elided>]

So much for my vow of silence...I'm out of town tomorrow
night, so you all are safe then at least.

It seems to be a matter of opinion on how much is over the
top. Among Alfisti some swaps are acceptable. Spiders are
made for fun: if I decided to put the more spry 1600 in my
'71 Spider (assuming I had a Spider), who would fault me?
The GTV body's rackish look begs speed and its balanced
design provides a good platform for it: if I put a 3.0
twin-spark (do they even exist?) in my '83 GTV would that be
a bad thing?

More adventuresome swaps are usually done strictly to please
the owners. And virtually never are these swaps performed on
cars of real value. I'd fully expect one of you to shoot me
if I put a rotary in a pristine Guilietta, but would it be a
loss to the world to do the same to a 'parts-car' Milano
carcass?

I take some umbrage to the 'horse/alfalfa' statement. One of
the great things about an automotive hobby is that one has a
great deal of latitude about 'happiness.' One can enjoy the
simplicity and brute force of muscle cars, or the Germanic
precision of Porsche, or high stratum of the Ferrari set, or
the quirky, sometimes design-compromised Alfas. In my mind,
Alfa Romeos never were or will be in the high profile,
sought-after realm of the that AR racer-founded company
Ferrari. Resale values prove it. After a time, some very few
Alfa models appreciate...but that's usually only after
investing 2-10 times their original value in time/labor or
storage (there's a Montreal that's a regular guest at Valco
in Dallas that's a hideous example of avarice.) And then
you're left with a car that you don't dare drive much.

Alfas are fun cars...I've never owned cars that made me
smile as much. I smile when I hit an on-ramp with no traffic
ahead of me. Sometimes it's a nervous smile just because my
car managed to start up in the morning. Then there's the
chagrinned smile when I write a check to AlfaBill for parts
that cost twice as much as parts from more pedestrian makes
or simply have no counterpart in the rest of the automotive
world.

While the Alfa community has room for people of all
pursuits, I hope that it does not become totally dominated
by check-book mechanic purists who frown upon any Alfa
activity but gently applying carnuba wax to their spotless,
immobile, money-pits. There are those of us who are young
and foolish enough to want to experiment, tinker, and
recklessly drive our cars about on actual public streets --
simply because it's a fun thing to do.

I stand down from the soapbox, now.

- - Eric H.

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