As I sit here typing this morning there are a bunch of well-to-do and enthusiastic about old cars types motoring through the backroads of California on this years edition of the California Mille.  On the Sunday before departure they throw a bit of a party at the Fairmont on Nob Hill where the public can go experience that warm-n-fuzzy and the participants can show off their rides, tans and other accessories and grooming habits.

This is the first Mille since Martin Swig’s passing and his sons David and Howard kept the show going admirably.  Everyone I know in the SF bay area seems to have an amusing Martin story.  He is missed.

This was the star of my show, a 6C2500 in a great color and on the road.  Anyone know the story of this car?

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A reader sends this Note: “You might want to add some directions for those who want to donate via PayPal.
When they sign onto their PayPal site and click “Send Money” .. it automatically puts them on a PURCHASE site .. if they click PERSONAL next to purchase .. they will move to another screen allowing them to choose gift, payment owed, etc..
They can then send the amount they choose.
The object of that one extra click is to avoid all PayPal fees for both sender and receiver .. it costs them nothing and you receive the full amount they send with no deduction for fees.
This only works within the USA.”

Things are happening here at Giuliettas.com headquarters.  You may have noted the arrival of our new apprentice: Rufus.  He’s still a little too new to the world of Giulietta’s to be much help, but we’re teaching him as much as we can between naps, feedings and diaper changes.

The site is getting a lot of traffic these days.  At the start of 2011, daily average visitors were about 600.  They have grown to about 1100 for this first quarter of 2012 -I guess my efforts to post daily are paying off.  It’s hard to believe, but I have written close to 700 posts since inception four years ago -with 400 of those being write-ups of cars on the market.  There are probably 18,000 pictures of Giulietta’s matched to models and vin numbers in the Flickr sets now with more added daily -for your reference pleasure.  I have noticed these pictures being linked to around the web when people are looking for parts, matching colors etc.  This makes me happy -my work is helping people out!  Total page views for the site should reach 700,000 by the end of this coming week, and may reach a million by the end of the year.

Giulietta Sprint prototype?

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Museum: A building, place, or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition, and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical, or artistic value.

I have read that FIAT closed the Alfa Museo Storico in Feb 2011 until further notice.  This fact is attended by rumors of FIAT desiring to sell off the collection and the Italian Government declaring the collection a National Treasure.  It’s an interesting, sad situation that I’ve been meaning to write about for a while.

I visited the Museum in 2005 while spending a few days in Milano with friends.  The ‘getting to the museum’ part of it was difficult -a series of trains followed by an extended stay in a parking lot outside a subway station praying a taxi would happen along -one eventually did.  The old Alfa plant grounds were basically deserted except for a few cars and a guard in a shack who kept an eye on our luggage while we went in the museum.  The museum building itself is your basic stylish box, suffering mainly from being too old to be fresh and interesting, and too new to be historic.  Someone from one of the offices eventually took pity on us and came to unlock the front door -leaving my wife and I to our own devices -thankful the lights were on.  This is how you visit the astounding museum collection of arguably the worlds most interesting auto manufacturer… the getting there is the price of admission.

Neat!  This display is typical.  The car in all it’s polished glory, some pictures from the meaningful part of its life, and a simple sign telling you what it is and when it was made.  What is this -an 8C2900 LeMans?

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