pewe
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 10:26 AM |
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To Alfa or not to Alfa??
Bucket-list seems to indicate I should buy an Alfa.
Having owned Lancias there's no great trepidation but do I really need another car/toy?
Currently thinking about taking a test-drive in a Spider Q4 - 4 wheel drive, 3.2 V6, convertible, lots of whistles and bells...
On paper it seems to tick a lot of boxes (e.g. cruising down to Italy when we're allowed) and surprisingly they aren't that expensive.
Any thoughts/comments gratefully received.
Cheers, Pewe 
PS anyone want to buy a supercharged Formula27, a Laverda 3CL and/or a Velocette Viper - gotta fund it somehow?
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theconrodkid
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 10:37 AM |
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everyone should own at least one Alfa, i had a 155, amazing car, comfy, fast but i was forever chasing electrical problems.
best to go to an owners forum and do some reading
ps, what happened to the BMW ?
[Edited on 29/3/21 by theconrodkid]
who cares who wins
pass the pork pies
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sebastiaan
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 10:55 AM |
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Do it.
But:
Do it right, and buy a Busso-powered Alfa. The later 3.2 is a GM engine (blah blah, alfa heads and tuning. Still a GM engine) and the original Busso
Alfa V6 is a glorious thing. I'd suggest a GT 3.2; proper nice looking cars and with a Q2 LSD added (basically a quaife ATB) and some springs +
dampers it is a proper drivers' car. And it'll sound like Thor's hammer of thunder as well. On steroids.
I had a 156 V6 for a while as a daily, with proper suspension (Bilstein) and exhaust (Madeno). Very, very nice car.
Watch out for: rust (sills + floor mostly) expensive belt service (8hr job if done properly) and clutch (100k km service life-ish).
You'll love it!
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pewe
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 10:56 AM |
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Still have the dog transporter, John, hence my saying do I really need another car.
Generally happy with it but broken front spring caused some grief around MOT time.
There's an absolute epidemic on BMW's after the cold weather.
Never had that problem on the SAAB
Maybe it's time to sell Maz as well...
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pewe
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 11:06 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by sebastiaan
Do it.
But:
Do it right, and buy a Busso-powered Alfa. The later 3.2 is a GM engine (blah blah, alfa heads and tuning. Still a GM engine) and the original Busso
Alfa V6 is a glorious thing. I'd suggest a GT 3.2; proper nice looking cars and with a Q2 LSD added (basically a quaife ATB) and some springs +
dampers it is a proper drivers' car. And it'll sound like Thor's hammer of thunder as well. On steroids.
I had a 156 V6 for a while as a daily, with proper suspension (Bilstein) and exhaust (Madeno). Very, very nice car.
Watch out for: rust (sills + floor mostly) expensive belt service (8hr job if done properly) and clutch (100k km service life-ish).
You'll love it!
Interesting, thanks.
Part of the reason for buying is that the spider is of course convertible.
I hear what you're saying about the Busso engine.
Mate had a 146 (GM?) which was due a cambelt change at then 76k, It got to 74k and it let go. Cost him £4k for re-build and Alfa refused warranty as
they'd dropped it to 36k since he'd bought it but no-one thought to tell him!
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sebastiaan
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 11:15 AM |
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yeah, the 16V TS engines (Fiat-based) are made of chocolate, best avoid those. Older Spiders are also available with the Busso V6, but you'd
have to look at a 916 platform spider. Also quite nice and much better at being an Alfa than the later 159-based spiders.
So this:
with this:
beats this:
with this:
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Markymark
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 08:00 PM |
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As a long term Alfa owner I would echo Sebastiaan's thoughts (apart from the one about twinnies, never had an issue with any of mine), best to
go for a 916 spider with the V6, cam belts cost an arm and a leg and a bit of the other arm too, parts are starting to dry up, but what a superb car
to drive especially with the Q2 diff.
That engine is the only reason to buy a V6 Alfa, as you can see I love a Busso, plus the later Spider is very lardy, so won't seem that quick
even with the V6.
Do it, Do it, Do it.
Mark
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Andrzejsr
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| posted on 29/3/21 at 09:26 PM |
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I own a 166 3.2 and 156 sportwagon 2.5 V6 ( in first did almost 80000km , second almost 150 000km), both build in 2004 , both bought used in 2009/2010
. The engines was the main reason for them to buy, well for the 156 SW also (equally mainy  ?) the design - unique for the estate and dont know if
not the best for everyday , still in 2020 looks great and it is from 1998 .
But - as said above - parts are getting hard to get, before the car - find proper mechanic who knows those engines (in this age - almost sure problems
with overheating and cooland loss in mysterios way ( not cheap engine rebuild for change orings under cylionder liner - leak due to heat age and heat
(especialy if the car is younger one with additional catalisators close to engine) .
And many other issues because it is Alfa (suspension etc)
BUT - dont know if there are any similar in character engines in the world , especialy taking the cost of the car into account. Those are addictive .
Its not the sound only , and it is not exhaust sound but You hear all thise mechanicsm intake (via those chrome runners) sounds mixed together, its
the reaction on the throttle , and what is going over 4-5000 revs
Also steering ( not much above 2 steering wheel revolution from max turn from left to right) , very good feelng ffrom front tyres , suspension (if in
good shape and there is a lot and frequently to do especially in 166) also great, brake feeling the same, but heavy nose is spoiling this feeling
sometimes on hard driving etc.
Ah, in UK there might be the same issue with 156/GT/147 platform cars as almost everywere with rainds, humidity and salt on winter roads - cars in its
ages are almost for sure corroded fron underside , under the carpets and sills - and as for the sills , not frome outside but from insde. Best to buy
a car from south europe (Italy , Spain etc ). 166 seems to be better in this aspect.
So, grat cars with Busso engines , without - see no reason to buy an Alfa other than finding a hobby which is ensuring a lot of never ending work on
the car
(well design could be other reason)
https://aswestfield.wordpress.com/
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Replicar328
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| posted on 30/3/21 at 12:16 PM |
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I had a 156 for a while, great fun to drive. Got banned for a month for apparently doing 106 mph - confusing speedo as it's scale is twisted
anticlockwise to allow a digital clock at 3 o'clock - knowing how late you are when looking at the speedo doesn't help either.
Alfa still make cars which are fun to drive - like the original BMW 3 series before they turned that into an 'executive' car with power
steering and other unnecessary extras.
To replace my Audi A4 FSI Quattro which died due to oil blockage in the sump filter ("ruchsprung durch schlechte qualität" - terrible
design fault which they only 'fixed' in later models by including a bypass!) I recently bought a Alfa MiTo TwinAir - such fun to drive -
revs to the lmit so quickly, you have to work the gears.
Okay, so has anyone thought of building a rear engined 'Locost' with a MiTo TwinAir (same as used in Fiat) drivetrain? Something similar
to the Staniforth Terrapin from his book "High Speed Low Cost"? That will be my next project - if I can get my present one finished
whilst petrol cars are still allowed....
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pewe
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| posted on 30/3/21 at 01:09 PM |
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Thanks for the replies - some interesting points to ponder. One thing which I hadn't considered is that there were only a couple of hundred
Q4's imported. That presumably means the potential parts supply could be an issue.
Think I'll take a bit more time to ponder...
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