Love, Peace and Happiness. Part Two

This part was written by my daughter Alison (yes, I have a daughter and she is a car addict as her mom). I highly recommend reading this part, because it describes our experience in a much better way. And, obviously, tons of photos included. At least two more parts are coming up. Stay tuned and enjoy the Horse Power Heaven!

Love, Peace and Happiness

When you have a real hobby, you start to recognize people who have a similar interest: see familiar faces on the skiing slopes, make friends at the dog shows, get familiar with suppliers of gear for your hobby, etc. Even though we have dozens of clubs, events and types of car related stuff , after a few car shows you will recognize, first of all, cars, but second, people with those cars.
I heard of The Hapy Hipi from the Grand Touring dealership. The rainbow coloured Lamborghini Aventador left me speechless for a good minute! Though, the owner wasn't there, as well as myself having absolutely different business at the dealership that time, I really wanted to take photos of that car and share with you, but I prefer to be respectful to the owner. (you will see the Aventador in the next post, I promise ;)) After that I did a bit of research about Tim and found an advertisement of the charity event at his property. For a few years Tim and his beautiful wife are organizing an open house to collect support for the local Humane Society. Last year 30 000 CAD were collected for a non-killing dog shelter in Alliston, ON. Did I wish to attend the event this year? Definitely, yes!

Forza Italia!

Today I finally found a moment to go to my dealership and visit some stores in Italian neighborhood. The order for my car was waiting there since July, though when I was free the dealership was already closed. As everybody knows, I like everything Italian - coffee, food, clothes, music, cars, etc. Since we got to that area, I had decided to treat my child with real Italian gelato.

Toronto taking steps to curb noise pollution; extra loud vehicles targeted

Do you know how I see it? We know that you have money, we will start with you.
Seriously, I agree that kids on power cars are annoying. I hear cars racing on my street all summer long. Though make it the biggest reason for noise pollution is not right.
First, Toronto with suburb is an ongoing construction zone forever. We change watermains, fix roads, build new condos constantly! Near our old house was a new high-rise development and those people we unloading pipes at 6 am!!! We have trains, airplanes, industrial facilities, subways, each of them get their part of noise impact. Nevertheless, it's all Lamborghini's fault.

Maybe, the idea is nice, but my experience shows that the result would be different.

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About luxury lifestyle

This week I went for lunch with my colleagues and we spoke about cars. We have many students working summer jobs or internships this time of year. One of the students mentioned that she is dreaming of getting a purple Lamborghini (Model? Latest model, definitely! Just make it purple, please). The older folks were making fun of her since we are driving Corollas, Civics and Elantras nowadays.
Yesterday we were out for lunch again and another boy, young developer from India, said that he hadn't seen a Bentley or Aston Martin in Canada yet.
So today I had to drop my Mudpuppy for service at the dealership. While mechanics were doing maintenance on my car, we decided to walk around. And guess what? Just on the opposite side of the street there was a Grand Touring Automobiles store. Could we skip the opportunity to visit it? Never!
Especially when they had a purple Lamborghini and black, white, brown (sunset orange), and red Aston Martins right at the window.

Let's go shopping?

It's all connected

5 years ago I had a job interview at FCA (Fiat Chrysler Group). That time the only Italian car they had under their Canadian umbrella was Fiat 500. I got to the last round with a really strong competitor, who deserved the position more than I did, so the job went to him. Though, visiting the plant and talking to engineers completely changed my opinion about American automotive manufacturing.
I was very skeptic about American basic cars and their quality until that day. After the interview, I got home spent hours reading about local manufacturing.
Those days the only way to get Alfa in Canada was a direct shipping from Europe. Nowadays my respect to FCA is even bigger. Because for almost two years, FCA is an official representative of Alfa Romeo in Canada.  Right now I see Alfa's all over the city, not too common, but they exist! I think, I'd be able to recognize a silhouette of Giulia and Stelvio even in the packed Toronto's traffic. It shows elegance and beauty of Italian engineering in every inch of the body and its movement.
One day I will take a blue Giulia Quatrifoglio for a test drive! It's too good to skip the opportunity.

By the way, long time ago I happened to stay in Torino, Italia for some time.Our apartment was in front of Lingotto building - former Fiat factory that was re-designed into a shopping and entertainment complex. If you are planning to visit Turin, just take a local train from Torino Porta Nova to Lingotto and visit this place! It's worth to get there. 

And just a random Alfa in Toronto's Italian suburbs. 

The Weekend with Brack Driving Concepts

I was planning to go to this event for more than two years. From my first look at their lesson schedule to my actual participation, I drove over 50,000 km on at least 8 different cars. To be honest, my initial reason was to become a more sporty driver, but my actual visit was to restore my interest in driving (I am simply tired of wasting time behind the steering wheel during rush hours on GTA roads).

Now I can pronounce myself as my own hero – I could wake up at 5-30 AM, drive to the Motorsports Park and be in the class by 8-30 AM!

Lovely morning at SMP