Alfa Romeo 147 GTA
Discussion
tinkertaylor said:
Stunning piece of kit...nice choice of mods too!
I'm just wondering whether it'd benefit from having spacers on the wheels? Not sure how that may affect the handling but the wheels look a bit lost in the wide arches IMO.
Good spot on the wheels fella, that's on the next list of mods. I'll be going 15mm at the rear with 245 section rear tyres and the fronts 12mm with the standard 225 section I'm just wondering whether it'd benefit from having spacers on the wheels? Not sure how that may affect the handling but the wheels look a bit lost in the wide arches IMO.
Right, thought it was time to update this thread as it's been over a year since it was done and the GTA is about to go through another big change which is rather exciting.
The back story is that I started saving up for my own place, putting money aside each month meant that I couldn't pamper her as much as I usually would of done, couldn't really buy much either. So just took to driving her 24/7 which has been great fun.
I'll try and put it in order of when things were done and where she is now.
The calipers had started to go all milky and eventually faded to pink in colour which made the car look a bit rubbish, so took a weekend out and rubbed them down and painted them up in a slightly brighter red than normal Brembo red which looks better against the Rosso red paintwork.
You can slightly see the colour here in these photos.
I have also been tinkering with bits for the induction side of things after finally getting the mapping sorted properly, I went through various forms of configurations and chose the setup pictured below. I was using a intake elbow which will be pictured also but was finding that it was restricting the top end to the point she was running out of puff.
Previous setup.
Current setup.
I have another new ACT carbon plenum being sorted at the moment with some improvements over the one that is currently fitted which will look the same but be a bit different under the skin
I also had a video sorted for the exhaust so I now know how she sounds to people on the outside, kind of glad I made her quieter than what was in the Brooklands video from last year, video is below.
http://youtu.be/sFLPfvvZHII
This more a less brings us up to within the last month or so I guess. I've had my eye on a set of super rare 18" OEM alloys for well over a year and when a set came up early last year I called dibs, well the guy went away on business so I waited and waited and finally bought them last month. I've always wanted to have Pilot Super Sports so ordered a set of them and had it all fitted, photos below.
I have always been wanting to fit spacers front and rear, not so much for looks but for the improved handling which after being told and explained how and why it helps I was sold on, sadly I never actually got around to buying and fitting any up until last week. The difference is hard to put over in words though, but she just feels much more planted, more stable, you can carry much more speed into a corner and get on the power much sooner as well, kind of made me wonder why it never came from the factory like this in the 1st place.
Photos below with the spacers fitted, 12mm rear and 5mm front.
So next week she goes into my specialist for a whole load of work and further modifications and to also sort a few other bits out for me. I also ordered a set of KW V3s which should arrive in time and I also commissioned a new steering wheel, knob and hand brake with photo below.
The work I need doing is listed as follows.
- upper and lower wish bones
- KWs fitted
- complete brake overhaul, Brembo discs all round with Brembo HP2000 pads too.
- various oil gaskets replaced
- fitting of the steering wheel etc
- front end respray due to stone chips plus a cracked bumper thanks to a fox at 3am one morning!!
- plus loads of other small bits
This brings me up to right this moment, hope you guys like it and please feel free to comment
The back story is that I started saving up for my own place, putting money aside each month meant that I couldn't pamper her as much as I usually would of done, couldn't really buy much either. So just took to driving her 24/7 which has been great fun.
I'll try and put it in order of when things were done and where she is now.
The calipers had started to go all milky and eventually faded to pink in colour which made the car look a bit rubbish, so took a weekend out and rubbed them down and painted them up in a slightly brighter red than normal Brembo red which looks better against the Rosso red paintwork.
You can slightly see the colour here in these photos.
I have also been tinkering with bits for the induction side of things after finally getting the mapping sorted properly, I went through various forms of configurations and chose the setup pictured below. I was using a intake elbow which will be pictured also but was finding that it was restricting the top end to the point she was running out of puff.
Previous setup.
Current setup.
I have another new ACT carbon plenum being sorted at the moment with some improvements over the one that is currently fitted which will look the same but be a bit different under the skin
I also had a video sorted for the exhaust so I now know how she sounds to people on the outside, kind of glad I made her quieter than what was in the Brooklands video from last year, video is below.
http://youtu.be/sFLPfvvZHII
This more a less brings us up to within the last month or so I guess. I've had my eye on a set of super rare 18" OEM alloys for well over a year and when a set came up early last year I called dibs, well the guy went away on business so I waited and waited and finally bought them last month. I've always wanted to have Pilot Super Sports so ordered a set of them and had it all fitted, photos below.
I have always been wanting to fit spacers front and rear, not so much for looks but for the improved handling which after being told and explained how and why it helps I was sold on, sadly I never actually got around to buying and fitting any up until last week. The difference is hard to put over in words though, but she just feels much more planted, more stable, you can carry much more speed into a corner and get on the power much sooner as well, kind of made me wonder why it never came from the factory like this in the 1st place.
Photos below with the spacers fitted, 12mm rear and 5mm front.
So next week she goes into my specialist for a whole load of work and further modifications and to also sort a few other bits out for me. I also ordered a set of KW V3s which should arrive in time and I also commissioned a new steering wheel, knob and hand brake with photo below.
The work I need doing is listed as follows.
- upper and lower wish bones
- KWs fitted
- complete brake overhaul, Brembo discs all round with Brembo HP2000 pads too.
- various oil gaskets replaced
- fitting of the steering wheel etc
- front end respray due to stone chips plus a cracked bumper thanks to a fox at 3am one morning!!
- plus loads of other small bits
This brings me up to right this moment, hope you guys like it and please feel free to comment
I opened this thread up saying to myself "No, please not black wheels" and was pleasantly surprised that one of the things that makes the 147 GTA the great looking hot hatch it is are the telephone dial wheels, which were kept. And, later in the thread, what should happen but black wheels are added making it look like just any other modded car. I know it's good to look different but black wheels are going to make the car look like the owner has followed the herd and not been individual in the way the car looks
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