Scottish Elises

There is a theory that says if you're a real car nut you've had an Alfa Romeo at some point. This is prpbably boll***s although everyone knows you have to be pretty dedicated to actually buy one. Anyway, here's my Alfa experience.

It was a 1980 'W' plate 1.8 Guilietta 4 door saloon in Alfa beige. It had a beautiful Alfa twin cam engine with the maker cast in to the rocker covers and a cracking twin carb set up. I bought it from 'Tidy Cars of Darlington' in about 89. Tidy Cars slogan was 'We sell cheap bangers' (I kid not they actually advertised with this line). You could buy a dolomite for £75, a Marina for £50 or any number of other bargains, all with terminal rot and some with terminal mechanicals as well. It was heaven we went there countless times for a browse. The Guilietta just had to be bought - it was an Alfa and it was £300 complete with slipping clutch, no syncromesh between 1st and 2nd and the vaguest gearbox in modern automotive history. The gearbox was, i think between the rear wheels for better weight distribution and the long linkages left a bit to be desired. Still for £300 it seemed a bargoin, although a new clutch within the first week cost double that....Other unique points included matching holes at the base of the windscreen pillars filled with newspaper and a skim of filler and a partial absence of bodywork below sill level. Apart from that it was cracking, went like stink compared to other stuff around at the time and sounded beautiful. Besides the rear mounted gearbox it also had revolutionary inboard discs at the rear (does anyone know why?) which made replacing pads impossible and was also in prime position to be leaked on by the iffy hydraulics system. I was sorry to see it go but following an unfortuante incident involving a few pints, the Birkenhead tunnel and a young prick at the wheel my licence was temporarily indisposed. Given its imminent MoT perhaps no bad thing...

Saw one on Ebay recently and was tempted....

Anyone else?

Cheers
GC

GenCuster wrote: it also had revolutionary inboard discs at the rear (does anyone know why?)

To reduce unsprung weight

Alfa Sud in 1977 as a stop gap whilst I was looking for a Ferrari Daytona. Pretty much rusted away in a couple of years.

tut

a mate of mine had the Sud Tii cloverleaf which was a cracker - literally, the monocoque split from one side to the other. Great car though

Nizzy. I believe you but how?

BiggestNizzy wrote:

GenCuster wrote: it also had revolutionary inboard discs at the rear (does anyone know why?)

To reduce unsprung weight

My old S3 Turbo Esprit had these fitted at the rear although they changed this when design changed so the softer / Stevens design in 1987

GenCuster wrote:Nizzy. I believe you but how?

as the brakes are not mounted to the hubs (cast iron disks are heavy) you don't have the problem of all that weight bouncing around every time you go over a bump this improves handling

BiggestNizzy wrote:

GenCuster wrote:Nizzy. I believe you but how?

The explanation i was told was simple and makes sense -
less unsprung weight = less weight for the suspension to move up and down.

And - no way would i buy an Alfa,no matter how good they are to drive.

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... =7&t=21977

plug....


good car, just surplus to requirements now.

I've never had one, but like to think that owning 2 Minis (one of them twice...) and a Lotus counts me as a REAL car fan...

My dad had one of the first 156s in Dundee back in 98. Was amazing being picked up from school in that thing as most didn't know what it was, but everyone thought it looked amazing.

He chopped it in for a 147 which he preferred, but in comparison it wasn't anything close to the 156.

tuscan_thunder wrote:plug....

I'd be mega tempted if we weren't a 4 car family right now...!

Chris

Yes! I qualify.

I bought an Alfetta new in 1974 - great car but rusted right through within 3 years

Corranga wrote:
My dad had one of the first cars in Dundee back in 98. Was amazing being picked up from school in that thing as most didn't know what it was, but everyone thought it looked amazing.


Chris

Still at school in '98. You were a teacher right?

I was offered an Alfa to marry some womans daughter once, bizzarely, it was yellow so I said no, maybe if it had been red.

Grandfather had a series of alfas, spiders, suds etc 3 in a row were stollen so he gave up and bought a fiat panda

I've had two 156s and Laura had a 147. All 2.0 TS.

I have a bit of a thing for Alfas but whatever you do, don't keep them long.

My first 156 was a company car and I did 48k in it in 12 months. It had £3.5k of warranty work done in that period then I changed it.

My second 156 I bought last year for £400. It had a bottom end knock on it. I stuck a set of big end shells in it (£35), ran it for a couple of months and then sold it for £800.

Laura's 147 was a real cracker. She paid 2 grand for it from a trader (I actually went to look at a 730d he had in and we ended up leaving with the Alfa ) and she ran it for 5 months. Nothing went wrong at all with it and she sold it to some student for £2.5k.

Moral of the story is, Alfa's are great to drive and if you don't keep them long they don't cost you money. (If you're lucky)

Dan

[quote="smee"]I was offered an Alfa to marry some womans daughter once, bizzarely, it was yellow so I said no, maybe if it had been red.