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I’d been searching between SEA/LAX the past year for a manual rear-drive car made the year I was born. Nothing too fancy just something to beat the shit out of and have fun with to keep me off my motorbike in the city. I was just about to pull the trigger on an 82 Capri with a 372 windsor that sounded healthy on solid lifters + tremec and a currie rear-end. I drove 130 miles to give the guy a cash offer at 90\% of his asking price and got turned away – luckily. Maybe. The next day I saw a GTV6 in the bay area that was just nasty enough for me. The seller had obviously made a business from cars and I’m sure had been low-balled by a million of ALFA dudes in the area turned off by Balocco body rot. I got a video from the owner prior to catching a bolt bus up from LA. He said everything worked great mechanically and you can never trust that. The video’s only reveal was that the car had cams and could idle. He was cool enough to meet me near my friends shop on Treasure Island making his way from San Jose to seal the deal. A a new radiator was issued as part of the deal prior to meeting. I put in a new temp sensor, some timing adjustment and checked all fluids between my friends shop and Chris Off in Berkely after some inspection the hours after exchanging $. I drove straight from SF into Seattle’s Capitol Hill Ferrari the next day for kicks after the 800 or so miles @3.5k RPM in 5th getting 30mpg. I caught a meeting the next day at 9am and pushed it back to LA after with a 4hr parking lot nap in between – ending up in a muffler shop on Figueroa to remove the restrictor. I’ve been pulled over for that last bit a few times recently and have made it between Seattle and LA another time since this maiden voyage back in May. My girlfriend accompanied me with the straight pipe setup back from Spokane on the last leg of the 2nd trip just 2 weeks back. I’ve thought about supercharging, heard talk of removing the transaxle in favor of better shifting, gotten backed into front bumper removed and haven’t looked back at the Capri even when the guy tried to sell it to me for 1/2 of his original asking price. I’ve gotten comfortable with how to carry speed in the GTV6 and am not the slightest bit insecure how the straight pipe sounds even though my 26 yr old nephew tells me he cant hear the motor ; ) Its underpowered on bilsteins with a bit too much camber and makes up for it all in character. I’ll never forget finding and driving the car of my dreams made the month and the year of my birth for better and worse. As long as the bottom end stays together I’ll drive it for life.

See a few pictures of my trip linked below:

http://bur-n-out.blogspot.com/2014/05/31982-gtv6-balocco.html

Here is the previous toy-car on a proper winter rally in Austria in 2013. Absolutely the most unsuitable car for the event, but great fun!

Donegal, Ireland, two weeks ago in the emptiness
[url=”http://www.twstr.com/1.jpg”]Porsche backroads[/url]

Picked up my Mini in SF and drove the PCH all the way back to Seattle.

Last autumn I bought my first car. A little kashmirbeige BMW E30 316i 2 door saloon. This summer I made my first roadtrip from Groningen (north of the Netherlands) to Paris and Bordeaux. This is my car in St. Emillion best known for its great wines. Around 3000 kilometers mostly tarmac but also some gravel roads/off-road without any problemo’s :). Great car!

Roadtrip 2014.jpg