Check out these "whips"

Today I heard from an old friend from my high school days at Daniel J Gross High in Omaha, Jeff Ramaekers. It's been a number of years since I have seen Jeff but I do recall the last time.

We were standing in his driveway and I was drooling all over his Fiat Spider. Oh how jealous I was as I had wanted a Spider for many a moon. It just wasn't in the cards though, until many years later.

In a lot of ways I credit Jeff for my interest in Italian cars. Sure, as a youngster I leafed through countless car magazines and dreamed of Fiat Spiders, Fiat X 1/9's, Maserati Biturbos, Alfa Romeo GTV's etc. But it wasn't until that concrete moment in time when I saw Jeff's Spider that I knew someday I would have one.

Well it turns out mine was not a Fiat Spider but an Alfa Romeo Spider, but hey, close enough! :=)

So Jeff emailed me today as he reads this blog and he told me of the affinity he and his sons have for VW's. His son Tyler has a wicked 1995 GTi VR6 and his son Cameron drives a beautiful 2001 VW Jetta VR6. Jeff encourages his sons to work on their cars and they have done all sorts of maintenance and performance work on the cars. If you look closely at the pics of Tyler's GTi you can see the Best of Class trophy he won at the 2006 MoKan (Missouri/Kansas) VW show in Lawrence, KS. Awesome!

When I was a boy growing up I loved working with my dad in the driveway on the cars. There's not much more satisfying than making something mechanical work properly. Thanks to my dad for letting me spend time under the hood or crawling around on pavement working on oil changes and exhausts and....

Like Jeff and his sons I have had an affinity for VW's as well over the years. My first car that I actually bought (well, my dad helped by co-signing the loan) was a 1971 VW Type III Fastback. Oh how I LOVED that car. So frigging cool! I also owned a 1974 VW Super Beetle that I bought for a thrifty price from my older brother Matt. There's nothing liked an old air-cooled Beetle....some would say thank God for that but I loved mine. My pal and then next door neighbor Mike "Stal" Caniglia had a Beetle as well. We had some fun trips in that old Bug! Later in life I graduated to a VW Golf. German cars are just a lot of fun to drive. They handle really well and are generally solidly built.

Anyway, enough of my jabbering, here are some pics of the VW's I owned (the Fastback and Beetle pics are not of mine but mine were similar) and the beautiful whips that Jeff's sons own. Thanks for spurring the trip down memory lane Jeff. Through the ups and the downs, it's been a fun ride so far. :=)

CLICK PICS TO ENLARGE

A visit to Matanzas Inlet

Today I took a drive north up the coast to a place called Matanzas Inlet. This is an area where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Matanzas river.

Believe it or not on the way up I passed a beige Alfa Spider (we gave each other the THUMBS UP!) and on the way back I saw a red Alfa Spider going the other way. We're taking over!!

Here are a few pics as I walked along the beach for an hour or so.


CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICS ON PHOTOBUCKET!(with captions!)

1991 Alfa 164L - Transmission filter/oil change

This morning I played around in the garage for a little while, removing and replacing the automatic transmission filter and fluid in my 1991 Alfa Romeo 164L.

It's an amazingly easy job, just one drain bolt (8mm allen head) and 3 bolts (10mm) on the plate holding the filter cartridge in place.

After letting the fluid drain for about 30 minutes, I pulled the old filter cartridge out. I replaced the o-ring on the plate, inserted the new filter and replaced the plate and the 3 10mm bolts. After refitting the drain bolt, I refilled the transmission with Dexron III (red) fluid.

What a piece of cake (chocolate please)!

Here are some tremendous photos. If you are easily excited I recommend taking a sedative before viewing these.

CLICK ON THE PICS TO SEE THEM IN THEIR FULL GLORY!

A Guzzi Saturday!

This morning I headed out on my Moto Guzzi Breva. I met Bob(HD Heritage Softail), Andrew (Triumph Tiger) and Jayne for a little ride north to a place called Angel's Dining Car, a rail car that was converted to a diner in the 1930's. It was a great ride and a great lunch!

We took hwy 17 from Deland north all the way to Palatka. It's a nice road, not really much for fun curves, but scenic enough and not a ton of traffic. After we ate at Angel's, we rode to the coast near Flagler beach and headed south to Ormond Beach, where we turned inward and stopped off at the Moto Guzzi dealer and the Harley dealer in Ormond Beach.

From there it was a fairly quick blast down I-95 and I-4 to home.

Click on pics to enlarge them.

Hooray it's Friday!

The work week is drawing to an end. :=) I got up this morning a little early and did something I don't normally do...I made some coffee at home and had a couple cups before I left for work. Dunkin Donuts whole bean. Good coffee :) Drank it from my neat Moto Guzzi Breva coffee cup :)...my favorite cup.

All week I have been driving the Alfa Romeos to work, most days the 164L as I needed to keep monitoring the recently repaired a/c and make sure it was maintaining cold temps. So far (knock on wood) it is doing fine according to my digital meat thermometer.

So today is jeans day at work. Always a good day to ride the motorcycle to work. I kinda feel i have been neglecting my Moto Guzzi Breva lately as i have been preoccupied with the Alfa's a/c. Today was the day to finally get on the Breva.

As she always does, the Breva fired right up with a tap of the starter button. I get a little warm putting my gear on in the driveway on a humid Florida morn. Once I hop on the bike and start moving though, the warmth disappears as the air rushes by.

I especially like the Breva on the interstate (I-4) for my 17 mile commute to work. A twist of the throttle moves me quickly past slow traffic hogging the "passing" lane. The smaller size of the Breva also lets me insert myself into situations where a car just wouldn't fit. It makes the morning commute enjoyable :)

At work I park the Breva so that I can peer at it out the window. She sits on her center stand and awaits the ride home.

~8 more hours and hopefully this work week is a goner. More quality time and fun to come with the Breva this weekend. :=)

Still cold in the Alfa 164!

The a/c is still kicking out cold air in my 1991 Alfa Romeo 164L. I hope it stays that way as Florida's most humid and hot weather is probably coming in August.

With the help of my keen digital meat thermometer, I measured just above 48 degrees at the vent while it was ~90 degrees outside. Not too shabby!

Grand Funk Tune O' The Day

Today's tune is actually a Mark Farner tune from the late 1980's, when Farner was a solo act (post Grand Funk) and was performing as a Christian rock artist.

The tune is called Judgment Day Blues and features some very nice bluesy guitar from Farner. The album, released in 1988, was called Just Another Injustice.

Click the link below.....

Judgment Day Blues