Berlina Road Trip 2003

[Damian Magista <magista@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm back in Seattle after my big summer road trip adventure. As you all 
know, I bought John Elrod's 1971 Berlina 1750. I flew down to Oakland 
last sunday to pick up the car.

First of all this is not your average 1750. The original engine has 
been replaced by a Weber carbed 2000. It has 10548 cams and a 4.3 axle 
only found on Euro-spec Alfas. This car was originally a German market 
1750. This combo makes it wicked fast.

My friend Josh and I flew to Oakland (our plane was delayed by 2 
hours). John picked us up in his Le Mans blue Berlina 2000 (very nice, 
well sorted Berlina). We drove to his place in Albany where I was able 
to check out the car for the first time. It was exactly as John has 
represented it. I mention this because John had called me in a panic 
the day before saying that the trunk lock had broken. I told him it was 
not big deal. To make a long story short John had taken it to a couple 
Alfa mechanics and a locksmith and none of them could get it open. I, 
without John's knowledge, contacted Hans Quennet who just happened to 
have an extra lock cylinder and key for a 1750 for me.

We took the car for a test drive through Berzerkeley. It was amazing. 
Very fast and responsive. When I got back to John's we sealed the deal 
and then he took us to meet Andrew Watry (which was a treat). We shot 
the shit at Andrew's for a bit then Andrew handed me a nice front grill 
for my new purchase. We headed back to John's picked up the car, said 
adios and hit the road. We made it as far as San Francisco where we 
decided to grab a motel on Lombard and stay the night.

In the morning we took off down the Pacific Coast Highway. The car 
handled everything I could throw at it without even breathing hard. You 
can pull 55 - 60 mph in second gear and it is right there for you. I'm 
still amazed every time I drive it. I won't bore you with the details 
about how gorgeous the drive was. The only issue I had with the car was 
somewhere outside of Fort Bragg (which in my opinion is the armpit of 
N. Cal.). I noticed the exhaust note changing until it was obvious that 
something was up. I parked the car and checked out the rear 
muffler...yup, the joint where the tail pipe comes out had failed. Oh 
well, no biggy. I tried to find a muffler shop in Fort Bragg but to no 
avail. That night we camped at a state park just outside of Fort Bragg. 
The next morning we took off.

Passing through Eureka we ran across a muffler shop who fixed me right 
up. They were fantastic. The women working behind the counter told me 
that her husband had owned the only Alfa Dealership in Eureka before 
Alfa had pulled out. It was nice knowing my Berlina was in good hands.

Once the muffler was fixed we took off for Crescent City and then 
headed inland to Grants Pass Oregon. We took I-5 up to Portland and 
stayed the night there. The next morning we headed out to Longview 
where I visited some Family and the took off for Olympia. In Olympia I 
decided to see if I could fix the trunk lock. I open the gas filler 
door and pushed out the rubber boot so I could see into the trunk. At 
first I tried a coat hanger which would have worked but I realized that 
the lever had to be pushed in the other direction. I got a wooden dowel 
and pushed the lever and bingo, the trunk opened. I replaced the lock 
and all was right with the world again.

After hanging in Olympia I went back to Seattle. Home sweet home.

I'm in the process of writing an in depth article about the trip which 
should be published sometime soon so I left out a bunch of details. 
I'll be at Ferraris On 12th tomorrow so if any Seatle Alfisti are 
there, be sure to come over and check out the little cream Berlina 
sleeper.

Damian
magista@domain.elided
1971 Berlina 1750 Rocket
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