Until now I missed to introduce myself on this place. Now I try to correct my mistake.
My name is Rob and as You can see from the title, I'm from Hungary. Some of You already knows IRL or from other topics here. I was member of the old site as well since 99.
My love to the GTV is back from the early 80's. That time I was about 12. You know we had the kommunism here, but fortunatly I lived close to one of the famous hotels in Hungary, so after the school we regularly visited the parking area of the hotel. One day I saw a red GTV standing there. I fell in love within an eyeclosing moment. I picked up the GTV among my favourite cars which became 3. There was a place for my alltime love the Countach, which was born in the same year as me. There was also a place for the ultimate gasguzzler of the 74 Fleetwood Eldorado with the 8.2 liter engine and then I received my third car, the GTV. I also decided then "once I will own one!"
It was a big dream at the time, since noone has a car like that in Hungary. We were able to buy cars like Ladas, Skodas, Dacias, Trabants, Wartburgs after a 5-8 years waiting process!!! And no western cars at all!
"Eppur si muove! (And yet it does move!)" Smoe years later the socialism start to collapse and one of the first movement was that the people can bring cars from the western countries. In 1989 I also start to find my GTV. We were in Munich and I found an Alfetta GTV Lusso which I could buy, but she had a small crash at the front, so the cooling system does not functioning anymore. Sadly I don't have enough money to have it repaired or bring on a trailer to home. So I get back with empty hands. After that I had to wait another 3 years when a GTV came into picture. That was a 2-liter one with dual-color painting and finally I became an Alfa Romeo GTV owner! That was one of the happiest day of my life. It was in 1992 and since that I always had at least one GTV in my portfolio but 2 - forever lasting - months.
This first car I finally crashed to death on an oil-water-90_degree_turn combo. I hate myself than. A bit later I found in the ads a GTV6 which does not start, so it was offered just for a small amount of money, but the problem was that I even didn't have that small amount of money on that morning. But for the afternoon I collected the cash and ran to bring the car.
I was a lucky man, because she's problem generated by the malfunction of the thermosensor on the thermostat-house. After we replaced it and also the defective plug it ran perfectly! She serves me for two years when my wife get her driving licence and she felt the car too heavy to command, so we downgraded to a 2.0 liter one again. A year later we had enough money to buy a new(er) car. It was a 3 years old 33 with known pre-life. Here comes the 2 months break, until I found a V6 again. This became my most driven car ever. I pushed for more than 200T kms. But on a day an old lady turn out from the parking area to the country-road and when she realised me, stoped to move anymore. I saved her life, the car saved my daughters and mine but not her own. Until this period the 33 became a LeBaron Cabrio than a Corvette than a Peugeot and finally a 75 TD. It remains in the family for a year. Then she gets a brand new Fiat Punto and once again a year later the new Punto II.
When the accident happend I just started the restoration of my current GTV, which I planned to have as a Sunday car. It was a 1981 American car which was stand in the corner of a garden for 8 years. I had several stories about the restoration difficulties but finally I was able to start to use for the summer season. It was built with a 3 liter engine from a 75 also with L-Jet, but I had to extend the limit from 5800 to 6700, because my car ran on a 4,3:1 final drive. Next to it I had a 33 4×4 as a daily driver which I bought the next day to the accident.
At the beginning of 2005 I found a GTA engine which we applied into the car as you may read in my topic about it. Now I'm waiting for the hot cams from AH Motorsports. She's got an AP Racing 4-pot break system to keep up with the power of the car.
I also started another restoration which will be a fully original car to be an oldtimer once.
I also own some other Alfas at the time being:
164 TS
164 Super 3.0 V6 12V
33 1.7 ie 16V SportWagon 4×4 (was a P4 but it has been reconstructed to be a switchable AWD)
75 TS waiting for rebuild
The other car-related activities that we do is organizing classic rallies for Youngtimers in Hungary. You may know Adam aka Ingegnere from the forum who started this project. The 3rd guy in the branch also a fellow Alfisti owning 2 GTVs and a 164 as a daily driver.
Great to have you on board and thanks for the insight into life in Hungary prior to democracy,I found it very fascinating.I cannot begin to imagine your frustration as a petrol head not having access to the cars that were available in Europe at the time. 
