The right wrong car

[Pseudonym]

Hi everyone, just a general review slash musing on my recent experiences, I would start some sort of a build thread somewhere but I'm too old to build cars now, I just feed them money and occasionally wash them.

So recently I was looking to buy a 159 TI, I'd been poking around everywhere but not having much luck over here in the west, until one day I get this message from my dad saying there's a few at cileberti in good condition. Good excuse to go to the coffee shop, so I grab a brew and head over.
"Hello, dad said you had some cars?"
"Yes, here I show you"
"Oh yeah, that's nice, it's a 156 selespeed though"
"Yes, selespeed good, take it fora drive, all serviced all good"
"Ok sure, why not"

Half an hour later.

"Ok, let me know how much they want for it and we'll work something out."
http://imgbox.com/MKI2g7qc

The next week.
http://imgbox.com/qwrjodpD


My apologies for the tiny pictures, I'll have to have a play with imgbox settings later.

So I guess to to start with I admit, I never wanted a 156, not that I ever disliked them, just the 159 design was just too good in my opinion. I'll be perfectly honest, after months of reading and watching I realised that the car I wanted was a last series 159 ti 2.4 diesel... except at $15k+ it was a fair chunk of change for a very comfortable seat from which I could stare longingly at a Giulia Veloce from...

The 159 is by no means a bad car, but it represented a future constraint. The 156 didn't really have to try hard to win me over given the price difference, but after the first corner I may as well have turned around and called it a deal - if there's one thing AR have never messed up it's their steering. Particularly in that suspension and wheel combination it's just a work of art, I've driven twinspark early 156s before, they're good, but not this good. The JTS sounds interesting, and ticks the daily duties box with willing torque but still has a bit of spirit up north, nothing like the crispness from throwing a twinspark at the redline but seeing as I'd be mainly driving it on roads with speed limits the JTS cruising torque made a lot more sense.

Now for the record auto is not my preference, an air shifted sequential dogbox is great and all but give me three pedals and an H pattern and leave me alone, however my girlfriend simply never mastered the third pedal, and while she wouldn't necessarily have to drive this I like to drink and it's about time she supported my drinking hobby 

The selespeed is an odd thing. That's the best way I can put it. It's remarkably competent in some areas but then in others it's worse than a manual or a conventional auto. Once you get used to it the auto mode is OK, I've found that manually shifting at particular revs becomes a more enjoyable experience, I've been getting used to the difference in muscle memory and strategy to get the gears where I need them when I need them, after so long in manuals it's a bit alien. I did consider the Q system auto on the 2.5, but firstly it's still a torque converter auto and needs to be doused in petrol and burned, and secondly there is no secondly because I burned it. If I finally hop in a Giulia one day, and poke the gas and feel a rubber band between the pedal and my backside I will just flip out and buy a Nissan.

Anyway, those are my incoherent ramblings on why I bought a family car sized go kart with tiny forklift mechanisms inside to shift the gears for me and possibly go bang, thanks for reading. Oh and my one disappointment so far has been that a section of my side skirt has somehow been torn out over the course of my driving, god knows where, all I can think is it was already loose and I went through a puddle to quick and off it went, so if anyone knows of any silver JTS sideskirts around Perth please drop me a line, cheers.

http://imgbox.com/2m4SR5u0

http://imgbox.com/IGcifGfk

[poohbah]

Ha, I can actually hear Leo's voice saying "all serviced, all good". (*get accustomed to hearing him say it too...)

Nice buy mate.

[bazzbazz]

+1 For "Flappy Paddles"   

[Citroënbender]

It should have been, that the person looking for a manual, diesel 159 ended up with a cheap daily instead.

(Or maybe they did!)

[Pseudonym]

Cheers guys, it's funny because a run of the mill 159 would have been only slightly more - albeit probably with higher Ks. But I wasn't keen on the $4k job flywheel, or having to fiddle to get the standard 159 to look like a ti. Also I noticed the girlfriend was a little more comfortable driving it - she's relatively inexperienced and has had bad driving experiences in the past, I was a little concerned that the larger platform of the 159 would give her more stress.

They had a series 1 156 up as well, I really like their interior but the exterior not as much, then there was a facelift ti, but in red - however this was the first 156 I'd seen where it looked good straight out of the box. The ti seats were a bit comfier, but the red just didn't grab me. I think it's that the silver exposes those side lines a little more, that and I know what happens to red paint eventually...everytime I wash the 33 a layer comes off [emoji28]

There were definitely cheaper 156s around in the past but it was clean as, the workshop had inspected it, service history was complete, female previous owner and it had only done another five thousand Ks since 2016 - if it's going to grenade on me at least I tried my best [emoji23] I think I will be getting a copy of ecu scan just out of curiosity, it's all engineer magic to me but it's always nice to learn stuff.

Hopefully I'll spend more time in this one than underneath though, I've got a heap of old rubbers to replace throughout the 33 and gtv, not to mention the unobtainium of 1970s Toyota parts. It'll be nice to be able to go for a drive for a change [emoji16]

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[ugame]

Wonderful buying story and I too can hear Leo in your writing Love that guy! They're all top blokes in my book there.

Reminds me. I need to go and leave them my wallet again soon. Bloody 147 lol.

[bazzbazz]

What did YOU do to that poor suffering 147 THIS time? 

[Pseudonym]

Actually, getting a liking for the selespeed has merely intensified my regret over not buying that selespeed 147GTA they had a few years back [emoji22]



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[bazzbazz]

If you EVER get the chance, take a 147 GTA Selespeed for a spin up a lush, green, twisty mountain road on a early cold winters morning.

More fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys! 

[Citroënbender]

I thought the purpose of owning high performance European cars, was to attend "Cars and Coffee" meets on the weekend and chirp the tyres when leaving?

[Craig_m67]

Never been.. to busy sleeping in

[Pseudonym]

Apparently it's ended up stored away [emoji17]

I'll have to settle for keeping the GTV6 alive and taking that, being matte black it just gets dirty stares for making rattley exhaust noises at C&C [emoji23]

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[ugame]

I took the Cayman s to C&C. Wife didn't realise we were going to be "on show" lol.

My challenge is to get in in the GTV TS, and then, the beetle lol. I want to see how low the standards are

[Pseudonym]

Honestly that's something that I really like about the Classic Cars and Coffee at UWA - even if they let any old unimaginative four wheeled box in *cough*audi*cough* a worthwhile charity is still getting a donation for it, unlike the Custom Cars and Coffee pricing scheme which seems a bit suss.

Anyways, almost 5000ks down and (please don't jinx me please don't jinx me) and nothing has exploded. I'm almost a bit disappointed. Actually one, nay, two, items of note, firstly the courtesy alfa romeo check engine light came on, I checked the engine, it was still there *tick*, and it also told me of a motor control system failure, but my foot, which controls the motor through the pedal was fine and the motor responded to control as per usual, so I decided the computer was lying to try lure me back to the workshop and into buying more Alfas and I cleared the code (cat converter). It stayed cleared so that means it's fixed *nods*.

Secondly, and it's always done it so...meh.... it makes a pretty decent knocking noise at idle, but only after pulling up after a period of cruising at revs, and it disappears in five or six seconds. Usually only appears at op temp and fluid consumption is as usual - it reminds me of the direct injection dieseliness amplified so perhaps a lazy injector somewhere, something I might just have to wait to fully quit in order to find it.

Asides from a sometimes touch aggressive clutch drop when cold the selespeed is actually a good friend of mine - completely useless as an automatic but once you get the feel of the throttle and understand what the box wants to do, and plan that intention with your road position it's almost seamless.

[wturnbull]

If you EVER get the chance, take a 147 GTA Selespeed for a spin up a lush, green, twisty mountain road on a early cold winters morning.

More fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys!  [emoji4]

Good to hear some positive comments on selespeed. Going up to six speed on the 2.2 jts 159 allows closer ratios and brings out the best in this Alfa. Yes, maybe a bit on the heavy side, but certainly solidly built and is of course a driver's car.


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