The initial purpose of this page (many years ago..) was to provide a home for a collection of information about Alfa Romeo cars, and more specifically, the 105/115 series Giulia GT and GTV models. If this interests you, please have a look at The Electronic GTV. Hopefully I will gradually widen the scope of this site to cover more than just Alfa's!
I live in Auckland, New Zealand, the City of Sails, and new home to the America's Cup (for the yachties among you..). I'm married to Belinda, and have two sons, Matthew, in 1994, and Andrew, born in 1997.
To keep me busy during the week I pretend to be a research engineer (I have a BE & PhD in Mechanical Engineering) at Industrial Research Limited, most of my work being in the area of structural engineering with composite materials such as fibreglass, Kevlar, and carbon fibre. I am involved in analytical and numerical modelling of composite structures as well as mechanical testing of materials and components. I spent 1995 doing similar research at The Department of Lightweight Structures, at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Oddly enough, it was while in Sweden that I bought my first Alfa.... (although I must confess to a long history with Italian cars of other breeds).
My interests include trying to keep old Italian cars alive, tramping (which means hiking to the rest of the world..), running (see here), cycling and boating, both power and sail. Despite my slight petrol-head inclination, I'm also interested in human powered vehicles, and have built a pedal powered boat constructed from cardboard...... Icarus
That's enough for now, please have a look around The Electronic GTV.
You might even be converted to the joys of Italian cars!
Any comments, please email me at: m.battley@irl.cri.nz