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What a beauty

Here is Kim Vaessen (The beauty) standing beside our car. It was the first car I ever owned. A sweet little roadster with Pirelli™ tires. This Alpha Romeo GT-Junior™ was built in 1972, and I bought it in 1985. I had never driven a stick shift (5 speed) before, and one of my dorm buddies taught me how to drive the thing. This sweet little sports car had the handling of a bicycle and the speed of a cheetah. With one inch of ground clearance, and a sleek six cylinder engine, I tempted death many times on the auto-strada's and country roads of southern Italy. Speed limit? What's that? Not in Italy.

The rat-bastard that sold me the thing didn't happen to mention the fact that the head gasket was blown. That was my first repair with this car. After the head gasket there were many other problems. My mechanic (Tony of course) kept soaking me for money every time I showed up at the garage. Eventually the truth came out. The final phase for this A1C. It needed a new engine! No way I could afford that. Kim and I proceeded to drive this baby into the ground. It didn't take long. Within a year we found ourselves begging, and borrowing, not stealing, cars from friends. Eventually we got a loan from my parents and we bought a Jeep Wrangler™, but that's another story. (Photo copyright: Jim Sistare)