A few GTV6 questions for an owner to be: which fuel, which oil and which tyres?

[joninmelbourne]

Hi there,

I'm flying up to Sydney this weekend to see some GTV6's, there are thin pickings in Melbourne at the moment as far as classic GTV6 go. So I'm armed with $10,000 cash and a flight ticket, one way... hope I'm going to be driving back a GTV6 come Monday!

Just a few questons which may be obvious to the regulars, so please excuse me for asking...!

Which is the best fuel to use? One I test drove in Melbourne had some ping - ping noises going on with acceleration - a sign of low octane fuel I reckon- so are we only to use 98 Shell Vpower and BP Ultimate? Or can we get away with Caltex Vortex (95 Octane I think) or even regular as well? What were the cars designed to run on in Oz?

Whats the best oil to use? Mobil One? Or is the extra expense and the possibility of creating leaks (through the cleaning effect) worth the money? What type - 20/50w   or thinner?

Also I have heard some horror stories on the tyre costs - that because they are metric sizes that the only tyres that fit are $250 each - can this be correct?

Who is the best Melbourne GTV6 friendly specialists to get it serviced at?

Any help appreciated, will post photos next week if all goes according to plan...! I have my RACV Totalcare all arranged for the 880km drive back to Melbourne - hopefully I won't need to use it!

Cheers
Jon

[Sir Lancelot]

haha, RACV total care will pay for itself at some point! Usually it will be something small, but enough to incapacitate the car, which is when you use that free tow!

I'm no expert, but I'll tell you what I use
- BP Ultimate 95% of the time, sometimes Shell Optimax, although people tend not to like this fuel for some reason - they appear to be quite different fuels. I've never had any problems with those fuels.
- If I'm out in the country and no premium around, 95 octane fuels seemed just fine
- Oil, I always use Penrite HPR30, i once tried something thinner, but I didn't think it suited.
- Pretty sure that tyre thing is a myth. I ended up spending around $200 a tyre (from memory - I think), but they're brilliant road tyres with great grip - Bridgestone Potenza G3. I'm sure you can find cheaper tyres to fit if you wanted.
- I regularly take my car to Monza Motors in Bayswater, and have been to Maranello Motors in Brunswick, so I can at least recommend those. But there are several other excellent mechanics in Victoria - check the Alfa Mag or Newsletter for the full list.

So that's one owners perspective! Good luck with the car shopping!
Also have a search on the forum, pretty sure there have been a host of GTV6 questions that have already been answered.

[Doug Gould]

There's less difference between 98 RON fuels than there used to be. The National fuel standards that came into effect a couple of years ago leveled them up. You should note that there are only 3 refiners that produce 98 octane - Shell, BP & Mobil. I avoid Mobil because I'm still pissed off with them for wrecking Australia's General Aviation fleet. I prefer BP, but Shell Vortex doesn't have the problems that Optimax did.

I'm currently using 5W-30 synthetic oil in my BTV6 because I have a lot of it. I'm finding that its not consuming any more oil than it did on heavier oils. Most oils (including I think Penrite) use Mobil base oil with Lubrizol additive packs. I used to like Pennzoil because they used an imported additive pack. But now they're owned by shell. I reckon the thing to do is pick a good oil & change it regularly.

Tyres are easy to get and relatively cheap. You can get tyres from any of the big brands.

Any of the service guys that advertise with the club are good. I use Hugh at Alfpa repair, but partly becuase he's convenient. Bruno at Maranello is great and I'd have good confidence inpretty much all the others. I'd call inmto one that is close and have a chat and see if you like them.

Doug