I dug out some photo's of cars I used to own. I had fond memories of most of them.

1998 Alfa 156 2.4JTD. Another car owned for a very short time as I didn't really need it and at the time was thinking of buying a New Fiat 500 Abarth. But that's another story.

1998 Fiat Coupe 20 Valve. I only owned this car for 3 weeks and would have kept it a lot longer but no sooner had I bought it than my mate Nick decided to sell his Grey Alpine GTA and I couldn't miss it.  

1995 Fiat Cinquecento Sporting. My 3rd one and a little car that has done the rounds round my friends to keep them going until they got other cars. You never know, it could end up bacl with me again at some point.

Alfa Romeo Brera 2.4 JTD.  30/01/07. I just lifted it today. I have been driving a Brera 2.2 petrol while waiting on my car to come through and noticed straight away the difference in the diesel car. It is so smooth to drive. First impressions are very good indeed. On the way home it was averaging 42mpg which is fantastic.  I think I'm going to like this car a lot. This was it when I arrived to pick it up from Mervyn Stewarts.

  

I couldn't wait any longer for the keys. This is Des "the best sales Manager in the world" handing over the key. Mind you he was holding onto it very tightly.  The Photo was taken by Northern Irelands top photographer Cairan O'Neil. "No really it was".

Once home it was time to get some good pics for the site. Before it rains again!

I'll put up a running report as I go along on what the cars like to live with on a daily basis. Well I've only driven the car for a week and a half now but it's a bit special. The diesel engine pulls like a train (can't wait to see what it's like once it frees up with a bit more mileage on it) and it's returning an average of 36 miles to the gallon. That's equal to the Panda  . It's a very smooth engine to. Yes there is a short power band but once the engine warms up it seems to broaden a little. I liked the 18' wheels that were on the silver car I had the loan of but the 17's make the ride a lot more pleasent with no tramlining at all. The ride is nicely on the right side of firm. The gearbox is excellent, all 6 gears just go "click, click click".  Inside it is prooving to be a very pleasent place. The seats are very comfy for the front passengers with all the clocks nicely positioned for the driver. The trip computer is easy to use and has the Alfa logo light up on it when you open the doors.  Rear seat room is quite tight. If you move the front seats forward a little 4 adults can fit, but it's not ideal.  My daughter fits in the rear no problem on her booster seat but to keep her feet from damaging the leather I've taken to fitting a bit of plastic sheeting on the rear of the passenger seat. One thing I do reccomend is the SV glass roof. with the blind open it makes the inside of the car feel very airy. It's a nice feature.  The boot is very large for a Coupe and the rear seats fold down to making it huge.  Best of all with the weather being quite poor at the moment, I get to wash it every other day.   I haven't had so many people point and give the thumbs up since I got the Ferrari.  Why anyone wouldn't think of buying a Brera when considering a TT or BM I don't know. I know I'm totally biased towards Italian cars but it really feels special.

28/02. Well that's the first 1,000 mile mark past and the car is proving to be excellent.  everytime I stop at a petrol station (which isn't often thankfully) I have people coming over just to comment at how stunning the car looks.  I can't find antything not to like about it. It feels very soild in every way.

02/03. I had a very good friend out in the car today who dispises diesel cars... He fell in love with it. He like myself found it hard to except it even was a diesel because it drives so smoothly and now that it has it's first 1,000 miles over it, it freeing up and boy can it move. In the real world (not Top Gears race track) it is an excellent handling car and none of the antics the Stig was doing with it. The mate loved it so much he wants one. Now this is a guy who has been a Mercedes man for a very long time. That's how good it is.

03/03. Mervyn Stewarts our main Alfa/Fiat dealer were launching the new Alfa Brera spider today so I nipped round to have a look and a little test drive.

    

I had to get a couple of photos of ny car with the Spider.

The Spider is everything the hard top is and I was surprised at the fact there was no scuttle shake at all. Almost all convertables I have driven have had a little amount. Well done Alfa. The sun even came out for the event.

1980 Fiat 127 Sport. Spent 2 years restoring this car to as close to new as I could make it. 

1984 Ferrari Mondial. My first Ferrari. 12,000 miles on it when I bought it.

1992 Red Lancia integrale Evo 1. The best handling car I ever owned. It was something else. 

1993 Lancia integrale Evo 1. Loved the Evo's so much I had 3 of them. 

1989 Lancia integrale 8v. Peter who bought it off me hill climbs it now.

1999 Fiat Coupe Limited edition. Only sold it to buy the Red Evo. 

2006 Fiat Grande Punto 1.2. This was the first GP to ever be registered in Northern Ireland. We took delivery of the car 2 weeks before the official launch. My Wifes car.

1999 Fiat Punto Sporting.

1995 Fiat Coupe 16V. Great little car. 

Fiat Tipo Sedicivalvole. A car I really regret selling now. It was so underated. It's off to Dulbin area soon.

1993 Alfa 146 2l TS.

1976 Alfa GTJ. I spent 5 years restoring this car from the ground up only to sell it to a friend the day it passed it's Mot !

1989 Panda 4x4 Sisely.

 

1989 Panda CL.

  

Alfa 155 2lt TS wide body.

 1976 Alfa GTV 2000. Thought to be the first one brought into N.I. 

1998 Silver 156 2l TS.

 2000 156 2l TS. We also had a met red 98 but I can't find the photo of it.  

1998 Fiat Marea 19JTD. Very quick for a diesel.

1993 Fiat Tempra SW. I liked it.

 

2000 Fiat Brava 100SX. Very clean little car.

 1998 Fiat Brava 1.4. A car I just didn't like.  

2 1995 Fiat Cinquecento Sportings. I've had 3 of those. Absolutely cracking little cars.

Alfa 75 3.0 V6.

86 Fiat Uno turbo. Blew the turbo 3 weeks after buying it.

 

1999 black Siecento Sporting and red Siecento Sporting. We bought them both together. WAZ 5924 and WAZ 5925. The red one was a horrible little car and neither a patch on the Cinq's. 

1989 Fiat X19 Lido. It was very rusty when I bought it and I had to fully restore the body.

1990 Ducati 900ss. I'm not great on bikes but at least I didn't fall off this one.

1990 Uno 1.0. It was very clean.

1976 126. It only had 30k on it and the plan was to restore it but it was so rusty everywere I just couldn't save it. It's in car heaven now.  

1983 Fiat 126. Stinkweed this one was called. It had weeds growing inside and stank of damp and that's how he got his name. I bought him for £25 and he drove home. I did fully restore him but the only pic I have of him almost finished is the blue one. As soon as I got him through the mot someone offered me money for him.

  

 

1983 Alfa 33 Green Cloverleaf. This one was the silliest job I ever decided to do. All I wanted to do was see if I could get it back on th road. It had been lying on it's side for years with water all inside it.

This corner was so bad I had to cut the entire bit out and weld in another whole corner.

I wasn't joking when I said the whole corner! That's on the trailer going to be painted. 

 

Primed and ready for paint. Unfortunately I don't have a pic of it finished in it's Dekra yellow with black wheels  but it did get through the Mot first go and then was sold the week after. The guy who bought it wrote it off 2 days later. 8 months work driven over a hedge