Hand Throttle or Cruise contol

[ANT_GTV6]

Hi all,

I have a 1983 GTV6 which has a pull out lever which locks the throttle at whatever position it was at. Is it some sort of hand throttle or cruise control? Does anyone else have it on there cars? Is it standard? My 1985 GTV6 doesnt have it.

Cheers,

Anthony

[bonkfrog]

Hi Ant

Earlier models had both a choke and a hand throttle control,  in polished alloy, then plastic. As I remember (Giulia Super) the idea was to set revs at 1500 rpm to warm up before fanging off into the distance. There were all sorts of warnings about speeds before the oil had warmed up; I've forgotten what they were.

Cheers

Bonkfrog

[Mat Francis]

pull out lever which locks the throttle

Hand throttle. Primitive cruise control. I have the same thing in my '83 sedan. Very fiddly to get right so that you can maintain a constant speed, and even then only works if the road is basically dead flat.

[Joey]

I made good use of this feature on my way back from Lismore on my 81GTV, came in handy, took a wile to get it right and it always wandered -/+ 10kph but still gives your right leg a rest

[Anthony Miller]

Bonkfrog is bang on, the hand throttle is for warm up on older models.Giullietta's had em too up to 84

[shane wescott]

My Old 71 Berlina had one as well.

Good for warming up and suitable as a basic cruise control or highway driving :-)

[Anthony Miller]

Correct me if I'm wrong,(and I'm sure someone will), I think they phased it out when they got rid of the solid linkage throttle types.

[Davidm1600]

You all are correct but Choderboy's comments are spot on.  Having owned and driven 105s and early 116s which had hand throttles, I would never consider using this as a cruise control substitute.  It is simply too risky, as you just can't predicte the actions of other drivers or even road conditions safely enough to be able to react quickly enough to disengage the hand throttle.

[Joey]

You all are correct but Choderboy's comments are spot on.  Having owned and driven 105s and early 116s which had hand throttles, I would never consider using this as a cruise control substitute.  It is simply too risky, as you just can't predicte the actions of other drivers or even road conditions safely enough to be able to react quickly enough to disengage the hand throttle.

I just rested my foot under the throttle pedal and just pulled it back up with my foot when I needed to slow down.

[Joey]

I just rested my foot under the throttle pedal and just pulled it back up with my foot when I needed to slow down.

Wow, you should email every cruise control manufacturer in the world and let them know they've been doing it wrong all these years.

...Genius. 

I know its primitive... but after 11 hours on the N1 with the pedal positions not exactly being very comfortable for long distance cruising I got lazy