Alfa on the News

[shane wescott]

Hey Guys

Did anyone see my car on the Thursday night news. I was body surfing the GTV6 through the lake on Spencer street outside Southern Cross station. I watched a couple of cars cross, decided it was not too deep and gunned it :-)

You can just here the roar of the V6 (slightly muffled by water) and you can see the unlucky lady who copped the wave of water at the tram stop. Camera man must be an Alfa fan.

I did learn something though GTV6 brakes, they dont like lots of water and generally stop working for a while afterwards :-(

All safe though and got my passengers to the airport on time.

I will try and put the video on my you tube channel, but until then here are some stills:-)

Catch ya

Shane

[Jekyll and Hyde]

This is one thing that was really annoying me on Thursday - the road was flooded outside my work, and people were still doing 60km/h through it.  Obviously these people have never heard of aquaplaning, and its amazing that no-one hit anyone else, and only one or two cars conked out.  If you must drive through 'deep' water, then a steady pace is much preferred - if you are kicking up a bow wave, you are going too fast, and forcing water up higher in your engine bay than would otherwise occur, increasing the likelihood of the car stalling.

Yes, big bow waves are cool, but ultimately its better for the car if you just walk through in first gear - by the looks of it, the water wasn't much past the hubs on your GTV, and if it was then it was probably too deep, and you would have gotten close to sucking a big gulp through the air filter, as well as filling up the distributor.  There's a bumper or two lying on the road near my work from people going roaring through deep water and ripping them off.  As you noted, brakes tend not to like water in that quantity, and neither do clutches.

I drove through at least a foot of water, if not more like a foot and a half - but I was doing about 2000 rpm in first gear, in a modified Range Rover which meant that my hubs were only just in, and I had my distributor pressurised with air to keep the water from getting in, and I have a snorkel which means my intake air comes from the height of my roof.

[shane wescott]

I suppose it all depends on the car and the depth of water.

Over the years I have been stuck a number of times and had to go through water in a standard car (non 4WD), this was mainly from a few years living in Queensland, and 6 months in Malaysia.

Been unlucky enough to be stuck once going slow, but never been stuck yet going through with momentum. On thursday I stopped at one side, realised I couldn't do a U ey, so decided to gun it.

The bow wave is clearly due to the superior accelleration of the GTV6:-) I did see a guy on TV try to speed through water in South Melbourne and get stuck - problem was the water was at least a foot deep.

Clearly when it is water versus machine you have to pick your battles, that's certainly one I wouldnt have tackled.

Let's hope we still get plenty more rain, but without drain blockages.

Catch ya

Shane

[Fast Eddie]

you were quite lucky.
a certain ex member of AROCA Vic killed his 147 GTA doing that!  If it wasnt for Shannons looking after him, he would have been in deep water! Get it 

[shane wescott]

You're right with the lucky part Ed. Not something I will make a habit of but it was good to know the GTV6 could make it through the rain without any major or minor issues. Fogging up inside was the main problem, but I have some Rainex now so that should sort that out.

Heat may be a different thing so due to the 40+ forecast for new years eve, and the fact I have a keg party near the beach, I'm going to rent an airconded car for a couple of days so the GTV6 can take some time off :-)


Catch ya

Shane