Alfa's in Japan

["Peter Hoare" <kingfrick@domain.elided>]

This post is mostly a waste of bandwidth, but I feel I must spread the story 
a bit.

I brought my '72 spider here to Japan about 2 and a half years ago and due 
to a failing Spica pump is has sat most of the time. I finally found a 
decent Alfa garage and showed up here with my very limited Japanese. They 
where kinda reluctant to have a look at first and then when they realized it 
was a Spica system they through up there hands in despair and said there was 
nothing to be done. There have never been any Spica cars here and they have 
no idea how to deal with they besides the "Weber solution". They did agree 
to have a look and see what they could do. In the mean time they gave me a 
loaner.

After some time they phoned and said that they had no idea what to do and 
the owner asked me to come down and speak to them in person. When I got here 
he told me kinda abruptly the car was not worth fixing and not even worth 
keeping. But as a favor he would give me some trade in credit and sell me 
something off of the lot they also run. After some very confusing 
discussions (all in Japanese) I managed to explain that I was not moved by 
any cost efficiency argument and that I would keep the car irrespective of 
cost.

From this point he warmed up considerably and has more supportive they I 
could have dreamed.

I had decided to put a twinspark motor into the car as the cost of the motor 
would be less then the cost of just buying a set of carbs here. When I said 
that I would return the loaner, pay for his time and look for somewhere to 
rent some garage space, he looked like I had walked on his mothers grave. He 
insisted that I not pay a dime (or a ten yen coin) for his time, further 
more he said that I could do the work here in his garage with his tools and 
use the help of his staff for those 2 men moments.

It has now been since April that I have been using the loaner and his garage 
space completely free of charge. He also managed to get me a wrecked twin 
spark Milano for about $800 with all the parts I needed and send one of his 
fellows with a flatbed to pick it up from Kyoto. About a 5 hour trip.

If this could not be enough he also insisted on taking me out for drinks and 
dinner after working on the car sometimes.

After all of this I felt that there was nothing he could do to make me more 
indebted to him. Until today. When I arrived they where all standing around 
a race prepped GTV. I joined the admiring crowd and ooed and aaawed over the 
carbon fiber panels and all the other trick bits with the others. Then when 
I joking said that I would be fun to take for a spin, he said that it was 
also road legal and that he would get the keys. I was floored. We took it 
out of the show room and he drove for about a kilometer before stopping and 
telling me to drive.

I must confess that I was shaking a bit with nerves. It has been about two 
years since I have driven a manual, and never anything like this car. I 
slipped into the tight driver seat, fumbled my way in to the 5 point belt 
and waited for the light to change to green. Since he had driven it very 
hard I felt I could not look like a complete idiot so I goosed it hard away 
from the light.

Wow! It all came back in a rush. The experience is with out words. On some 
mountain back roads north of the city I drove like I haven't driven since I 
was 18 and still thought I was immortal. It was scary at first but then 
exhilarating. The brakes were like hitting a brick was and the balance in 
the corners was brilliant. He said that the engine was pretty mild. A mere 
250 horses or so out of the 24 valve v-6. To me it felt like a million. 
Driving first to third shifting at red line on the highway is an experience 
never to be matched. With no sound damping at all the music of the engine 
was the voice of angels.

Returning to the show room the customers were looking at me with the most 
envious looks I have ever had. I climbed out of the car and suddenly found 
that I had to stuff my hands in my pockets to hide the shaking!

Well if you are ever in Japan and need anything Alfa related, I could not 
possible recommend Watanabe Garage any more!

Still shaking in Japan,

Peter Hoare
Nagoya, Japan

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