Alfa travels in Japan

[Stefano Iachella<iachella@domain.elided>]

Hey cats,

I just got back from two weeks in Japan riding
high speed trains and dodging typhoons in Okinawa.
For a US resident, there are some crazy looking
cars there. But my highlight was driving a new
GTV courtesy of Peter Hoare of this list. 

Peter met my wife and I at Watanabe's garage, 
where his Spider with a twin spark is waiting
final parts. There were several Maserati Shamals
there, another car I had never seen in person.
A mechanic from the shop actually met us at the
train station and drove us the last 15 min to the
shop in a Lancia HF Integrale Turbo. That was a
treat too.

I wanted to sit in the new GTV so Peter made an
inquiry to the mechanic in Japanese. A few moments
later the car was running and we were expected to
drive it. I was a little worried due to the 
driving on the left side of the road, but the car
was a left hand drive, so I was comfortable at
least while in the car. 

It was a very nice drive indeed. I would surely 
have bought one if they were in the US, or if I
lived overseas. The engine has a lot of torque. I
did feel some torque steer. I thought Alfa had 
done a good job in minimizing that, but maybe that
was with the 156. 

Another Italian car highlight was the Ferrari FX
on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Tokyo. The display was for the design art of
Ferrari and Maserati, so other cars were there
too. It became apparent that this was not just a
car show, but an art display. Things were spaced
far appart and camshafts were on pedestals. F1
exhaust headers were lined up on pedestals as well
as cut up engines and heads. Of course the last
display was the FX. It was only a carbon fibre
mock up, thought. The final prototype is supposed
to be at one of the European car shows this Fall.
It looks better than the pictures though. It is 
very wide and low (of course). The windows were 
all black though, they must still be working on
the interior back in Italy. I think the display
goes on through September, so if you are in the
area, it's worth a look.

Stefano
Oakland, CA
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