5/1/13

As Mr. Paratestes pointed out in the comments, “napped and slept” was indeed redundant over and over again.  What I meant to say was either “napped and ate” or “ate and slept” or something to that effect when telling y'all about my recovery activities on Sunday.  So, there’s that going on.  As for other things, well, it’s like this.  The BBC programme “Top Gear” claims that one cannot be a true “petrol head” until one has owned an Alfa Romeo.  I passed this comment along to John the other day and he found a 1981 Alfa Romeo Spyder on Craigslist.  I looked it up and saw that it was only $1,600.00 because it had fuel system issues and no interior.  I was intrigued.  I suggested to John that we replace the Magnetti Marelli (which is Italian for “Lucas”) wiring with a Hot Rod Wires harness and plop a Nissan KA-24 engine in it.  He didn’t shoot the idea down.  Gregg, on the other hand, did.  “Why would you replace an Alfa engine with a Nissan?” he asked.  I refrained from saying, “To piss off the Alfisti,” and said, “Aren’t they crap?”  Apparently not… the SPICA fuel injection IS, but the twin-cam Alfa engine itself is supposed to be pretty good.  As the car is over twenty-five years old and thus exempt from emissions, Gregg pointed out that the plan should be to replace the MM wiring as discussed and replace the FI with a pair of Weber DCOE side draft carburetors.  I was even more intrigued.  I looked up the DCOE kit from Pierce Manifolds and the $1,500.00 price tag didn’t scare me off… as it SHOULD have done.  I was still more intrigued.  I asked John if we should make a trip to Not Texas to grok the thing.  Fortunately John is wise beyond my years and talked me down from the cliff’s edge.  I'm still not convinced it is not a good idea… but I'm going to force myself to wait a bit.  Besides, I really think I'd prefer a Mini.  I've got an open-air toy… and reneging on the deal with B. R. Eastman to take back the Spitfire would make more sense than getting into yet another project like that.  I'm not going to do that of course because… well, I'm just not, that’s all.  Having said all of that, the Alfa in question looks to be in really nice shape, cosmetically.  It would be a good starting point for a pretty toy in my fleet.  Damn it, now I want to go get the thing.  Of course if I wait around for a couple more weeks, the seller might get desperate and be willing to take $1,000.00 for it.  We’ll see.  I just realized something.  Last month began with the introduction of a new project, Oliver Closehoff.  This month is beginning with the prospect of yet another dumb assed idea on my part.  Interesting.  Am I really that flighty?  Yes, I suppose I am.  Well, we’ll see what John has to say when he reads this, but I'm pretty sure the plan for Saturday will be to yank the engine from George and get it ready to move to Florida.  No, I haven’t heard anything more from that dude about coming to get it, but I think it would behoove me to have it ready for when I do.  And on that note, I guess I'll call it a rant.