Life with the Alfa

I’ve been driving my Alfa on a daily basis since the weather got cooler a couple of months back. I think I’ve put around 3,000KM mileage on it so far and since it’s a slow post week, I figured I’d post an update on it. I’ve been driving the car like it was meant to be driven 50 years ago when it was built. I’m not really taking it easy on it since it’s a car and really has just one job. And as expected, some parts have started failing on me but I knew that would happen and wanted it to happen so I can swap them with newer parts. Whoever restored the car originally tried to keep as much of the original parts as possible, and I can understand that, but end of the day that’s ok if you’re planning to drive the car once a week but it’s not going to work when daily driving. Here is what’s broken down so far with me which I’ve had to replace:

– Fan belt
– Radiator cap
– Starter motor
– Alternator
– Battery
– Distributor rotor arm

I actually drive around with spare parts in my trunk and my tool kit because “just in case” and yesterday that just in case moment happened. I was leaving Sultan Center at night and the car wouldn’t start. I had a full tank of gas, my starter was fine but the engine wasn’t turning on. I had a theory it might be from the distributor which sends electricity to the spark plugs which ignite the engine and I luckily had a new rotor arm for it in the trunk. After watching a short clip on YouTube on how to change the rotor arm, a few minutes later the car was running fine again.

There really are only so many things that can go wrong in the car since it’s such a basic setup. No fancy electronics, not even a radio, no powered steering or windows, ABS brakes or anything fancy like that. I think right now I’ve basically changed everything that needed or can be changed.

The car is getting a lot of attention which I was expecting since there isn’t another one like it in Kuwait, or at least there isn’t another one being driven on the roads. I’ve had people honk at me and give me a thumbs up, I’ve had people wanting to take photos with it and a bunch of people asking me if it was for sale. Really other than this one blog reader in a new G-Class that nearly ramed into me just to let me know how much he hates my blog, it’s been a very good experience.

I guess the only negative thing about the car is the lack of a radio. At first I liked the idea of not having one, but there is only so much alone time I can spend with my thoughts, plus I’m wayyy behind on all my podcasts and music. I’ve thought about driving around with earphones on but I tried it and it felt weird so I’m now looking into a way of installing a completely hidden sound system under my dashboard so not to mess with the cars interior aestetics.

So overall its been a great experience so far. Car is comfortable enough to drive daily even on our pothole ridden roads which is why I barely drive my two other cars anymore. I hope winter lasts long this year just so I can drive it as much as possible before I have to put it away for the summer.