My personal (love) story with the Montreal began in the late 60's/early 70's, when I read the Montreal test in the French magazine "Sport Auto". When I saw the car I said: One day this will be mine!!!. Of course, I was already an Alfa Romeo fan. At that time I was 20, my financial situation was 0, and my car was an old 600 (13 years old when I bought it in 1969). After this car I owned two new 127's, a new 131, and..... finally in 1982 my first Alfa Romeo, a wonderful new Alfetta 2.0 berlina. After the Alfetta, I owned two 75 V6 2.5 (the last one is still in my garage), but my permanent dream was the Montreal. I knew that was very difficult because only 3-4 Montreals had been imported to Spain.
In the late 90's a friend told me that near Barcelona there was a Montreal in very poor condition. I contacted the owner and went to see it: TERRIBLE, in an old garage, inside the car was a cat's home with a terrible smell, the upholstery absolutely irrecoverable, the engine was out of the car and completely dismantled (all the engine parts were disseminated all around the garage, the crankshaft was rusted, the cylinder heads under tons of trash, etc. Despite all this, my desire was so strong that I bought the car. Of course I did this against the opinion of my family and my friends, because all of them said to me that I was a perfect idiot buying such a problematic car!!
I spent three years (the first one searching for and buying all the necessary spares) to rebuild the car, and finally in 2001 I heard the V8's voice for the first time. After some problems in tuning the engine correctly, finally it works fine and I have driven it for around 40,000 km with no serious problems.
You know that my car is the first "real" Montreal I had ever seen? And you know that my car is the only Montreal that I have ever seen since last year in Rovigo? Some years ago, the Montreal was completely unknown in Catalonia and in Spain. But these last years my car has appeared everywhere I could. As you know I drive it frequently in rallies. In 2002, the car was exhibited for 4 days in the Auto Retro Barcelona. Then in 2003 the car was exhibited for 10 days in the Salo Internacional de l'Automòbil de Barcelona in the Club Alfa Romeo stand just in front of the official Alfa Romeo stand. When the 156 GTA was officially presented in Spain (in Barcelona) my car was also there; and finally.... the 21st Montreal meeting some weeks ago. Now the Montreal is known here, and my family and my friends are Montreal fans!!!
But the most important thing is the many friends I have found in the Montreal world.
My Montreal story will continue with my second car. It's in very bad condition too and I will begin the restoration in the first days of next year (2-3 years job?), but I'm happy thinking that one more of these wonderful cars will be rescued instead of being destroyed.
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