Alfa

Replacing my Milano with a Milano

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Just east of Portland, above the Columbia River, lies Corbett, Oregon, a swath of utterly tranquil American landscape.  There, the Historic Columbia River Highway permits glimpses of the river valley, where conifers and diffuse light from low clouds conspire in a vivid scene with the rock cliffs and the water below.  Stray from the RV-friendly scenic highway, and your gaze shifts from the horizon to the pitch-black switchbacks lined with red pine needles.  The road surfaces are too unforgiving to enjoy a stiffly sprung sports car, and with the light bicycle traffic, the ragged edge of tire adhesion is off limits.  Enter the Italian sports sedan.

A month of standing sentinel over “Alfa Romeo Milano Verde” on a Craigslist, a year with a rewards credit card, and a two hour garage blaze culminated in an impromptu flight to Oregon to retrieve my latest object of obsession. The mere sound of the approaching Busso V6 as the seller pulled up to pick my girlfriend and me up from our AirBnB in Portland affirmed my decision to buy; the seller’s small-talk, abridged life story affirmed my latest life decisions.  Oregon is one of very few places where you might meet a man who decided to append his automotive engineering degree with grad studies in environmental science because he didn’t respect what engineering represented in the 70s – one of the few places where you might meet a man who quit his job 4 years out of school because he “needed a vacation”.  Instant affirmation.

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My Milano is Gone.

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All I had left to address was the 2nd gear synchro, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to fix that last trace of Alfa idiosyncrasy.  Nearly two years into the most involving, frustrating and absorbing auto ownership experience in my 25 years, I lost my Alfa, my garage, and with them, my GTI and two of my brother’s cars.

I will be perfectly clear.  Alfas are reliable; neglected cars are not.

I had purchased a neglected 1989 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde two summers prior to bridge the gap between the BMW e30 I owned at the time, and the Ferrari 308 that I knew I shouldn’t buy.  The practical exotic.  4 doors and a Busso V6 with an exhaust note that could embarrass any fuel-injected 80s Ferrari V8.  A useable trunk and a rear-mounted transaxle with inboard mounted brake rotors.  Room for human beings and a torsion bar front, DeDion rear suspension.  And, under 3k RPM, you’d be hard pressed to turn any heads in traffic.
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Shuffle in the Lineup: 1991 Audi Turbo Quattro 20V Avant

Audi 200 Turbo Quattro 20V Taylor’s new project car is waiting for him in Michigan.  They say that the bottom ends on these Audi 5-cylinders are stout, but we’ll probably rebuild and fortify it before addressing the turbo.  I’m looking forward to some AWD launch squats.

Since Taylor has moved on to the Audi, I’ll be taking care of his old 164Q for now.  We got a fresh timing belt, water pump, and timing belt pulleys on it this spring, so it’s down to taking care of some cosmetic items for the fall.

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Spotted in Philly

On a recent trip to Philly for Ande’s art show, I engaged full dork mode and carried my camera around my neck.  I caught a trio of blue hatchbacks, a Defender 90, a 300 TE, a 524td, and a 164B.

The best part was waiting in the parking lot to spot the 164 driver.  I wouldn’t normally do that in Indiana, but I figured that someone in Philly would be acclimated to, you know, meeting new people.  The occupants of the Alfa turned out to be a small gray-hair in a suit, joined by a similarly-clad but 110% scale partner.

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