Vroom! My Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 24v

Ah, the joys of a mid-life crisis. Certainly, the inevitable (assuming one lives long enough) transition from 39 to 40 years of age can be faced casually, with dignity, grace and resigned acceptance. Or it can be met with a mild, understated, but entirely panic-stricken subconscious voice that impels one to perform a dramatic about-face in terms of vehicular practicality. I opted for the latter.

Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 - front

The result: my driveway is now adorned with a strikingly beautiful Italian sports car, the Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 24v, vintage 1998. In Alfa red, of course.

The Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 was, at the time of its manufacture, the fastest Alfa Romeo ever made, and despite the fact that my version of it has a few years and miles on its odometer, age has done little or nothing to blunt its spirit. It's rated by the manufacturer to move from 0 to 100 km per hour in a snappy 6.7 seconds – not quite a Ferrari, but also a far cry from our Renault Megane Scenic, the practical little family car that will shortly be sold to help finance the Alfa purchase.

Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 - front/side

The 3.0 V6 engine, a remarkably stunning piece of work featuring shiny, chrome-plated intake valves, puts out over 220hp and some very large quantity of torque, the exact amount of which escapes me at the moment, which doesn't matter as the number itself represents a quantity of something I don't quite fathom.

Nevertheless, all that horsepower and torque translate into an amazingly pleasure-filled driving experience. Tap the gas to overtake some sluggard and the motor leaps into action with a sprightly, neatly balanced growl that sounds exactly as it should. Two seconds later the pokey Passat you just passed is a fading memory in the tiny rear-view mirror, the speedometer is charging past 160km/hour, and a good deal of adrenalin is sloshing around in the bloodstream. A heavy conscious exertion of will is required to rein the cheerful beast in again before an irate traffic cop materializes and tears your driver's licence into tiny little bits of confetti—not, however, before casting an admiring glance at the striking forward-tilted lines and pinhole headlights of the Alfa, designed with the help of the Pininfarina design shop, which also gives Ferraris their distinctive looks.

Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 - rear

Many of the reviews I read before purchasing described the Alfa Romeo GTV as cramped or claustrophobic in its interior, and granted, there's just enough headroom for a person of approximately average size (me). The tips of my hair, which stand more or less straight up from my head, do brush against the roof. But that just makes the car feel custom-made; couldn't be a more perfect fit if it had been tailored. And the Alfa's a 2+2, meaning two regular-sized seats for the driver and passenger, plus two rather wee ones in the back, in itself perfect for schlepping the kids in a sprightly and energetic fashion to their various activities. Those will also work fine if I happen to encounter any hitchhiking gnomes. Perfect.

Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0 V6 - side

I've had the GTV for less than a week, but already found an extraordinary number of small, meaningless errands to run that require a round-trip of 30km or more. The sushi at the local shop, for example, isn't quite as good as the sushi at the place that's about a 15-minute drive away—coincidentally, at the other end of a relatively traffic-sparse, nicely curving highway. Guess I'd better take the Alfa. Make that a 10-minute drive...

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