RE: Shed of the Week: Alfa Romeo GT

[VitorioVeloce]

r11co said:

These are future classics.

Agreed, any one of these that hits ~20-25 years in good nick will last another 20-30 after that, although i assume most diesels and JTSses wont get cherrished that much.

Usget said:

Not much of an Alfa beard but I always thought the V6 in these was the contemporary Vauxhall/Opel unit rather than the Busso. Every day is a school day etc.

That is the 3.2 JTS in the 159/Brera/Spider, it does have some differences from the GM units though (different head mostly), same goes for the 1.9 and 2.2 JTS. the 1.8 MPI in the 159 is just a straight drop in GM engine, no alfa-sauce added

Edited by VitorioVeloce on Friday 17th August 09:11

[CalNaughtonJnr]

Had a JDTM for a couple of years and whilst not without it's problems, I loved it

Sold it with about 143k on the clock and it still looked quite fresh

[devnull]

Often considered one of these, but I quite literally could not live with that dashboard. Perhaps I am that shallow.

[Uncle John]

Have to pull you up on the JTD lump & the faults listed. These are solid units & don’t suffer with any of these on a regular basis, think shed is confused with BMW here....

Get a Celtic Tuning remap to 190 bhp & enjoy. That’s where my money would go rather than the JTS.

Nice condition for the price this one.

[Salamura]

Top shed! I've always liked these and came close to buying one a couple if years ago. The styling is controversial for some, but I'm one of those people who really like it. The fact that there are 4 usable seats and a hatcback just add to the appeal. For me it's the engine line-up that is a bit disappointing. I would have loved to see the 2.0 TS installed in this in place of the JTS, which many regard as lacking character and a bit problematic. Not a fan of diesels in coupes, even though I know the 2.4 is loved by many.

[J4CKO]

Nice enough, not really something that's ever been on my radar, too expensive (for me), not that pretty when new and not that fast in any form, just a bit of an also ran but at least its an interesting thing at £1500.

A bit meh but, I would like to show my general appreciation for SOTW, far too much moaning about prose on PH, I just take it on face value and enjoy seeing what it is going to be every Friday morning, it reminds me of the excitement as a kid, when watching "Bod" and waiting to find out what flavour of milkshake Alberto the Frog would choose. Showing my age there.

Must be a bit of a chore finding a new shed each week, finding the words and then waiting for the whingeing, guess what, you arent paying for this.

Its been a few years and now a staple of my Friday morning routine, I look forward to it, tragic as that may sound, not all week but I think "Cool, its Friday morning, lets see what horror we have to pass judgement on today", a mix of nostalgia, interest, joy and sometimes revulsion.

So, after all this time, I want to say a heartfelt "thanks for all the Sheds", it is appreciated.

[DamnKraut]

Top shed, that is true VFM. No wonder it already sold.

Had a 06 JTD in the same colour, stromboli grey.

While not without its faults (minor niggles such as EGR valve, dodgy airbag control light) I loved it to bits. Depreciation was massive in true Alfa fashion (price new was about 26k as an Alfa company fleet car, first owner picked it up after a year at 10k mls for 16k, I got it 4 yrs later at 18k mls for 8k and sold it at 35k mls for 6k). Running costs were quite high, mostly due to my pampering which saw it serviced at an Alfa dealer, as well as due to taxes and insurance.

Remember always getting stupid comments from colleagues in the workplace as to when it will break down etc. Best ones were those coming from the uber moron, aka my boss, who drove a fking A4 Avant Diesel.

[Lotusgone]

I had high hopes when I went to try a V6 GT a few years ago. I was so disappointed in how it drove that I was glad to get back into my diesel Passat. A better buy was my 1999 GTV V6 which I have had for over 4 years - bought for a bit more than shed money, though I have spent more than twice that on it...

[iSore]

I believe the doors - and possibly the front wings - came straight from the 147. It's not a bad looking car and at 1500 quid or less, any criticisms levelled at these when new don't really apply.

Not sure I'd have one over a 325/330Ci though, as crap as E46's can be.

[pmfinch]

I have had my Gt 2.0 JTS Cloverleaf for nearly 6 years now and done 40k miles (62k in total).

Yes they have their faults - more niggles than faults (I tell myself). The door straps wear and start to click, the door handle front hinges are weak (easy replacement with the part shared with the Fiat 500) and the front wishbones and bushes wear - again easily/fairly cheaply replaced. Mine cost <£200 fitted by a local garage (incl. parts). Oh - and squeaky rear tailgates. I am sure there is more, but nothing horrific - though as mentioned the early JTSs (as with many early DI engines) were known for coking up and stunting performance. That was at least partly resolved with later models having a different profile exhaust cam/ECU tweaks but to some extent they all do that.

Handling and performance wise the standard car is pretty good if not outstanding - I think the Audi TT is a reasonable comparison in terms of handling. Build quality is very impressive (for anything within reason, not just an Alfa), coming at a time when Alfa were clearly trying to up there game. My 10 yr old even with tweaked suspension has no squeaks or rattles even over rough ground and is refined and comfortable at motorway speeds (excellent seats for me). I can comfortably drive 300+ miles with no qualms - either over comfort or reliability. YMMV.

In retrospect I would have liked the V6 Busso but I was doing too many miles to make it sensible (and at the time they were too expensive) so, not wanting to have a diesel Alfa it was the JTS. Now I do far fewer miles a Busso would make sense, but the prices are creeping up and the newest are 12 years old... Styling wise I am not sure what I would want to replace it with so I decided to keep it and 'enhance' it instead - make it the best JTS I could:

- Replacement bushes/drop links all round
- Eibach pro springs
- Koni FSD shocks
- Stainless cat back exhaust
- BMC Carbon airbox
- Colombo & Bariani cams
- ECU remap

Next step is to replace the manifold/pre-cats with a Supersprint 4-1 manifold (there is always something to tweak...).

Now the car drives, sounds and goes more like an Alfa should. I guess I am in it for the long haul now...

[treeroy]

my mates parents bought him one of these when he passed his test, always thought it is super ugly and if it wasn't for the badge no one would care for it in the slightest.

How much is a Fiat Coupe?

[VitorioVeloce]

iSore said:

I believe the doors - and possibly the front wings - came straight from the 147.

Front wings are from a 147 GTA, not the regular 147. Doors are GT specific, as they dont have an upper part around the window, the glass slides in/out of the roof when opening/closing. The panel/skin might be shared with the 3 door 147, but they definitely do not just swap over.

Interior is close to a 147, dash etc.. al look the same, but use different, more posh materials. Radio looks the same, although the one in my 05 GT definitely has some options that the one in my 02 147 didnt, might be down to the GT having Bose sound though.

pmfinch said:

I have had my Gt 2.0 JTS Cloverleaf for nearly 6 years now and done 40k miles (62k in total).

Yes they have their faults - more niggles than faults (I tell myself). The door straps wear and start to click, the door handle front hinges are weak (easy replacement with the part shared with the Fiat 500) and the front wishbones and bushes wear - again easily/fairly cheaply replaced. Mine cost <£200 fitted by a local garage (incl. parts). Oh - and squeaky rear tailgates. I am sure there is more, but nothing horrific - though as mentioned the early JTSs (as with many early DI engines) were known for coking up and stunting performance. That was at least partly resolved with later models having a different profile exhaust cam/ECU tweaks but to some extent they all do that.

Handling and performance wise the standard car is pretty good if not outstanding - I think the Audi TT is a reasonable comparison in terms of handling. Build quality is very impressive (for anything within reason, not just an Alfa), coming at a time when Alfa were clearly trying to up there game. My 10 yr old even with tweaked suspension has no squeaks or rattles even over rough ground and is refined and comfortable at motorway speeds (excellent seats for me). I can comfortably drive 300+ miles with no qualms - either over comfort or reliability. YMMV.

In retrospect I would have liked the V6 Busso but I was doing too many miles to make it sensible (and at the time they were too expensive) so, not wanting to have a diesel Alfa it was the JTS. Now I do far fewer miles a Busso would make sense, but the prices are creeping up and the newest are 12 years old... Styling wise I am not sure what I would want to replace it with so I decided to keep it and 'enhance' it instead - make it the best JTS I could:

- Replacement bushes/drop links all round
- Eibach pro springs
- Koni FSD shocks
- Stainless cat back exhaust
- BMC Carbon airbox
- Colombo & Bariani cams
- ECU remap

Next step is to replace the manifold/pre-cats with a Supersprint 4-1 manifold (there is always something to tweak...).

Now the car drives, sounds and goes more like an Alfa should. I guess I am in it for the long haul now...

Sounds awesome, im currently still debating whether to go down the route of "making it the best JTS i can" because at first i was rather put off by the engine, your list of mods looks like a good blueprint though, did you also replace the ARBs?

[mrbarnett]

This was heavily on my radar seven years ago when I was looking at something to replace my Ford Cougar V6. At the time, decent 3.2 examples were around £6k, with the 2.0 considerably less (less than £5k, no doubt). In the end, I wanted a roadster and a driven rear axle, so passed on the Alfa, but it still looks great, to my eyes.

What confuses me to this day, is how long Alfa sold this alongside the Brera. For five years they were directly competing with each other; a very strange bit of business.

[cnut]

mrbarnett said:

What confuses me to this day, is how long Alfa sold this alongside the Brera. For five years they were directly competing with each other; a very strange bit of business.

I shared the exact same thought when they were both out. Must have been strange test driving a Busso GT and then jumping to a Brera GM V6 when they were both crossed over 2006-2007?

[VitorioVeloce]

said:

mrbarnett said:

What confuses me to this day, is how long Alfa sold this alongside the Brera. For five years they were directly competing with each other; a very strange bit of business.

I shared the exact same thought when they were both out. Must have been strange test driving a Busso GT and then jumping to a Brera GM V6 when they were both crossed over 2006-2007?

Business wise alfa has always been a bit odd, in the space of two years they went from 147/GT/159/Brera/Spider to just mito/159 in the showrooms, followed by years of mito/giulietta

As for the brera/GT rivalry, i havent driven the brera, but from what i read it is much more a mile muncher, sacrificing sharp/sporty handling for comfort, as did the 159 compared to the 156. The brera also has less space in the back, making it much more a 2 person car, while my GT was perfectly fine for a week's holiday with two adults and two kids.

So from that perspective i see both cars as catering to different buyers, although one has to wonder if the difference was large enough to justify two different models, sharing nearly nothing in terms of parts

[r11co]

Uncle John said:

Have to pull you up on the JTD lump & the faults listed. These are solid units & don’t suffer with any of these on a regular basis, think shed is confused with BMW here...

The JTD is pretty robust (apart from the sticky EGR valve solenoid which is an easy DIY service - too many were replaced unnecessarily), but the JTDm had a few mods to raise the BHP from 150 to 170 and that's the problematic one. It had a different intake manifold with electrically operated swirl flaps that gummed up and stuck causing the engine to be in permanent limp mode with the only option for repair being a completely new manifold.

[pmfinch]

VitorioVeloce said:

Sounds awesome, im currently still debating whether to go down the route of "making it the best JTS i can" because at first i was rather put off by the engine, your list of mods looks like a good blueprint though, did you also replace the ARBs?

In the end I didn't replace the ARBs just the bushes/droplinks - all with standard parts. I decided that I had got a good balance between ride/handling with the progressive springs and the Koni FSDs and didn't want to potentially ruin it for me by going stiffer.

Plenty of people on the AO forum have though and seem to like the result - it was just that I wanted to keep as much of the Gt feel of the original as possible and the FSDs and progressive springs seemed to suit that.

[Jayho]

r11co said:

The JTD is pretty robust (apart from the sticky EGR valve solenoid which is an easy DIY service - too many were replaced unnecessarily), but the JTDm had a few mods to raise the BHP from 150 to 170 and that's the problematic one. It had a different intake manifold with electrically operated swirl flaps that gummed up and stuck causing the engine to be in permanent limp mode with the only option for repair being a completely new manifold.

I bought a spare egr valve and every 5 months or so I just swapped them out and cleaned the one which was in. I terms of the solenoid, whenever I had a probable I found a good solid tap on it a few times did the trick.

Mine got written off when a ford transit decided to use my car as brakes at NSL speed. Boot floor was completely crumpled and seemed like a good design as it kept me relatively safe.

[VitorioVeloce]

pmfinch said:

In the end I didn't replace the ARBs just the bushes/droplinks - all with standard parts. I decided that I had got a good balance between ride/handling with the progressive springs and the Koni FSDs and didn't want to potentially ruin it for me by going stiffer.

Plenty of people on the AO forum have though and seem to like the result - it was just that I wanted to keep as much of the Gt feel of the original as possible and the FSDs and progressive springs seemed to suit that.

Fair point, i actually want the GT to lose a bit of its comfortable tourer-ishness, even started a thread on that on AO

I suspect my clutch release bearing is going to need replacement soon-ish, i suspect the subframe needs to come off for that job, so i might ask my local indy how much they'd charge extra to fit the front ARB while they are down there anyway.

[Rumblestripe]

In terms of styling I think the years have been very kind to the Alfa (as indeed the TT) yes a little bland but that isn't always a bad thing. I think the proportions are just right and the design has a lovely flow. The sign of great design is often that the manufacturer was never tempted to "bugger about" with it later in life. No tweaks to the lights or two-tone paint jobs needed.

Bargain price that for a very clean looking shed with some nice dead cow, yeah the dash is a bit meh but otherwise what's not to fall in love with?