Blast from the past

[colcol]

In 1972 there was a Alfa Romeo dealer in Ringwood, Victoria at 409 Maroondah highway Ringwood, called Mark Windsor Motors, place is still there, but now is called Procar, they sell all sorts of late used cars, and you see the odd late Model Alfa Romeo there, i purchased a VT Commodore there about 13 years ago, it is just up the road from Car City, in 1972 it would have almost been a Country Alfa Romeo Dealer, from 41 years ago, anybody remember this place?, Colin.

[Evan Bottcher]

This article has an interesting synopsis of the early (actually mid-, I suppose) Alfa Romeo history in Australia, including Murray Wright's MW motors...

http://www.shannons.com.au/club/news/alfa-romeo-105-coupe-essence-of-ferrari/

[colcol]

I often wondered what happened to Joe Kenwright, if i remember rightly he used to write in the AGE motoring section DRIVE, he did a column called 'Rear View', and he would look at owners of old cars and do a story on them, Joe is much missed as is the Drive section of the AGE.
It is the only part of the SUN that is better than the AGE, still not going to buy the SUN though, Colin.

[GTV-074]

Col.... Joe has a regular spot in Unique Cars magazine....

Mainly reminiscing about Oz built/assembled cars.

[Victor Lee]

Article here by Joe about Alfa 147GTA -

http://www.uniquecarsmag.com.au/news-and-reviews/article/articleid/78475.aspx

[colcol]

All what Joe said was a good modern Front Wheel Drive car is better than a old 75-90 series with poor quality build and materials with a woefull gearchange, but you have to get a Q2 diff before the standard one explodes, he said the 147GTA is like a GTR Torana like they raced at Bathurst, a big 3.2 powerfull motor shoehorned into a small body, Colin.

[Victor Lee]

How about these notable Club Members from the 1986 Annual Trophy Dinner Night?   

[colcol]

The man in the back ground with the glasses is the late Ray Sharp, thankfully none are me because to win a trophy you have to do something good and i had a beard from 1977-1993, Colin.

[colcol]

Is the young man smiling in the 3rd picture Vin Sharp, the Alfa Romeo engine Guru from PACE engineering?, Colin.

[aggie57]

Yep. And you can just see Marie on the right of the first picture.

[Evan Bottcher]

Victor already showed me these pics. Interested to see if anyone picks the mustachioed chap in the first pic?

[Sheldon McIntosh]

I'm guessing the first pic is a very handsome Alister Grigg?

And the second is Don Johnson  Andrew Carra?  (This one looks obvious to me now, but Gina picked that one for me)

[aggie57]

I'm guessing the first pic is a very handsome Alister Grigg?

And the second is Don Johnson  Andrew Carra?  (This one looks obvious to me now, but Gina picked that one for me)

I have to fess up that you're right on both counts.  And of course fess up that I must have enjoyed a few decent meals since that photo was taken..I say nothing about Andrew!

But as a side note, we (being Dave Crump and I) were awarded the bunny in recognition of the lack of rear shocks in our then current 105 GTj, a.k.a. The Rocket.  1290cc of pure driving adrenalin for which I still have the purchase receipt - $750 from some business off Bridge Rd in Richmond.  Thinking back it wasn't such a bad car.  The left side sill was gone but in those days genuine parts could be had for a few dollars and long evenings with a few pizza's, some VB (remember, this was the 80's) and a gas torch tended to fix things.

[aggie57]

Actually, building on this theme anyone else remember the car dealer in Camberwell that used to sell shonky old european cars, the ones that the main dealers didnt want to touch?  They were on Riversdale Rd where the Caltex servo is now, just across the junction from Henly's.

One car they had was a red 1.8 Alfetta sedan that somebody locally had converted into a wagon.  It sat on their yard for months and I recall it was rather rotten as well as being rather ugly!

[Paul Gulliver]

car dealer in Camberwell that used to sell shonky old european cars

Alister, I had to chuckle when I read this . I used work in the building behind that car yard. (The VTU building in Camberwell Rd) circa 1981 - 82 . One of the guys at the office brought a 1977 Lancia Beta Coupe from them. About 5years old,  but after he bought it and read the service books he found out that it had done about 200,000klms. The trouble started about 2 weeks after he brought it. I just rang him then to see if he remembered their name . He couldn't , but he rolled off the name of " that lying bastard of a used car salesman" who sold it to him like it was yesterday.

Could the dealer have been "David Wright Motors"    


Bump, I looked at those photo's and never would have picked it as you.  Maybe we have all put in some hard yards over the  last 30 years or so. I know my hair has gone grey , my airbag has gone off & its about a 10 minute walk around me these days.

Gully