I had an Alfa Romeo GTV Alfetta from 1983 until 2003. I used it until I hit a large rock on our property and bounced over the top of it, and it broke the rear clutch housing. That put paid to that; it was pretty rusty by then so I never restored it.

That car was a classic; it ran for years with barely a spanner on it.

One problem, which was a pain in the butt, was that the carburettors would get a little bit or moisture in the jets and she would run a bit rough. I fitted a diesel filter with a glass bowl at the bottom of it, that could be drained and the problem was solved; never had the problem again.

I used to change the oil and filter about every two years, and at that time loosened the pinch bolt for the duplex timing chain adjuster and would nip it up again.

I had that car running like a charm on petrol, then I decided to fit LPG to save money. I got special LPG adaptor plates for the Dellorto carburettors from Italy. First off, it ran bad, always had a flat spot and surged at about 60 kilometers an hour. Couldn't find out what the problem was. Then one day I was travelling with a tail wind and it ran perfect; that got me thinking, and it turned out that all that was needed was an air directional adjustment into the air filter and the problem was solved. It seemed the wind was upsetting the air flow and upsetting the flow of gas from the LPG mixers on the Dellorto Carbys. Funny how it took to LPG after a while, but in the early stages it just didn't run well on it. The LPG mechanic said to me that some cars took to LPG like a duck to water, and others simply hated the stuff and he had no idea why.

I never had a problem with the synchros on my car, as I ran a special oil in the box, which made it really smooth and easy to change gears. A good friend of mine drove the car and told me he had never driven one that was that smooth, and I told him it was just the special oil I used in it. I never ever had to double clutch the car to change gears.

The only grizzle I had with driving the Alfa was that it had no power steering in tight spots, and the clutch got awful heavy in city traffic, and being tall my head used to touch the roof. Apart from those few things, it was good car.

When my car retired, it had 457,000 kilometers on it. That motor was still going when it got retired. The old Alfa may have been a rust bucket, but she handled well, and what I liked most was you could practically rebuild the engine in the car without removing it if you had to. I remember I had to replace the water pump at 330,000 kilometers, and it took a whole 30 minutes to do it.

Cheers, John Duczek