Today, my youngest daughter passed her drivers license road test. She drove her preferred car: my 1991 164.
Strange irony: in the same plaza as the Cobb County Drivers License office is a driver training outfit named "Alfa". Thank you, John Hertzman and Ed P., for keeping the car whole and cared for from 1991 through 2009. (Yes, the first part is posthumous.) One more child to put on the road but he's 10 so it will be a while before his road test. By that time, I hope I'll have traded my new-to-me MINI on a MiTo or other Alfa (or even a new FIAT 500 Abarth) in which he might take the test. But then again, the 164 will likely still be running (it's only got 57K miles) and we might persuade my youngest daughter to part with it for the test. Biggest gripe: parallel parking is near impossible in a 164. I can't help but think there was a serious argument between the engineers in charge of the drive-line and the engineers in charge of the steering. The guys charged with ensuring the lifespan of the CV joints and boots won the fight, it seems, as the air-craft-carrier-sized turning radius likely reduces stress on those components. I tried and failed to repeatably parallel park the car during practice runs with my daughter. My only advice was "do all the preliminary bits and hope for a 50% on that part". Cheers, __________________ - Eric H., Marietta, GA, USA Current stable: 1976 Spider - 2008 Mini Cooper S - 1991 164 base (formerly J. Hertzman's car) -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
