Like geeman 1963, I'm back in the Afla fold. And it feels so good finally. I've always loved cars & driving, though never had anything special, until I got an Alfa Giulietta, I think it was a 1980.
This was the sort of Alfa that gives Alfas a bad name. The indicator stalk fell off, a problem with the carbies, head gasket went. That was the first week!!! And it just kept going from there. Lost synchro 2-1 so had to double declutch every change, all sorts of things went wrong with it. After a year or two I changed lifestyle so I traded it on a :o Mazda 121 :o . Some pretty banal auto cars after that, during my child-rearing-responsible-parent years.
Was flipping through the car section of the newspaper thinking about what car to get next and suddenly saw the most erotic car porn I'd ever seen - the black & white Brera ad - you know the one I mean. That was it. I may have been driving around in a Holden Zafira, but my soul was driving an Alfa. 8)
I couldn't afford a Brera, I have a 2004 166, the pre-facelift model - at least it's black. It isn't a manual, but the sports auto mode is pretty close, for those days when I do want to 'kick it'. Turning circle of a road train is a downer, but I can laugh about it. It's in pretty good condition and I am in the process of fixing annoying little issues before it can do anything major to my bank balance.
These days I'm a middle-aged woman who now obeys speed limits (most of the time). But dear God I love my car and I love driving again. Every time I see it I smile & think; "Damn that's a beautiful car!" and when I start it up I smile even broader. People treat you differently too out on the road. The young men in their pretty utes want to race me, Corollas & Micras get out of my way.
Ah, life is good!