Ultimostile

Dusting off the Bertone for 2014

Yesterday I boogied the Bertone around for an hour.

I have that other car, you know - the blue Bertone. It's been with me since I bought it from Stelvio (see www.stelvio.dk) back in 1999. And now it needs a preparation for the 16th season in my ownership. It's almost grown up!

Today, all cleaned up and posing in front of the garage.

I used the opportunity while the missus (and her Skoda Fabia) was out of the garage, to issue the car with my DIY "roller skates", and huffed and puffed for almost an hour to get it out of the corner of the garage, where it had been sitting all winter.

Control post for mastering the blue car.

I had some friends over wednesday evening for a little AUTO SALON in my secret lair in the basement of our house. The subject was "Can the Ultimostile brand be expanded into something that will inspire and enrich the classic car community?", and it started with a ceremony in the garage where the Bertone was started. Per Holmen filmed the bursting into life of the engine, and I want to thank him as well as Klaus Hahn and Frederik Øvlisen for their expert contribution in the deep Salons. More about that later.

The fire-breather end of the blue machine.

Now the car has had a once-over with soap and water, a squirt of oil in the rusty cracks and tomorrow I am going to a ViaRETRO gathering in Bagsværd north of Copenhagen, where the Citroën DS will be worshipped (as it always deserves) ... and everybody not bringing a DS, will have to bring cheese. I must find some or other obscure italian piece of Formaggio.

Nice lump - and very photogenic at it, as well.

This saturday trip will eventually bring me and the Bertone to Skallebølle, where I will meet with Steffen Madsen and swap the Blue Car with the Red Car. The Bertone will then get fresh valve guides/seals and I will take the Giulietta (yes, the red car) home, after duly having attended the live televising of Australia's Grand Prix from Melbourne.

Orifice for the emmision of violent noise.

I will try to make some decent video with my new camera - if I can possibly master the extremely complicated features of the bloody thing. See y'all out there.

 

Mito prepped for Oldtimer GP travel

-11 days before Alfa Classico

For obvious reasons I have been neglecting my Alfa Romeo Mito 1.3. The reasons of cause being that I always pick the Bertone GT when I am going somewhere in my Ultimostile guise. But I must admit that I take the Mito to work every morning - except on a few days when I really feel like driving the blue turner.

But now something has turned up that requires me to fiddle a bit with the red car: I am going to the Nürburgring Oldtimer GP in two days. I will go with Gert Sterner, Claus Larsen and Søren Bærholm, and we are going in the Mito - all four of us.

So I checked the oil level and washed it inside and out. And I was a bit concerned that maybe the Pirelli PZero Nero rubber was a bit too worn. And what about the brake pads?! Because we are going to buy a 4-lap ring card, and each of us will have a go in the 90 bhp diesel-stowe, and it would be embarassing if the pads when sqreetch during such a holy ceremony.

But all was well - and I am glad I checked. I was beginning to plan how to get hold of new pads and do the change-over tomorrow evening. We are leaving early friday from Odense in order to be at the North loop for the 2 o'clock start in the 400 km marathon for classic cars on the Nordschleife. And that means that I will be leaving home thursday afternoon. Bring it on!

Cleanliness is next to godliness

 

Today's chapter brings us through the alps and into the motherland of Alfa Romeo; Italy. We drove from Adenau and the Nürburgring in my car and left our crash helmets, warm clothes and dirty laundry in Gert Sterner's Alfa Romeo 145Q.

Now the Giro Orso Veloce 2012 started for real.

The original plan had been agreed with some of the other participants on the web-forum (see www.veloce.se) and it gave us some important fix-points; sunday there would be a Swiss car-meet in Dolder and otherwise we would just need to turn up monday morning sharp at the Basel auto-train station (which coinsidentally lies just across the border in Germany). Here we would meet everybody for the first time ... and then we would cross the Alps and dive into the warm, calm and pleasant land of the stylish Italians.

Wanting to go over - having to go under ...

But alas, all Alp passes on or near our route were closed because of too much snow - so we were forced to take the 10-mile St. Gotthard tunnel. But we would still make a halt at a nice restaurant on the way and prepare ourselves for next week's culinary excellence. It all went very well - and everybody were happy and excited.

Once installed at the Albergo Stazione just across the bridge at the southern tip of Lago d'Iseo in the town of Sarnico, we started the process of getting to know people, and finding out who drove which cars. A group of 36 participating cars with crews is a big challenge to grasp - and some were more talkative than others - so we ended up sharing a beverage or three with Klaus Hahn and his brother Per Hahn.

As you may have read elsewhere on this Blog, I already know Klaus Hahn and we had our own plans for the whole trip. Mostly because Klaus has done the trip before, and knows what to expect - and what to avoid. But also because we wanted to participate as much as posible in the Orso Veloce activities, while still getting our own stuff done.

One of our own goals were to get into the Riva Boat Yeard on the banks of Lago d'Iseo and another was to drive around the lake and have dinner at a restaurant that Klaus remembered from a previous visit. And - I really needed to get my car washed, because it looks so much better when it is clean. That dark blue colour and the glass and chrome trim just makes it stand out in a very expensive looking way - when it is clean.

I paid 20 euro for a complete wash in-and-out ... my car has never been washed as thoroughly.