too many Alfa days, here mine!

[Luca <nodoubt@domain.elided>]

Saturday 23 and Sunday 24.

1st  Alfa 75 & Alfetta GTV clubs meeting and club race.
Place:  BALOCCO.

What I wrote above should be enough to tell you it was a GREAT alfa
weekend......... :))) 

Sunny, both days.  Warm, both days.  

Along with a 75 Twin Spark mate, I crossed the whole north of Italy
East-West direction till I showed up near Balocco, saturday noon.
Welcomes, how are yous, nice to see you agains... and off we
went to the track... we really didn't wait for engines to cool
off. Great.

The saturday, following a tester driving a red Alfa 146, we managed
to explore the whole track.  WWWOOOWWWWW!! If you haven't seen
Balocco, you cannot really imagine what it is about!! Neither if 
you raced Nurburgring.  Balocco is a very wide property... with
a big country house, coupla lakes, some modern buildings, and an
incredible web of ROADS inside there. There isn't really a CIRCUIT,
there's just a labyrint of twisties:  From the outter parabolic
corners hi speed ring, till the hardest test bench with bumps, holes,
jumps, and everything you need to test a car till it falls apart.
So... the saturday saw us blasting up to top speed around the hi
speed ring, then inside the twisties, the hills, up and down, 
hidden traps after blind corners.... suprise bumps either testing
your alfa shock absorbing performance, or you reaction and its
handling in changing direction at the last instant before ending
in the trap.  
But the track isn't enough! There are square extra full of Fiat
group cars: saw some aerodynamic test for the 156GTA (basically
a 156 dressed up as a GTA, but with black panels still to be
completed), saw some buildings  ...and inside, lurking from the 
window, I spotted SZs, a Fiat tipo with CENTRAL REAR engine (!!!!),
saw what it looked like a Berlina 2000 or a Giulia... completely
opened with a weird roof.... half a way between Pope's car and
some yippie community Citroen :-)
Saw the latest Lancias, spotted a VERY LOUD Alfa 156 racing the
hi speed ring... and I really believe it was a 156 GTA test (hell,
it was deadly loud...!!!).
In few words: tell me they sell coupla rooms out of those buildings,
and I'd definitely move there. I don't really like the neigboor,
but I think that with a supermarked and a parts supplier I can
limit my world to this property's boundaries :-)) There's just all
we need :)))

The sunday, after nite partying, I managed to wake me up and 
go racing. After some 3 laps around a 2km circuit, cut up from
the twisties labyrint, we started to queue up to for having,
each of us, our 2 glorious laps in the Epic Balocco roads.
We were no more than 40 cars, mostly Alfettas... all versions,
including an original TurboDelta.
In the 75 category, I placed myself 2nd, following a '91 75 Turbo
Q.V.... the very same guy who ended at my shoulders when we raced
last time in october 2001. One for me one for him... waiting for
the next race to see who's gonna lead the pack :)))))


The weekend ended with a very nice lounch, full of alfa talkings,
the chairman said who won, gave prizes, and then finally we
rode back home.  

We experienced all the troubles of the world.  My car decided 
to disable the speedo (promptly enabled hitting the top of the 
dashboard). The winner's car was loosing coupla turbo's bolts :)
and so on.... It's nice to love these car and then meet up and 
talk about the troubles, the WEIRD troubles, making these car so
bastard, but still so loved by us all.  We were planning to
write a book, full of little stories, weird troubles, funny
alfa anedoctes.... on the cover an alfa romeo tshirt homeless
asking money with an alfa romeo hat, and some text saying "help
me, I've 4 alfas at home" :-)))

I was definitely a great time.

Luca

nodoubt, 
Soon firing up 937 landpilot
"I like anything that don't talk." King Benny - Sleepers
937RS2, 75 Turbo, RM250


http://www.geocities.com/twowheels_99

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