Would I like a free Alfa Romeo…?
Discussion
So, long story short….
Just before lockdown I rent a small barn for my work equipment and a couple of my other classics. When I move in, in the corner is a 1998 Alfa Romeo Spider Twin Spark owned by the farmer looking sorry for itself. They had owned it several years and toured the UK and France in it, but it had started to suffer some horrific laquer peel and had been laid up a year or two. After 6 months of so in the barn the car is in the way and I ask the farmer to move it. Well, I move it. Back to his house, mechanically it seems fine and had been serviced / maintained by them just the paint had cried enough….
Another year passes by and the owners ask me how to get it back on the road. I give them the number of my guy who resprays our competition cars for a fair price, but advice they get it MOT’d first to ensure it’s a worthwhile expenditure, as these cars are still not commanding big money. So they MoT it, it passes easily , but it sits unused for the next 11 months outside……
So then they offer it to me, for free, on the proviso that if manage to fix it up can they take it out occasionally for a spin? ( they are in their 70’s ) . What could possibly go wrong????????
At first my plan is to respray it myself. I have done a few cars, and I am not a Concorse guy I am a driving guy. A 95% job is fine for me, I drive and enjoy not show’n’shine. But I realise the crap paintwork is on top of the original paintwork so ALL needs to be torn off. I lose interest after 6 hours and pack it off to my mate!
At same time I manage to locate a set of 18” Alfa Romeo Blackline alloys , needing a refurb and effectively get them for beer money but needing 2 new tyres. I send them to A1 Alloys in Bromley, Kent for a refurb and tyres.
So I take it for an MOT and it passes!!! Happy days. I was taxed, insured, MOT’d, sun out, roof down, exhaust sounds sweet, so I drive it the 12 miles back to the barn via the scenic route. First impressions of driving it are two things, firstly it is quite heavy and not particularly quick ( 8 seconds 0-60? ) BUT the steering on it is incredible…. 2.2 turns lock-to-lock I think, and plenty of grip , luckily I was straight into some amazing twisty roads with hairpins and the car cornered with just sharp small inputs, and I “got” the car as a sprightly tourer modem classic rather than a sports car.
Go wrong you say??
Go wrong you say??
SO……. I am a grand total of SIX miles away from the MOT station, keeping rpm’s below 5,000 as the car has not really been driven much for 5/6 years despite having had a cam belt service only a year or two before, and BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????
Death rattle, big ends gone, holy crap I was not expecting this……. ????????
Turns out these engines are known for this, if they have been sitting around dormant they can clog their oil ways up. Run sweet, then bang. End of. I am gutted to say the least.
So I ring the Alfa Romeo specialist who used to look after the car for the previous owners. He was due the next week to service / cam belt it agin for me the following week. I tell him to cancel, and I am going to scrap the car. It owes me 2k but I reckon I can get maybe 1,500 back by parting it out, and will swallow the loss. They say everyone has to own an Alfa once in their life yes? And this was my first. Just put it down to a bad experience.
He said “NO I have seen the pictures of it, you have done well so far, and I have an idea…… “
He had looked after a clients IDENTICAL model for about 10 years, it had had a recent service, cam belt and new convertible hood ( mine was not good remember ? ). Unfortunately the paint had suffered the same fate as mine and the laquer peel was bad, and when the owner emigrated abroad he gifted the car to the garage that looked after it for him. The specialist said he was willing to let me have the car , every nut bolt and washer for 900 and he would transfer the engine and convertible roof over for a further 500. So I would be looking at the car standing me in about 3,500 or taking a potential loss of 500 scrapping it. Man maths kicked in!!! I got it repaired…..
Edited by Furyblade_Lee on Wednesday 25th May 19:45
So me and the wife had not had a holiday for about 5 years, and being both self employed can only do small breaks or it is a logistical nightmare. So we book a short 5 day break to Snowdonia and think taking the Alfa would be a good idea……. I did a grand total of 40 miles on the new engine, and all seemed well but 40 miles…..
The morning of the 200 miles to Wales I pull to car in front of the house to load up, and strangely the clutch pedal is at half mast and won’t engage!!!!!!!! Arse. I ring Alfa Guy, who says it’s a common problem with the slave cylinder and that to lift the pedal back up to the top (!) and it should be ok, some of his customers drive them for a year like that lifting it up daily… it’s a 30 part but I don’t have one. Bizarrely it works!!! And it is the Alfa or a hybrid Mini for 1,000 miles, so we go Italian!
Edited by Furyblade_Lee on Wednesday 25th May 19:46
Unbeknown to my wife, there is a certain few roads right near our holiday cottage known as “The Evo Triangle”……
I have never been there before , but heard it was rather good.
At first she was constantly telling me to slow down ( I genuinely don’t drive like a nutter on the road, just briskly, in the past I have won a class hillclimb championship and do sprints / targa rallying etc. but don’t drive like a dick on the public road. But ballast is ballast, and it was a new car too that she didn’t trust so it took a while to get into a flow with her and the car. But after a few hours up there on the Snowdonia mountains even she was straight-lining the bends and revving it to 7,000rpm, what an absolute magical place to drive a car. Because of lots of 60mph average speed cameras up there now we rarely went over 80mph , but you really don’t need to, all about being smooth, the right music, we had the place pretty much to ourselves mid-week and the weather was mostly perfect blue skies.
The car ran faultless apart from the clutch. Yes it is slow by modern standards, but when you are revving hard, the twin-spark singing its tune, doing 50-80 mph the steering makes it come alive in the bends and with those looks I fell for the car as a great place to tour and enjoy scenic roads. It averaged 30mpg over 1,000 miles too which was good. Of course I would love it to be the 3.0 V6 Busso version , but hey, it was “ free” and the real world costs on those V6s make it a financial liability as a 3rd car. I love my old Alfa!!
Had one of these from new in 2001 . It was a phase 2 2.0 TS Lusso also in Alfa Rosso.
Totally agree with your driving impressions. Not that quick even then but a lovely engine to rev out and sublime steering.
Had some great drives on hot summer evenings with the roof down . Something about these really get under your skin.
The looks helped too and got so many positive reactions.
Love the Prototipo wheel. A massive improvement on the original.
Totally agree with your driving impressions. Not that quick even then but a lovely engine to rev out and sublime steering.
Had some great drives on hot summer evenings with the roof down . Something about these really get under your skin.
The looks helped too and got so many positive reactions.
Love the Prototipo wheel. A massive improvement on the original.
Alfa Pete said:
Had one of these from new in 2001 . It was a phase 2 2.0 TS Lusso also in Alfa Rosso.
Totally agree with your driving impressions. Not that quick even then but a lovely engine to rev out and sublime steering.
Had some great drives on hot summer evenings with the roof down . Something about these really get under your skin.
The looks helped too and got so many positive reactions.
Love the Prototipo wheel. A massive improvement on the original.
Thanks mate, yes I am not sure the car needs any more, due to the weight ( it is a heavy old thing ) and n/a power tuning it conventionally is not going to make a huge impression. I am just thinking something like a Raggazon exhaust ( scary ££££ though) to make it aurally more exciting or trying to shift some weight out of it ( really, cannot see why it is so heavy? It weighs the same pretty much as my Impreza did and that was the estate version ) tuning it is pointless. I am most likely just going to fit my standard upgrade of Pioneer head unit / DAB radio / Bluetooth music and call it a day. Just enjoy it as a cheap (!) fun cruiser. Totally agree with your driving impressions. Not that quick even then but a lovely engine to rev out and sublime steering.
Had some great drives on hot summer evenings with the roof down . Something about these really get under your skin.
The looks helped too and got so many positive reactions.
Love the Prototipo wheel. A massive improvement on the original.
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