bonitasambrown

What can you say about a guy whose first car, at 17, was an Alfa Romeo Giulietta in a basket? Thus began my love affair with cars. In my garage over the years have been an MG Sports Sedan, an MG-B, four Alfas ( the above-referenced Giulietta Spider Normale, a Giulietta Coupe, a Veloce Spider and a GTV-6, a miserable Camaro, a great Corvair, a wonderful Jaguar 3.8 Sedan, a BMW 320i, a 325i, Audi A-4, a Buick -- yes, a Buick, a 1975 Porsche 2.7 liter Targa, a Mercedes SLK, a host of Mercedes E-Series cars and most recently, 1 2006 997 Carrera Coupe. I've loved them all, for various spells, for a variety of reasons, but I have to say my favorite car to date was the Alfa GTV-6. I would have another Alfa today, if they would import anything under $100K. But they don't. Yet.

My love of cars has expressed itself in my work as well. And I had the pleasure of co-owning a company called Automotive Events for 35 years until my retirement a few years back. In that role, I helped create and execute hundreds of automotive press conferences, training events and marketing initiatives to launch every kind of vehicle from Range Rovers, to Porsches to Subarus, to Mercedes. All this work, for the car manufacturers and importers, gave me the chance to meet some really great car guys and gals over the years.

My most exciting program was the launch of the Porsche 930 Turbo, encompassing 18 weeks at various race tracks across the country training dealership sales, service and parts people. We compared the Porsches to Corvette, Mercedes, Jaguar and others. At speed and at a standstill. What a way to spend a summer!