ALFAGTV6.COM

Playtime again guys! Friday morning (May 19) we're on the plane for the Holy Ground! Takes about 3hours for Dusseldorf, and 1hour to drive south to the Ring.
This is a call for Maurizio, Mats, Micke and anyone else who wants to play with Ron's TS and 3liter 75's plus have a great time off-track (and don't say you forgot about the schnitzels...boy, I can almost smell them ) Sunday is driving day so we can shoot the *&%## Friday evening and Saturday morning.
Hey Barry, you reading this??? I can see you in your pytzamas reading the paper on Sunday morning...man, that must be exciting
Hey Mats, whats your excuse
Jim K.[/b]

Jim,

I'll be working in Papenburg next week. IF we finish in time I'll be there next Friday for a chat.

Jim,You have the time of your life!! Enjoy..I tried damn hard to make it,finances ruled otherwise...
(In my best Arnie voice..)Ill be back!!....

JimGreek wrote:
Hey Mats, whats your excuse

Reason 1

Reason 2

Good enough for you?

Good Micke, I'll look forward to meeting you!
Thats good racing Mats, but I don't know if it qualifies for an excuse, 500-700Euros for the Ring ain't gonna kill ya! It's the RING we're talking about after all, not some ho-hum shitty track!
Barry, what can I say...when we come back, I'll pitch in to buy ya a nice rocking chair and a knitting set!
You still got time to repent and all yer past sins will be forgotten!
Jim K.

I can't go this year. My wife is expecting. Maybe next year? I was hoping to go around April this year, but no one went.

Expectin, huh? All the more reason for a few days away with the boys, heheh!
We'll probably do it again late Sept/early October like last year. Twice a year is just what the doctor ordered
Jim k.

shut up, Gollum.

Boy am I jealous, Jim so you're planning another trip in september? as soon as you know the dates let me know so I can ask for my vacations at that time and join you guys!!

Vacation? You'll only have to call in sick for a Friday and Monday (which isn't far from the truth, we had one guy get actually sick from driving in there (there are a couple of roller-coaster ups and downs in the Ring. The faster you go the more chance you have of seeing last night's pizza again, heheh!)
Jim K.

hehe, well even though the offer is tempting I have the problem of living about 17000km's away from the ring, and since i'm not flying to Madrid yet, escaping to the ring for a weekend even if it is possible it is a bit complicated right know i'd say...but..given a little more planning time i'm sure I can make it to the next september-october meeting!

It'll be good to get a few guys from the site there at the same time but seeing we're all in different countries its really not that easy or cheap, unfortunately.

Wanna brighten up a Monday morning?
Here is some strange and interesting things that go on in Italy regarding some obscure decisions about Alfa surplus (?) production and the handling of same. A few months ago (mid to late 2005) a friend Alfa mechanic/used parts dealer learned that brand-new 156/147/GTA's and some Fiats were going to be destroyed (!) as surplus. Apparently, this had something to do with the new GM V6 engine...This guy and another Fiat mechanic (both from Athens) went to Milan and stayed there for a month, taking new cars apart! The consignment of cars was trucked over to this junk dealer who apparently outbidded in the relative factory auction. He in turn sold each car for 4kEuros (4,000) to our guys and they proceeded to strip them out, not being allowed to take them away whole. They unbolted everything that could be unbolted, then they rolled the cars on their sides (!) so they could unbolt the engine/tansmission/suspension frame and everything else that needed removal, leaving only a couple of loose bolts on. Then, they dropped them back down, lifted them up with a big forklift and removed the powertrain frame whole. So these guys came back here with complete new cars (minus body) in pieces. I was over there Saturday looking for some parts and saw about 8-10 complete pallets with shiny new stuff! He said he sells the entire car transformationpackage (you bring your 156/147 1.6 or whatever in the shop and drive away with a 3.2/gta within a month or less) for about 11-12kEuros. Not a bad profit margin! Of course, he tied up about 30-40kEuros to begin with. Thing is, with oil prices going where they are, the mod business all but died and now he sits there looking at all this new stuff!
Well, same thing happened 20-odd years ago with gtv6's with a twist: when the cars were unloaded back then (now get this!) there were factory guys there with big f. hammers smashing the shit out of the cars, so nobody would sell them for new! No doors or hoods were opened, just trashed all the eye can see! Same story with a 'junkie' winning the auction, I got this story from the 'junkie' himself when I went there myself looking for parts for my gtv. Yeah...I know how you all must feel now, totally unimaginable, total waste!
How's this for a bright morning? Betcha didn't know it!!
Jim K.

Jim,When Alfa left S.A. in 1986,they dug a trench with front end loaders at the then factory..piled ALL the new parts in,including engines,gearboxes,etc..and drove over them with those spiked wheel dozers used on rubbish tips..

We cried..for weeks...some of us though,managed to get some new stuff from contacts back door....but yea,its still underground at Brits..

Tooling for body panels were dumped in the ocean....

All these actions bring to mind the countless mothballed surplus aircraft around the US, due to service downsizing. I visited Davis-Monthan once (Tucson) and the place is packed with F16's, A10's and all kinds of other 'right stuff' machinery! Then, the US Army ran 'dozers over hundreds of Stingers a few years ago (good thing I made over 14.000 of them over here, heheh! ) And they also hacksawed Pershing II and cruise missiles (under SALT/START or whatever)...all that power... and nobody to nuke Any ideas Barry??

Micke, my cell is 0030-6972-081801. As of 1pm Friday, I'll be in Duss.
Jim K.

Mats wrote:Reason 1

Reason 2

Excellent!