Alfas, images, bicycles and sustainable communities?

First up, why is this site called 'gtveloce.com'?

• Short answer: GT as in Grand Touring, and V as in Veloce, or speed
  
• How do I say that? GT-Vel-oh-chay will do, thanks.
  

So this is about cars?

• Nope, it's about a style, the kind of style that says that design matters, but that we should all get along together and share what we have. Thus (for example) those who prefer to drive cars share their space with pedestrians, public transport and cyclists - without whinging about it

So this is not about cars?

• It's also about sustainability, without getting silly about it
  
• And yes, it also is about 'small, shapely, efficient and effective yet feisty cars'. Preferably Italian 4 cylinders but the more efficient and feisty the better.

But it's more than that, surely? Yep! It's about what I know, what I like and what I want to share.

• Long Answer: I do enjoy driving, but I hate our maddening cultural obsession with cars. I much prefer bicycles, but if I must have a car it should be Italian, and an Alfa Romeo
• But my story doesn't start there. It starts with what flew over my house to land at Sydney Airport when I was a kid: aeroplanes. Sure, I still love 'planes but they are a tad wasteful in energy terms. They do a good job at long haul travel, but for short trips the human legs, the bike, trams, buses or - at a pinch - the car, win out
  
• Did I say car? The first car that caught my eye, as it were, was a Datsun 120Y coupe... weird, I know. (In my defence it was probably 1974 or so, and I was still a kid. And we are talking B210 series, which sounds tougher than 'Sunny'.) But it wasn't so silly, really. It had a sensible 1200cc motor and a swoopy, sporty body (kind of). Yes, it wasn't the 'normal' stuff of dreams but I wasn't like most kids: I was into aeroplanes, cameras and bicycles, not cars; so I knew no better. And then at the age of about 19 I finally decided to get a driving licence - and began researching my affordable car options. Now a guy behind the desk at the Ansett flying boat base (yes, the first Sydney International air terminal) told me to steer clear of cars of any type as they would empty my wallet, and of course he was right
  
• But they (cars, I mean) were interesting mechanical things with practical advantages over bicycles, especially in terms of carrying more cameras over longer distances, more securely. Trust me, a Pentax SLR and a few lenses in a bag on your back changes a bike's centre of gravity rather to the worse... so I decided, I'll get a car. Just to get my cameras around safely
  
• Which brings me to the Mini, a real one, not a pseudo-BMW one. It was small, like the 120Y, but much better looking. I wanted one, I thought. However I didn't get a Mini, did I? Instead I encountered a fellow pilot (OK, I was only a learner or 'student pilot' with 20 hours total airtime, but it sounded good at the time) with an Alfa Romeo GT junior. It was 1300cc, I think, or maybe it had upscaled to a 1600... whatever. It went and sounded like nothing else I'd ever encountered, and looked like it had fallen from the sky in a blaze of light (this is a good thing)
  
• So I forgot the Mini idea and started looking at Alfas! But first of all I needed a licence. And guess what, my driving instructor knew my flying instructor, and my flying instructor had managed to roll a VW Beetle on an access road at Bankstown Airport. Fantastic. This driving stuff is getting interesting and a touch sportif; exciting like bicycle racing - but with a motor. And so armed with unexpected interest I learned to drive... in a 120Y sedan
• But saved up to buy an Alfa. Alas, although my father was enthusiastic about cars, and took me around the yards to check out what was available, the Alfas were pricey, had dropped doors and rust. As my dad kindly pointed out, repeatedly. He was keen on me getting a Beetle, but I had seen an Alfasud and decided 'if I can't have that, I'll have the next best thing - a VW Golf'. A bit pricier than the Beetle, but 1600cc, a hatch for the bike and sporty. And you know what, although I set off on a 'Golfing adventure' (I ended up with 2 plus a friend with a 3rd) I actually had already stumbled over the first car I really, really wanted: The Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV. As in "GT Veloce". And eventually, years later, I bought one. And still have it. And the domain name to boot.
  

Now do you understand why this is GTVeloce.com? But hey, to paraphrase Lance Armstrong, it's not about the car.

So there you go. And it's not easy justifying the eclectic nature of this collection of blogs, either. (Hmmm, I gather you are still reading, expecting more.) OK, here goes:

• I blog because I am. I got into writing, art (pencil, ink and paint and digital) and mythology at a very young age. I think everyone is into self-education and art as kids - we all want to paint and draw, and we all want to know stuff, especially creepy old archaeological stuff (or is that just me?). I just never lost that urge. I just changed it a little as I grew up, earned money and bought cameras and computers
  
• But it was hard work walking or bus-ing around, so I got into bikes as transport. I remain addicted to bikes and bike racing, and to getting around my neck of the woods with the least impact on my environment as I can muster
• Oh, all of this wandering led to an interest in urban history, too. Here's a list of Sydney's race tracks, for cars, bikes and horses. And there's a story there on Sydney's Alexandra canal, too, would you believe, and trams and whatnot
  
• And I had to earn a living, so I got into sustainable business
  
• However it was increasingly difficult lugging my cameras around on the bike, so I also got into cars. Not just any old cars, they had to be small, nimble, economic, stylish and... Italian? Well, I've varied from that theme a little in that I've shared my garage with Japanese (Swift Gtis) and Korean as well as other non-Italian makes of automobile. But I remain committed to small footprint cars, even if they may be verging on the impractical at times. (Admission: I've never owned a fat Aussie 6 cylinder car, nor wanted to.)
  
• Sustainable communities? Well I don't like big, soul-less shopping malls. Never have. Sure the first ones were impressive in a big, collective airline terminal sort of way, but it soon dawned on me that the characterful villages within our cities - the communities within our communities - were being destroyed by malls. Simply, malls are built on cheap land, and cheap land is either rural or far from infrastructure, like railways. In that way we disengage from traditional shopping centres and corner stores; and we become committed to using cars to get to these new far-distant locations. We lose our local shops and services and get centralised "bargain" shops and big, cold, concrete meeting places instead. Great for lowering costs per unit sold, bad for our lives
• Bad for our lives? The car-domination is great for personal freedom, but has led to communities cut in two by busy roads too wide to cross. Roads that kids can't safely play on. Roads we don't want to walk alongside or ride our bikes on. We have piled on the pounds because we don't exercise and live fearful, isolated lives because our suburban streets are now almost empty of pedestrian traffic
• I could go on, but the essence of it all is restoring a balance to our communities... by all means capturing the economic value in centralised, higher-volume production and consumption whilst simulataneously reducing the waste and over-consumption; and setting about rebuilding some of the 'people-friendly' village community that we have lost. Before oil prices force us to do it anyway!
• Oh yeah, I also do some online stuff to keep the Fortianistas, AKA The Class of 75, in touch.
  

Welcome to GTVeloce.com

Incredible, illustrious and sustainable business blogging!


The Bike racing speed feed you need to read!


GTVeloce images and insights!


The Class of 75 Fortian feed!