Early GTV6

[GG105]

The vibration was in the tailshaft. This is the short form. It nearly drove us mad, it was finally sent to Benincas for balancing. Joe told us to line the drive train up, which we did as best we could. Pretty much right now, just a little vibration off idle.

The car was showing some signs of glazed bores, so we ran it up on the dyno, several sessions of 4,000 revs in third gear have done the trick. We ground of the locating pins off the passenger side mirror, so now I can turn it enough to actually see out of it.

Its pretty much done now apart from some minor cosmetic stuff. Faults aside, and there are plenty of them, these are special cars and I'm very happy to have brought this one back from the brink.

It shares shed space with the other Alfas and an Aussie R32 GTR, E36 M3, Porsche 3.2 Carrera, Renault Clio V6, NA Mazda MX5 and an SL500 MB. This makes for an interesting comparison. Ignoring the last two, whilst the others are quicker than the Alfa, the little V6 pulls way above its 160hp weight and nothing sounds quite like it.

John

[Ian Morris]

Does anyone have a paint formula or code for painting early campagnolo GTV6 wheels? 

[GG105]

Ian, I don't have a formula for the paint. I usually use BMW silver for late model wheels.

John

[ALFAAA]

Hi Ian,
Bring one of your wheel rims to any of the Auto paint shops and they should match the paint colour.
I repaired one of my 916 spider rims , I went to CD auto paint in Dandenong, they match the paint perfectly.  

[Ian Morris]

They weren't in the best condition. But I am kicking myself that I didn't get them colour matched before I had them blasted to prepare them for painting. Now there is no paint on them. And no one seems to have the colour. I have heard that the early Campagnolo wheels have a different colour to the later Camparatura wheels. Stands to reason, they are a different manufacturer and material.

[GG105]

The Campy wheels, from memory, were a slightly duller colour than the later wheels, although I don't remember them from new. In any event, I don't think the difference is material. If you look at the photos on this thread, mine are painted BMW Silver and I think they look fine.

[aggie57]

The reason I have thought about knucle risers and drop spindles and not done it. Is that I have doubts about there price v's handing improvement on a road car. Of the two designs I think the drop spindle would be  stronger and less stresssed but they are more expensive and I wondering if the price for the improved turn in is justified for a road car driven with enthusiasm. As it is my car handles well and is predicable on a wet road inital understeer can be controlled with steering and throttle input to bring the back around and oversteer is easily corrected. Does changing the roll center make these cars a handfull on a wet road do they want to snap oversteer especially with an LSD fitted

No, the roll centre change has no downside as far as I recall.  It's been a number of years but I had three cars with various combinations of the common changes. The last one was a late GTV6 that was a fast road car, not a dedicated track one, and it had the full gambit including extended uprights, lowered rear roll centre, LSD, etc.

It was quick on the track and a great road car. Standard cars, even with stiffer bars and coils, where ponderous by comparison. Slower turn in, more understeer, generally a couple of steps below. Yes, the LSD made for some fun on wet roads but one lesson I recall was to keep the rear roll bar and rear springs soft. With soft springs it would even do lovely 11's wet or dry but with stiffer rear springs it would just axle tramp.

[GTVeloce]

The difference in turn-in with the long shank ball joints is fantastic, especially on the road. Through some awesome mountain passes I drove my GTV (with modded roll centre) and a GTV6 (without) and yes, 4 cyl vs 6 cyl would have made a difference with respect to understeer, but the biggest difference I noticed was the ability to take tight switch back corners in my car without re positioning my hands on the wheel which was not possible in the GTV6. Although I may not have minded as I was too busy lusting after the sound of the 6...

I have just received a set for my road going, fairly stock (standard torsion bars) 75. I am hopeful it will have a similar effect without stiffening the suspension too much in this car.

[GG105]

Have just bought a factory South African 3 litre GTV6. Stay tuned.

John

[Dna Dave]

As a owner of one, I can tell you, well done, you will love it

[Scott Farquharson]

Just got the reply from centro doco at Alfa on the Dulux car.

It is a very early build.

Alfa Romeo GTV 6 2.5 I.E. RHD

Production date: 1981, September 2nd

Delivery date: 1981, October 5th

Market destination: Australia

Exterior color: Rosso Alfa

[poohbah]

Scott, how did you get the info from centrodocumentazione, and did they charge you? They provided me the info on my '81 GTV for free back in 2015, but there are a few folk on here who have asked for info since without luck. They may be interested in how to go about getting the info now and what charges may apply.

[aggie57]

Just got the reply from centro doco at Alfa on the Dulux car.

It is a very early build.

Alfa Romeo GTV 6 2.5 I.E. RHD

Production date: 1981, September 2nd

Delivery date: 1981, October 5th

Market destination: Australia

Exterior color: Rosso Alfa

Gee Scott, that really is early. One of the first cars for Australia?  Likely one of the first RHD cars too. I was in Paris in June '81 and saw my first GTV6 at an Alfa dealer there. I don't recall seeing one before then in the UK.

[Alpal007]

Happy new year everyone!

Thanks Tim, that's interesting. If it's correct that only 50 or so split dashes were imported, I suspect they were all '82 builds and all red, mine is Feb '82. That makes two more two more delete sunroof cars than I knew existed before yesterday! My car is chassis 2026, making it the 26th '82 production RHD GTV6. What is yours?

John

HI JOHN
Can you explain how to determine the chassis number and how you know it's the 26th car produced in 82? Just curious as I also own a 82 model split dash with sunroof and just trying to get a handle on where it sits with your car.
Mine has a built plate of Jun 82 and a compliance plate from Alfa Australia of 4/83

Allan


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Paul Newby]

Just got the reply from centro doco at Alfa on the Dulux car.

It is a very early build.

Alfa Romeo GTV 6 2.5 I.E. RHD

Production date: 1981, September 2nd

Delivery date: 1981, October 5th

Market destination: Australia

Exterior color: Rosso Alfa

Gee Scott, that really is early. One of the first cars for Australia?  Likely one of the first RHD cars too. I was in Paris in June '81 and saw my first GTV6 at an Alfa dealer there. I don't recall seeing one before then in the UK.

I believe this was the original Alfa Romeo Australia evaluation car, NSW reg LPH816 which featured in press evaluations, including Wheels magazine September 1982. (The GTV6 wasn't released here until 1983.) Gulson bought it directly from Alfa (I suspect it didn't have an Australian Compliance plate) and turned it into a Group C racer for Bathurst 1982.