'68 Alfa Romeo Gt Junior
Discussion
Well today I carried out a few jobs on my Alfa.
Firstly was to fit the wider seat for my other half.
Spot the difference...
I transferred the cross members, and thankfully the new seat had the same base dimensions.
My tool tray in the boot slides around a fair bit, and concerned about it hitting into the fuel filler spout, I drilled a couple of holes and fitted a bungy.
This is the new old airbox I have to fit to replace the cross over filter box that sits down near the exhaust manifold
You can adjust the airflow with the wheel on the end of the cylinder.
Spare gta style alloy wheel ready for its tyre
Other than that, having some new tyres fitted this week, 185 instead of 195 which should help correct the speedo a bit, and also there should be a tin of Dutch Blue paint arriving to touch up the paint chips.
Firstly was to fit the wider seat for my other half.
Spot the difference...
I transferred the cross members, and thankfully the new seat had the same base dimensions.
My tool tray in the boot slides around a fair bit, and concerned about it hitting into the fuel filler spout, I drilled a couple of holes and fitted a bungy.
This is the new old airbox I have to fit to replace the cross over filter box that sits down near the exhaust manifold
You can adjust the airflow with the wheel on the end of the cylinder.
Spare gta style alloy wheel ready for its tyre
Other than that, having some new tyres fitted this week, 185 instead of 195 which should help correct the speedo a bit, and also there should be a tin of Dutch Blue paint arriving to touch up the paint chips.
Edited by joesnow on Sunday 15th April 19:48
I can assure you that it is an alloy, just like the others on the car, but designed to replicate the design of the gta steelies.
I needed a wider seat for the passenger side because the current one was a bit tight on my girlfriend's hips!
Much fun could ensue by periodically changing back and forth between narrow and wider seat!
I needed a wider seat for the passenger side because the current one was a bit tight on my girlfriend's hips!
Much fun could ensue by periodically changing back and forth between narrow and wider seat!
velocemitch said:
I'm hoping to make National Alfa Day, 12th August, Newby Hall in Yorkshire. It's an excellent venue there's talk of organising an AROC Forum run the night before too, which would be good if it happens.
Me too, although that's the weekend I get back from my France jaunt. Hopefully under the Alfa's steam and not International Rescue.
Installed this over the weekend
Its a 1972 radiomobile with a aux jack. i also have a panel mount jack socket to fit on the dash, so i can just plug the ipod in with no trailing wires. Nice and neat. The radio works, although had to fasten an earth to the case as I haven't got an aerial on the car. I'm thinking of one of those hidden ones. I have engine noise through the speakers too which I think is an earthing issue. Looks much nicer than the modern alpine that was fitted. Will be removing the aluminium cradle too at some point.
Its a 1972 radiomobile with a aux jack. i also have a panel mount jack socket to fit on the dash, so i can just plug the ipod in with no trailing wires. Nice and neat. The radio works, although had to fasten an earth to the case as I haven't got an aerial on the car. I'm thinking of one of those hidden ones. I have engine noise through the speakers too which I think is an earthing issue. Looks much nicer than the modern alpine that was fitted. Will be removing the aluminium cradle too at some point.
Oh, and was invited to write up my experience here:
http://motoringconbrio.com/2012/03/30/guest-contri...
Lots of great motors on there!
http://motoringconbrio.com/2012/03/30/guest-contri...
Lots of great motors on there!
Well, I should be getting the car back this week after some fettling:
Aluminium carb mounts
Weber carbs - clean, rebuild and tune
New intake cylinder head gasket
Freshly painted cylindrical airbox and new filter (to replace cross over version)
Relocated and rewired fuse box
Rebuilt pedal box
New clutch push rod fabricated and painted
New prop shaft centre bearing
New prop shaft donut
New horn
Should drive much better after that lot!
Aluminium carb mounts
Weber carbs - clean, rebuild and tune
New intake cylinder head gasket
Freshly painted cylindrical airbox and new filter (to replace cross over version)
Relocated and rewired fuse box
Rebuilt pedal box
New clutch push rod fabricated and painted
New prop shaft centre bearing
New prop shaft donut
New horn
Should drive much better after that lot!
joesnow said:
Well, I should be getting the car back this week after some fettling:
Aluminium carb mounts
Weber carbs - clean, rebuild and tune
New intake cylinder head gasket
Freshly painted cylindrical airbox and new filter (to replace cross over version)
Relocated and rewired fuse box
Rebuilt pedal box
New clutch push rod fabricated and painted
New prop shaft centre bearing
New prop shaft donut
New horn
Should drive much better after that lot!
Its been a while since my last update.Aluminium carb mounts
Weber carbs - clean, rebuild and tune
New intake cylinder head gasket
Freshly painted cylindrical airbox and new filter (to replace cross over version)
Relocated and rewired fuse box
Rebuilt pedal box
New clutch push rod fabricated and painted
New prop shaft centre bearing
New prop shaft donut
New horn
Should drive much better after that lot!
The above list of jobs made the little Alfa much more pleasant to punt along. But then came the wet and cold, so I parked the car up for a bit in my Dad's garage, behind his Spectre R42 and Maserati Biturbo.
Over the winter I put an order in for an back axle rebuild including an Alfaholics lsd. This is ready to be fitted to the car now, so I restled it out of hibernation last night. No problems, but the battery wasn't spinning the starter fast enough, so it required a jump. It was quite an evocative scene with all of the cars out, headlights on, with plumes coming from the exhausts. Today I dropped the ALfa off with my man at Zul Racing in Derby http://www.zul-racing.com/ for him to get the diff out and also the front calipers which I'll be exchanging next week.
I'll be driving down to alfaholics to pick up the new bits, along with a full rear bush kit for the 't' piece and trailing arms. I'm hoping to have a little look at some of the project cars they have in
Can't wait for that! I'll see if I can take a few snaps.I've been given approval to use the car at my wedding in October, and for the honeymoon. I tried to get the work done on the wedding budget, but the inlaws weren't too keen!
So, today I went down to Alfaholics to pick up the bits for my step front GT.
Firstly I went into the parts building to sort the paperwork out and collect the parts. I said something like
"I bet its great for business to show customers around your collection and project cars..."
...and I was in!
This was on the ramps, although it is now red
Progress here: http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/current-builds/...
This was having engine work done ready for testing suspension setting for race season. I think they are putting it back to FIA classic spec.
Build stages here: http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-build...
This car was a racer, but is now being adapted for a customer who is disabled as a track toy. The little Momo wheel has paddles that operate a pneumatic 6 speed sequential Quafe gearbox. The car has a peppy twinspark fitted, but its been fuel injected, as they cut the spark and fuelling between shifts. Works really well I'm told.
Lovely little car.
Build thread of race car: http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-build...
My new axle and box of calipers and bushes:
They do great work at Alfaholics - everything seems so well judged and good quality. Can't wait to fit the bits to my car!
Firstly I went into the parts building to sort the paperwork out and collect the parts. I said something like
"I bet its great for business to show customers around your collection and project cars..."
...and I was in!
This was on the ramps, although it is now red
Progress here: http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/current-builds/...
This was having engine work done ready for testing suspension setting for race season. I think they are putting it back to FIA classic spec.
Build stages here: http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-build...
This car was a racer, but is now being adapted for a customer who is disabled as a track toy. The little Momo wheel has paddles that operate a pneumatic 6 speed sequential Quafe gearbox. The car has a peppy twinspark fitted, but its been fuel injected, as they cut the spark and fuelling between shifts. Works really well I'm told.
Lovely little car.
Build thread of race car: http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-build...
My new axle and box of calipers and bushes:
They do great work at Alfaholics - everything seems so well judged and good quality. Can't wait to fit the bits to my car!
A while since I updated this, and the car has been parked up since April at my Grandpa's house, as my parents moved, and I haven't got a garage. Still, moving soon, so looking forward to having the car back home, and creating a garage of my own again.
The last work, completed in March, was to have the back axle rebuilt which was prompted by lots of backlash in the diff, and failing bushes on the part of the back axle known as the 't-bar'; which looks like this:
While these issues were being sorted, I took the opportunity to have an alfaholics lsd fitted in the diff, as well as new bushes in the rear suspension. The car was a revelation after this work, I can slide it about a bit, use what power it has out of junctions, and can corner hard knowing that the rear is tied down properly. That it doesn't knock during cornering is great for piece of mind too!
I brought the car out of storage for a few days to make sure it was running right, as I wanted to use it for my wedding. On the Friday before the wedding, which was on the Sunday, I went to pick it up. I knew the battery was weak and not quite powerful enough for the starter, but even jumping it from the BMW, I couldn't turn the engine over quick enough to start. I ended up going off to buying a new, larger, more powerful battery, but it wouldn't fit in the battery tie down arrangement. I had run the car with the same arrangement when I first got it (previous owner), and short of time now I set off leaving the BMW parked up.
Once running, and after pumping the tyres up, the Alfa was behaving perfectly, until later in the day when arriving at the M1 junction, there were plumes of smoke coming from the engine. s
tting myself furiously, I quickly pulled onto a minor exit, and stopped up on the curb, imagining standing there as the distinctive shape burnt in front of my eyes. On carefully opening the bonnet, there were no flames, but the battery had slid over, and was resting against the exhaust manifold. Relieved, I quickly undid the terminals and whipped the battery out. There was battery acid dripping from the hole, and so I tried to cool it thinking it would seal. There was a fair bit on the battery tray, so I got some paper towel out of the boot to soak some of it up. At this point I got quite a bit on my hands, and on a sore knuckle it began to sting.
Luckily for me, earlier in the day I'd been transporting some flowers for the wedding, swerved a cyclist and filled the rear seat with water, so I had a wet micro fibre cloth in the car which I could wipe my hands on. Thinking about getting home, I remembered that there was a Halfords down the road, and a brief glance at my watch showed I had just enough time to get there. Good job as we were leaving the following morning. I put the battery back into the car, and set off again, hoping I would get there without the headlights going out. Thankfully I did, and the 2nd battery of the day was installed, along with tie raps in choice positions to keep it sitting secure.
The next day we packed the car, suitcases on the back seat and a full boot, and set off on the 2 hour drive to Shropshire. It behaved perfectly, and on the big day in the hands of my father in law, did an admirable job whilst looking the part too.
It needs some attention on the passenger sill, wing and door, and there is a patch of filler in the back wing that has cracked, so will be attending to those before long before they warrant a big spend. In the long term, hope to keep the car and develop it further with a bigger engine, perfect drive train, and new suspension set up - probably mostly alfaholics stuff as cash allows.
The last work, completed in March, was to have the back axle rebuilt which was prompted by lots of backlash in the diff, and failing bushes on the part of the back axle known as the 't-bar'; which looks like this:
While these issues were being sorted, I took the opportunity to have an alfaholics lsd fitted in the diff, as well as new bushes in the rear suspension. The car was a revelation after this work, I can slide it about a bit, use what power it has out of junctions, and can corner hard knowing that the rear is tied down properly. That it doesn't knock during cornering is great for piece of mind too!
I brought the car out of storage for a few days to make sure it was running right, as I wanted to use it for my wedding. On the Friday before the wedding, which was on the Sunday, I went to pick it up. I knew the battery was weak and not quite powerful enough for the starter, but even jumping it from the BMW, I couldn't turn the engine over quick enough to start. I ended up going off to buying a new, larger, more powerful battery, but it wouldn't fit in the battery tie down arrangement. I had run the car with the same arrangement when I first got it (previous owner), and short of time now I set off leaving the BMW parked up.
Once running, and after pumping the tyres up, the Alfa was behaving perfectly, until later in the day when arriving at the M1 junction, there were plumes of smoke coming from the engine. s
tting myself furiously, I quickly pulled onto a minor exit, and stopped up on the curb, imagining standing there as the distinctive shape burnt in front of my eyes. On carefully opening the bonnet, there were no flames, but the battery had slid over, and was resting against the exhaust manifold. Relieved, I quickly undid the terminals and whipped the battery out. There was battery acid dripping from the hole, and so I tried to cool it thinking it would seal. There was a fair bit on the battery tray, so I got some paper towel out of the boot to soak some of it up. At this point I got quite a bit on my hands, and on a sore knuckle it began to sting.Luckily for me, earlier in the day I'd been transporting some flowers for the wedding, swerved a cyclist and filled the rear seat with water, so I had a wet micro fibre cloth in the car which I could wipe my hands on. Thinking about getting home, I remembered that there was a Halfords down the road, and a brief glance at my watch showed I had just enough time to get there. Good job as we were leaving the following morning. I put the battery back into the car, and set off again, hoping I would get there without the headlights going out. Thankfully I did, and the 2nd battery of the day was installed, along with tie raps in choice positions to keep it sitting secure.
The next day we packed the car, suitcases on the back seat and a full boot, and set off on the 2 hour drive to Shropshire. It behaved perfectly, and on the big day in the hands of my father in law, did an admirable job whilst looking the part too.
It needs some attention on the passenger sill, wing and door, and there is a patch of filler in the back wing that has cracked, so will be attending to those before long before they warrant a big spend. In the long term, hope to keep the car and develop it further with a bigger engine, perfect drive train, and new suspension set up - probably mostly alfaholics stuff as cash allows.
Its been a while since my last update, and I've begun doing some events and more trips in the car after a period of tinkering.
I moved house to Castle Donington before Christmas, and in addition to all the other good stuff about a new house (and being near Donington Park), I have a garage again. This means that the car is finally back and available, allowing me to disappear for an hour or two to work on it. Its been great to reassemble tools, put some paraphernalia up on the walls, and create a working garage.
Looking sorry for itself during winter covered in dust and paw prints
I'd been looking at some diy power mods to release a bit of power after buying the Alfa Twin Cam Tuning book. The thing that I took away from the book was that the Nord engines were fitted to some of the late 101 cars, and then all the 105 cars be they spider, saloon or coupe. After this they powered a load more Alfas through the 70s. They didn't seem optimised for each application, and I was looking for a bit more of a roty set up to complement the, dare I say it, 'resto-mod' approach that I am going for. The car already has an unoriginal engine and has new alloys etc, so I have no hang ups about going down this avenue.
During the spring I'd signed up for the MotorPunk track day. This event is for cars 18-30 years old, and the Alfa was entered under the cougar exception. Inspired by my new book, and trying the car on track, I began preparing the car to make some improvements, and make sure it would be able to cope with a day bombing around.
First on the list was to chop out the internal and restrictive parts of the air box. In stock form it was pulling air from behind the radiator through a thin slot, then through 6, one inch wide holes, then through a paper air filter.
My mods involved chopping the end off, and setting up a wide open air feed behind the grille, chopping out the metal between the holes and dumping the air filter.
To do this I had to buy a dremel type tool, angle grinder and a few other bits and pieces to compete the job.
Once this was done, I had to decide how to filter the air. Some of the Alfa lot run open trumpets (too loud), or the pipercross foam filter that covers all 4 carb openings (too modern), but I wanted to keep a semi original appearance so I ended up fitting a black Ramair cone filter behind the grille, which is connected to the end of the airbox with some brake duct hose, and plenty of black tape.
Once fitted the car seemed to rev much easier, and it actually felt quite free beyond 5k rpm. Good result, but it was a bit quiet, so I drilled some holes in the end cap of the air box to let out some carb snuffle. It sounded really good after that.
Next job was a much needed oil change. I got hold of the bits and bobs from Alfaholics, and locked myself away to do the change.
Once I'd opened the sump plug, it was time to tackle the filter. The Nord engines have a junction that comes out of the side of the block, and then a vertically mounted cup and cartridge filter. To get to the filter the battery and tray needs to come out, and since I spilt a load of battery acid on the tray a while back, it needed a rub down and spray painting. With this out of the way I could undo the filter housing and carefully remove it without spilling too much oil. Once out I found there was a load of sludgy stuff in the bottom of the filter cup, its obviously a long time since the last oil change, and the car uses no oil, so it hadn't even been topped up with new.
Once this had all been cleaned up, it was time to refit with a new gasket. Its a bit tricky to get seated as you can't see what you're doing, but I found that wrapping a little electrical tape around the gasket meant that I could stick it in place once it was located in the groove. Then it was just a case of offering up the filter cup once it had been filled with oil, carefully getting it in place, and then tightening up the bolt. Once run in, I ran some redex in the petrol to clean any residue in the fuelling system.
The car was running better, seemingly smoother and quieter.
The next mod wasn't planned, but has made a fantastic improvement to the car, an Alfaholics stainless sports exhaust.
The 1750 motor in the Alfa was from an Alfetta, and when fitted by the previous owner the incorrect carb jets were fitted. Probably a case of getting it running and never addressed. This meant that the car always ran rich, drank too much petrol and smelled heady if you were standing behind it. I knew I had to get the jets done before the track day, but I also eventually wanted a better exhaust. Man maths dictated that it made financial sense to get the exhaust fitted in league with the modded air box before having the carb jets done and tuned. A call was put in to the ever helpful Jim Spackman at Alfaholics, and a shiny, beautifully made manifold, silencers and tubing were on their way to me.
Now, I've had aftermarket exhausts on some of my previous cars, Integra TR and S2000, and although they sounded good and improved the looks a bit, they ended up being too boomy for everyday use, and got sold and changed back to standard. With this in mind, I was a bit concerned that I may have bought an expensive regret, so it was with excited trepidation that I went to pick the car up from the local garage.
First off, the car looked great with the stubby and large diameter tail pipe poking out from under the rear valance. On start up it was mellow and a bit raspy, and driving through Derby town centre that evening showed some subtle pops from the manifold on the over run. Cue grins in the cabin. Once up on the motorway the exhaust was as quiet as the stock system, and it just keeps getting better. The beautiful manifolds have changed to a gold colour, and I really couldn't be happier. The exhaust has added to the revy nature of the engine that improved after fitting the air box, and the car was happily zinging around the dial now, with much more punch in the midrange, and a previously unexplored top end. Fantastic result.
Alfaholics pic from here:http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-builds/alfaholics-gta-r-1009/photoshoot-car-ready-to-ship/
I was quite aware that the Alfa doesn't have any towing eyes, so I picked up a couple of red tow straps to fit to the bumper mounting bolts. The rear valance is quite thin, so I've bolted it into the spare tyre well with a wooden spacer between that and the valance. On the front the nut was really hard to undo, meaning I had to get a breaker bar on it. Breaking the nut actually cracked the paint about 10cm either side of the bolt hole, which was unfortunate, but these things happen.
Now the car was taking shape, I fitted a cloverleaf to the back panel. I'd thought about it before, but the car felt under powered and not yet worthy. I gave the car a good going over with some Autoglym stuff, and cut out the green cloverleaf so that the Dutch Blue would show through.
With the track day now approaching, it was time to get the fuelling sorted and try to liberate a few increments of power.
Local to me is a superb garage called Zul Racing. The head mechanic there prepares old Formula cars for a wide range of customers, and has been doing so for many years. To diversify a bit, he also looks after peoples road cars, and so if theres anything technical that needs doing, I go to him. He also has a rolling road, so popped over to him to get the car evaluated and line up what needed to be done.
Once strapped down, we did some power runs. It showed near perfect air/fuel ratio which meant that the fuelling was pretty much crack on for the mods that I'd made to the car. Great news. The little Nord engine was developing wheel power of 99.8bhp at 5500rpm and 110ft/lb at 2800rpm with very linear curves, and no real dip at crossover. With no knock at 5800rpm, I knew the engine was in good tune, and wouldn't detonate on me at Blyton Park. We were ready!
The track day was really great with an exciting mix of cars; write up here: http://www.motorpunk.co.uk/carclub-18-30/the-event...
To be honest, I expected the Alfa to be a bit out of its comfort zone on track, perhaps a bit scrappy and understeery, but I was delighted with how it drove. The brakes which I thought would be a big flaw coped well during the day, with very little fade, the water and oil temps sat halfway around their dials all day, no matter how hard a drove, and the car was perfectly adjustable and turned in really nicely on a trailing throttle. I'll certainly be doing more events in the future, and enjoying the car as much as possible.
The next jobs will be addressing some rust bubbles, cracked filler and split sills.
MotorPunk 18-30 Track Day at Blyton Park. Many thanks to Rich D for the photos
I moved house to Castle Donington before Christmas, and in addition to all the other good stuff about a new house (and being near Donington Park), I have a garage again. This means that the car is finally back and available, allowing me to disappear for an hour or two to work on it. Its been great to reassemble tools, put some paraphernalia up on the walls, and create a working garage.
Looking sorry for itself during winter covered in dust and paw prints
I'd been looking at some diy power mods to release a bit of power after buying the Alfa Twin Cam Tuning book. The thing that I took away from the book was that the Nord engines were fitted to some of the late 101 cars, and then all the 105 cars be they spider, saloon or coupe. After this they powered a load more Alfas through the 70s. They didn't seem optimised for each application, and I was looking for a bit more of a roty set up to complement the, dare I say it, 'resto-mod' approach that I am going for. The car already has an unoriginal engine and has new alloys etc, so I have no hang ups about going down this avenue.
During the spring I'd signed up for the MotorPunk track day. This event is for cars 18-30 years old, and the Alfa was entered under the cougar exception. Inspired by my new book, and trying the car on track, I began preparing the car to make some improvements, and make sure it would be able to cope with a day bombing around.
First on the list was to chop out the internal and restrictive parts of the air box. In stock form it was pulling air from behind the radiator through a thin slot, then through 6, one inch wide holes, then through a paper air filter.
My mods involved chopping the end off, and setting up a wide open air feed behind the grille, chopping out the metal between the holes and dumping the air filter.
To do this I had to buy a dremel type tool, angle grinder and a few other bits and pieces to compete the job.
Once this was done, I had to decide how to filter the air. Some of the Alfa lot run open trumpets (too loud), or the pipercross foam filter that covers all 4 carb openings (too modern), but I wanted to keep a semi original appearance so I ended up fitting a black Ramair cone filter behind the grille, which is connected to the end of the airbox with some brake duct hose, and plenty of black tape.
Once fitted the car seemed to rev much easier, and it actually felt quite free beyond 5k rpm. Good result, but it was a bit quiet, so I drilled some holes in the end cap of the air box to let out some carb snuffle. It sounded really good after that.
Next job was a much needed oil change. I got hold of the bits and bobs from Alfaholics, and locked myself away to do the change.
Once I'd opened the sump plug, it was time to tackle the filter. The Nord engines have a junction that comes out of the side of the block, and then a vertically mounted cup and cartridge filter. To get to the filter the battery and tray needs to come out, and since I spilt a load of battery acid on the tray a while back, it needed a rub down and spray painting. With this out of the way I could undo the filter housing and carefully remove it without spilling too much oil. Once out I found there was a load of sludgy stuff in the bottom of the filter cup, its obviously a long time since the last oil change, and the car uses no oil, so it hadn't even been topped up with new.
Once this had all been cleaned up, it was time to refit with a new gasket. Its a bit tricky to get seated as you can't see what you're doing, but I found that wrapping a little electrical tape around the gasket meant that I could stick it in place once it was located in the groove. Then it was just a case of offering up the filter cup once it had been filled with oil, carefully getting it in place, and then tightening up the bolt. Once run in, I ran some redex in the petrol to clean any residue in the fuelling system.
The car was running better, seemingly smoother and quieter.
The next mod wasn't planned, but has made a fantastic improvement to the car, an Alfaholics stainless sports exhaust.
The 1750 motor in the Alfa was from an Alfetta, and when fitted by the previous owner the incorrect carb jets were fitted. Probably a case of getting it running and never addressed. This meant that the car always ran rich, drank too much petrol and smelled heady if you were standing behind it. I knew I had to get the jets done before the track day, but I also eventually wanted a better exhaust. Man maths dictated that it made financial sense to get the exhaust fitted in league with the modded air box before having the carb jets done and tuned. A call was put in to the ever helpful Jim Spackman at Alfaholics, and a shiny, beautifully made manifold, silencers and tubing were on their way to me.
Now, I've had aftermarket exhausts on some of my previous cars, Integra TR and S2000, and although they sounded good and improved the looks a bit, they ended up being too boomy for everyday use, and got sold and changed back to standard. With this in mind, I was a bit concerned that I may have bought an expensive regret, so it was with excited trepidation that I went to pick the car up from the local garage.
First off, the car looked great with the stubby and large diameter tail pipe poking out from under the rear valance. On start up it was mellow and a bit raspy, and driving through Derby town centre that evening showed some subtle pops from the manifold on the over run. Cue grins in the cabin. Once up on the motorway the exhaust was as quiet as the stock system, and it just keeps getting better. The beautiful manifolds have changed to a gold colour, and I really couldn't be happier. The exhaust has added to the revy nature of the engine that improved after fitting the air box, and the car was happily zinging around the dial now, with much more punch in the midrange, and a previously unexplored top end. Fantastic result.
Alfaholics pic from here:http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-builds/alfaholics-gta-r-1009/photoshoot-car-ready-to-ship/
I was quite aware that the Alfa doesn't have any towing eyes, so I picked up a couple of red tow straps to fit to the bumper mounting bolts. The rear valance is quite thin, so I've bolted it into the spare tyre well with a wooden spacer between that and the valance. On the front the nut was really hard to undo, meaning I had to get a breaker bar on it. Breaking the nut actually cracked the paint about 10cm either side of the bolt hole, which was unfortunate, but these things happen.
Now the car was taking shape, I fitted a cloverleaf to the back panel. I'd thought about it before, but the car felt under powered and not yet worthy. I gave the car a good going over with some Autoglym stuff, and cut out the green cloverleaf so that the Dutch Blue would show through.
With the track day now approaching, it was time to get the fuelling sorted and try to liberate a few increments of power.
Local to me is a superb garage called Zul Racing. The head mechanic there prepares old Formula cars for a wide range of customers, and has been doing so for many years. To diversify a bit, he also looks after peoples road cars, and so if theres anything technical that needs doing, I go to him. He also has a rolling road, so popped over to him to get the car evaluated and line up what needed to be done.
Once strapped down, we did some power runs. It showed near perfect air/fuel ratio which meant that the fuelling was pretty much crack on for the mods that I'd made to the car. Great news. The little Nord engine was developing wheel power of 99.8bhp at 5500rpm and 110ft/lb at 2800rpm with very linear curves, and no real dip at crossover. With no knock at 5800rpm, I knew the engine was in good tune, and wouldn't detonate on me at Blyton Park. We were ready!
The track day was really great with an exciting mix of cars; write up here: http://www.motorpunk.co.uk/carclub-18-30/the-event...
To be honest, I expected the Alfa to be a bit out of its comfort zone on track, perhaps a bit scrappy and understeery, but I was delighted with how it drove. The brakes which I thought would be a big flaw coped well during the day, with very little fade, the water and oil temps sat halfway around their dials all day, no matter how hard a drove, and the car was perfectly adjustable and turned in really nicely on a trailing throttle. I'll certainly be doing more events in the future, and enjoying the car as much as possible.
The next jobs will be addressing some rust bubbles, cracked filler and split sills.
MotorPunk 18-30 Track Day at Blyton Park. Many thanks to Rich D for the photos
Edited by joesnow on Friday 8th August 16:49
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Well, we're expecting in April and me and the Mrs would use the Alfa on occasion, but once junior arrives, less so as it does't have suitable seats, but actually I think we'll need the cash. I've absolutely loved owning and driving this car. To just have it in the garage has made me smile. Over the 4 years I've owned it its evolved from a good solid car to a decently sorted and cared for example, with choice aftermarket bits here and there to make the most of its attributes.
I've enjoyed the stories about your Boxster Moosey, not sure what to replace it with to be honest, maybe I'll take a short break from tinkering in the garage.
TallTony said:
Likewise, I typed a message literally minutes after OP posted that it's for sale, but deleted as I figure it's going to be out of my budget!
Well, many of the cars around at the moment are the later, and possibly less sought after smooth front GTVs. They are going for high teens into mid twenties.Make me an offer, I won't be offended! By PM though please!
Edited by joesnow on Friday 30th January 13:44
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