Not More Rain! DVAROC Fall Picnic Shines
the on-line newsletter of the delaware valley alfa romeo owners' club
Not More Rain! DVAROC Fall Picnic ShinesBob Brady
It was painfully obvious that the great drought of 1999 was over
as the die-hard Delaware Valley Alfisti endured the weather at the
annual picnic. While some decided to keep their treasures under cozy
confines, others broke out the towels and duct tape to keep the water
at bay. Charlie Crothers was one such brave soul; he duct-taped the
gap between his Giulia's windshield and top and drove from Cherry
Hill through the monsoon to Paoli. While he might have gotten the
award for bravery, the contingent from the Capital Chapter, including
Frank Salemi and Jay Hinton, got the distance award for making the
trek from Maryland. For the record, they also drove their
Alfas. Arthur Jones and Mary Nomecos got the endurance award for
making the picnic and the Hershey A.A.C.A meet in one weekend. They
also brought along pictures from their holiday at the Monterey
Historics which made everyone wish they were able to tag along as
well as a roll of "Bring Alfa Back" stickers.
But while the rain dampened a few interiors, the Wessells hospitality made the day truly special. Henry and Nancy greeted everyone with smiles. A fire was blazing in the house. Warm drinks were on tap. And, the Wessells' wonderful collection of Alfas was in the garage where it could be viewed without need for umbrellas.
Dave West (next to birdhouse) tries to call the
annual DVAROC meeting to order. Left to right, in front: Dan Scolaro,
Marie-Pierre Brady, Charlie Crothers and Mary Nomecos.
The 6C3000M, was the showcase. From the exquisite alloy bodywork to the six tubes brazed on the air box which correct carburetor mixture for the additional ram-air at speed, the former LeMans contender is a marvelous automobile in every detail. To be fair, they are all marvelous. From the rare 1900 Coupe to the often unloved Alfetta GTV, they each possess an attention to detail, a flair for design, and a oneness with the driver that is unmatched by even the best modern vehicles. But, every Alfa owner knows that.
The crowd of picnickers studies the finer details
of a 6C3000M as Henry Wessells provides historical and technical
background. Dave West, inspired by his alloy-bodied drink container,
imagines what it must be like to pilot the alloy bodied
racer.
While this year's picnic didn't favor dining on the lawn, for me, it was one of the best. Maybe it was the adventure of braving the elements, or maybe it was the die-hard crowd. Regardless, I can't recall the last time I was able to enjoy spending so much time swapping Alfa stories and learning about my favorite marque. It was great to see so many DVAROC members as well as our out-of-town guests. To all those who made it, I hope you had as good a time as I. For those who didn't, don't miss next year's picnic.... rain or shine!
A Jay Hinton (Capital Chapter AROC), in
foreground, not only braved the weather by driving his GTV-6 from
Maryland (he kept the Lancia Zagato at home), but also wore shorts!
Others in the picture: Dave West (silly hat behind Jay), the Scolaros
(right), the Vastas (seated) and others who I couldn't make
out.
Six Alfas, Six Ferraris, and An AbarthBill Shields
The "Three Alfisti", minus one (Bob Willing's GTV-6 had developed clutch maladies) journeyed to Lime Rock for the Bill Prout track day on November 10. For me, it was something of a homecoming. Other than Summit Point in August, it was the first time I had been on a track in four years. All those people who said that children change your life were right! Besides that, it had been twenty years since I last drove my favorite marque, Alfa Romeo, on my favorite track, Lime Rock. Back then, it was a G-Production Giulietta Spider that I was towing into the paddock. This day, it was the recently-acquired-from-Dave West '73 GTV.
New England weather in late fall could be just about anything, from miserable, to perfect. Luckily, we had something near the perfect end of the scale for the event.
Bill Prout, the event's organizer, is a former Formula B/Atlantic club and pro racer, who has served as an instructor at the Skip Barber Racing School. Bill's event was small (70 cars), low-key, friendly, and great fun. Registration felt more like you were going to a party at Bill's house, as he stood at the doorway and personally welcomed all the participants.
The Italian contingent at Bill Prout's Fall
Driving Event as viewed from the Lime Rock start/finish line. The
diverse crowd spanned 40 years of automotive technology and included
everything from stock, street cars to purpose-built race
cars.
There were a good number of Alfas and other Italians participating. Vintage racers Skip and Caryl Persson drove their beautiful Giuliettas. Peter Swanberg, who had impressed us with his fast driving of a big Benz at the AROC time trials in May, ran his Spider. Kevin Murphy was enjoying his first event with his 74 Spider. Mahlon Craft brought his recently restored and absolutely fascinating Fiat Abarth 1000 Bialbero. There were six Ferraris, and Bob Brady and I ran our GTVs.
Mahlon's Abarth was built for the '61 LeMans 24-Hour then brought to the States, where it competed at Daytona, Sebring, and other venues before being rolled at Bridgehampton in '65. It decayed in a barn on Long Island for 20+ years before he found it and restored it to original condition. We spent a lot of time with Mahlon during the day, as he recounted the car's distinguished history and his amazing restoration.
There was an abundance of first-rate instructors for the novices. The event was well organized, safe, and provided an hour and thirty-five minutes of track time. Our Alfas ran in the "Vintage" group, for older cars. Bill had told me that Alfas were especially welcome, as he owns a Giulietta Sprint Speciale. The group for older cars made the event much more enjoyable, because you didn't have to keep out of the way of Turbo Carreras and Corvettes.
Out on the track, Bob was doing very well the first several sessions, trying to remember all he had learned at the Connecticut AROC time trials in May. In our third session, I made several laps, then saw Bob's red GTV parked on the outside of the esses…uh oh. After the session, back in the paddock, Bob began diagnosis of what seemed to be a fuel delivery problem. It looked like it was going to be a tough one to solve, when longtime Alfa addict Steve Fogg wandered over, casually looked into Bob's engine compartment, and immediately spotted a broken throttle linkage. After a quick brazing job at the Barber Racing School shop, Bob was back on the track. He continued to do very well the rest of the day, despite his feeling he wasn't as fast as he was in May.
By the end of the day I had swept away all the mental cobwebs. I had first raced at Lime Rock in '73 and found taking the "Downhill" turn at speed one of the most exhilarating things I had ever done. To me, the "Big Bend", was the most puzzling turn I had ever encountered. Even 29 years later, the "Downhill" is as much fun as it has ever been. The "Big Bend" still puzzles me. But perhaps some puzzles shouldn't be solved, so we can always keep going back, trying to find the answer.
For those of you who have considered taking your Alfa on a track (where it belongs!), one of Bill Prout's events would be a great event to start with. For the more experienced, the event offered lots of track time and smaller run groups with less traffic. We had a great time and would highly recommend Bill's events, which will be run in the spring and fall next year at Lime Rock. The "Three Alfisti" would love to be more than three, so come join us! For more information, Bill's phone is 860 767-5047, or watch La Voce for next year's dates.
Mahlon Craft'sFiat Abarth 1000; one of two in the
world, it is a fascinating example of Italian engineering and
craftsmanship
Picnics, Parts, and PeopleJohn Jeffries
Pity about the weather for the annual picnic. I debated until the last minute as to whether to take my GTV, since the rain was both steady and heavy. In the end I wimped-out and took my trusted Honda; the Alfa had some ancient tires and, like its predecessor, takes on water used in foul conditions....excuses, excuses.
My son and I were greeted by that consummate gentleman and host, Henry Wessells, who was clad in characteristically Anglophile rain gear. Others had exhibited greater fortitude than I by driving their Alfas. Bob Brady's GTV is looking very nice indeed, and I say that with the sincerity and admiration of one who has, since his teens, tried to become a competent auto body repairer. I first saw Bob's red car a couple of years ago, on a rain soaked trip to the car show at Lehigh University (I drove a Honda that day, too). It was fairly straight but tired-looking. Today it looks very nice, with both bodywork and paint turned out to a very presentable standard. I did some body and paint to my current car 18 months ago, to cover some metalwork done prior to my ownership. While I might point out that I was working with metal warped by someone else's welding, more to the point is that I worked and worked the panel, and still the finished product was wavy, disappointing and amateurish. My paint came out quite well, but I used lacquer, which requires less skill to apply, yet magically comes to life when sanded, compounded and polished.
Bob used a urethane base/clear coat paint system, which requires some skill to do properly. (Like all car finishes, it's also hideously toxic stuff, which may be the best reason to not do too much bodywork at home.) The finished result is most impressive, equally so for the straightness of the panels. That urethane should be tough and look good for a long time.
I'm also interested in his car because Bob has started to participate in track schools, as I did with my beige GTV and then my 944S2. I am truly jones-ing to do this again and have been slowly preparing my red GTV to the same standard as my old car. Now that my SPICA is sorted, cylinder head overhauled, exhaust replaced, etc., I am going on a mini spending binge to speed up the process. I bought five new Yokohama AVS tires this week, having to go to the slightly wider 205/60/VR14 size, since Yokohama quit producing the 195/65/VR14 size I'd used before. I have also ordered new bushings for most of the front suspension, including the rather pricey lower wishbone inner bushings. One has to take the suspension totally apart to replace them, but my experience is that the front end works much better when these pieces are fresh. I will replace the sway bar bushings and end links, and install a 5/8" rear sway bar. The standard is 1/2", and if one uses a set of lowering springs, the standard front bar and the larger rear bar, the result is a much more neutral handling car than stock. Again, I am not breaking any new ground, but merely re-creating something I'd done with the prior car.
This round of spending won't encompass the upholstery. My car's interior is quite good, and only needs the front seat to be stripped and re-covered. Bob has installed some very anti G-Force-looking race seats in his car; probably a bit too serious for my tastes. When the time comes, I'll most likely by front seat covers from World Upholstery and have them installed by a local shop. I like the style of the stock interior, and will put comfort ahead of lateral acceleration concerns. I'll just have to make sure to tighten my harness to the point where the shape of the seat is immaterial.
Despite the weather, the picnic afforded the luxury of peeking in Mr. Wessells' garage. Along with it's rarer brethren was Henry's red 4 cylinder 116 GTV coupe, perhaps the least glamorous car in the building, but one of my favorites nonetheless. A good friend of my parents had such a car in burgundy, and looking at it during my early college years was an important early milestone in my appreciation of things Alfa Romeo. A better looking car than the tarted-up GTV6, to my way of thinking.
Also it was great to see some familiar faces. I had a intriguing conversation with Arthur Jones, who had brought some programs and catalogs with him from the Monterey/Laguna Seca/Pebble Beach festivities, as well as a fascinating book of snapshots taken in France in the 1950's, "merely" pictures of interesting cars encountered by the author. Too much to list here, but suffice it say pictures snapped of all kind of very serious, mostly pre-war machinery from Europe and the U.S., and most of the pictures were taken as chance encounters on Paris streets. Also, it turns out that one of Arthur's fraternity brothers at M.I.T. was a hero of mine, Karl Ludvigsen, author of some unusually fine books, amongst them, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected.
All proof that those reading this newsletter are connected by a common interest in a series of machines so special as to attract a following of, to put it in the colloquial, very cool people. Not to sound mutually self-congratulatory, I just want to point out that I have made in the past, and continue to make, some great friendships of those people I encounter via the appreciation of Alfa Romeos. So thanks to Dave West, Bob Brady and Stephen Freed, and let's all put in the effort to keep this good thing going.
On The Road .....Bob Brady
Traveling in Texas to Visit a Former DVAROC Member......
During a recent business trip, I took the opportunity to catch up with an old acquaintance of mine from Houston, Jim Tyson. It is possible that one or two of you might find some familiarity in his name, as Jim used to be part of our local Alfa community before he headed south in 1975. By that time, he had already been hooked on Alfas by fellow Cheltenham High School graduate and post-college roommate, Ron Sessions. You also might find Ron's name sounding a bit familiar, as he is now an editor at Road and Track, a job which could easily qualify as one of the best in the world. When Jim returned from Penn State, Ron was already a die-hard Alfisti, owning both a Giulia Sprint and a Spider. It wasn't long after the two moved into a carriage house in Montgomery county, that Jim became a proud owner of a Giulietta Spider with less than perfect synchros, for the princely sum of $500. Remember, this was still the sixties. In those days, a hot topic of club meetings was the exploits of a local Alfa dealer with less than stellar reputation (long since gone) who was driving up the prices of used Alfas by attempting to sell a pair of Sprint Speciales, one Giulia and one Giuletta, for the outrageous sum of $2500. It was also during that time that the club had one wise cracking member who responded to a question about restoring a 2000 spider by quipping "why bother?" This was the same loud mouth who stumbled into Alfa ownership by purchasing a used daily driver from a woman in the Bronx. While he was thrilled with the way the car looked and drove, he was put off by the frequent looks and attempts to get him to pull over by fellow Alfa drivers. Eventually the oddly non-stock head on this transportation unit failed, and the car was relegated to the back of a garage. Some years later, it was transported to Mexico where the owner attended medical school. And thus, the Delaware Valley was less one SZ-2!
Jim filled me in on the current state of Alfa Romeos in the Houston area. Like so many areas in the U.S., many Alfa owners have abandoned their cars as the few competent mechanics move on to other marques, or out of business altogether. While that is certainly not a positive situation, there is a silver lining; Alfas can be had for fire-sale prices.
Always Looking For Another.......
When I left Houston, in 1995, Jim had a beautiful GTV, a Milano Verde, and Spider he was preparing for time trials. Four years later, he still has the GTV, but the rest of the stable has changed dramatically. The Milano went to NEAROC member Brian Shorey. Two more GTVs have been added, with one serving as a communal club car (I kid you not), he picked up a beautiful Balocco GTV-6 for the princely sum of $1700, and now has four or five spiders (I lost count). Most of the Alfas have come to him like stray cats. He sees them in the paper, the newsletter, or around town. The owners typically want to part with them because service has become so hard to find. So, Jim feels the need to take them under his wing. Unfortunately, not every Alfa in Houston finds a good home.
One day, a friend of Jim's called him to tell him that a very nice GTV was sitting in a local "pull-it-yourself" junkyard. Leaping to action, the one man Alfa rescue society immediately went to investigate. The situation he described brought a tear to my eye.
Apparently, a straight, essentially rust-free, Louisiana-plated GTV was in the yard, ready for dissection. By the time Jim got to it, a few bits had been removed, but it was essentially complete. Since no man (or woman) can have too many GTVs, he immediately talked to the owner of the yard to see if he could buy it. "No dice" was the response. As it turns out, due to some quirk in the law, when a car enters a yard of this type, it can not be removed as a vehicle; it can only leave in bits and pieces. As law is his daytime profession, he immediately worked to find a way to bring this orphan home. Despite letters, affidavits stating that it would only be a track car, and many other creative attempts to finagle the car out of the clutches of "Junk Man" the GTV remains there to this day. It's now much less complete, with most of the bits now residing in Jim's garage. Soon, I fear, it will go to the crusher. Despite occasional setbacks like that, his crusade to rescue every stray Alfa in the Houston area continues. While not every car will stay on the road, at least the vital organs can be added to his growing spares collection in the hopes that they will someday keep another Alfa's odometer spinning.
Old Parts, New Parts, and Re-Originals....
One thing that sets Jim apart from your typical parts-hoarding Alfisti is that he is incredibly organized. All the parts he's collected over the years reside in either neat stacks or in well labeled and inventoried boxes. Unlike so many of us who can't find that spare ignition switch, fuel pump, or piece of trim when we need to, Jim can pull out his spare windshield wiper motor (or any other part, for that matter) in a minute flat. Ahhh, the joys of being organized. During my visit with him, we spent quite a while looking through his parts cache and getting bitten by mosquitoes. Occasionally, he showed me a new part, like the Bosch fuel pump he found in the trunk of one of his strays, or a new door panel from Matt Jones, another member of the Houston AROC.
When I left Houston, Matt Jones had just started Re-Originals, and was offering just a few items such as reproduction rubber mats. Now, his catalog contains everything from sheet metal to headliners, and every possible variant of GTV tail light lens. Now to those who haven't kept up, there are actually more variations in GTV tail light lenses then there are paint colors (okay, maybe not more, but pretty close). For example, you start by dividing up the small and the large lights. Then, for each line, there are the red and white versions as well as the red, amber, and white versions. Then, there are variations in what part was what color, manufacturers, edge trim, etceteras. Before long, you've got something like sixteen different versions of what most people would think are identical tail lamps! Not only is Matt aware of all these variants, he can regurgitate them like the ABCs. In addition, his knowledge of Alfa parts isn't confined to tail light lenses. He can do the same for virtually any other part. And, he's a really nice guy!
After too many hours talking with Jim, I hopped into my rental Grand Prix and headed to the hotel. While I don't miss the weather of Houston, I sure miss the people.
In
The Garage...Bob Brady
Tackling the Clutch:
Last year when I was putting my engine and transmission together for my GTV, I was overcome with a fit of thrift and decided to put back the old clutch and pressure plate. Now, when I removed it from the car, it was working fine. The clutch disc also was in spec with respect to wear limits. So, it seemed like the thing to do at the time. Well, within a couple of weeks of driving the newly resurrected GTV, I noticed some clutch slippage on the 3-4 and 4-5 upshifts, but only after the car had been flogged for an hour or more. When it was cold, or had only been running for a half hour or so, there was no slippage. Refusing to believe the clutch was at fault, I tried in vain over the ensuing 18 months to try to adjust out the slippage. For the record, hydraulic clutches don't need periodic adjustment.... a fact which I knew, but denied. Realizing that the replacing it was inevitable, I bought a new clutch assembly in preparation for the time trials last May. Of course, that little project was relegated to the "non-critical" list as other odds and ends claimed my attention. Finally, a few weeks ago, while doing some road testing of my new rear springs and trunnion bushing, the slippage had become intolerable. Not only was it slipping in the 3-5 and 4-5 upshifts, but I could now get it to slip under hard acceleration in almost any gear. The driving event I signed up for in November was still a few weeks away. It was time to face the music.
While I've done a few clutch R&Rs in my day (two Camaros and a Jeep) I'd had enough difficulty mating the transmission to the engine on the Alfa to make me think twice about attacking this animal. Part of what was contributing to my reluctance was the seemingly impossible task of removing the top bellhousing bolts with the engine and transmission still in the car. It was this same lack of access that made me shy away from my replacing the clutch in my parents' long departed Chevette, a car that came complete with a stack of steel counterweights hanging off the transmission. Apparently someone at GM figured that it was cheaper to add 20 pounds of steel to each car than let the engineers have a few hours to solve the problem. Let me stop there before I begin a rant.
With the Alfa, you've got two options for changing out the clutch. One, you could pull the engine and transmission out of the car, do your work on a bench, and reinstall the unit. Or two, you could try to get at it by removing the transmission from below. After seeing that those who make their livings by working on Alfas take the latter approach and after talking with NEAROC member and fellow time trialer Brian Shorey, I was convinced that the easiest approach was from underneath.
With the calendar marching towards my deadline, I put the car up on ramps and jack stands and started unbolting stuff. I was told that the trick to removing the transmission from underneath was to disconnect the exhaust from the tail pipe and use its weight to force the drivetrain to tilt backwards, allowing you to remove the bellhousing bolts from below. This sounded good in theory, but like so many things, the devil is in the details. First, for those of you who still have your cooling fans attached to the engine, you'll have to either remove the shroud or the fan before taking this approach, as the fan will hit the shroud when it tilts back. Second, while the exhaust provides a nice lever, it also gets in the way of the upper bellhousing bolts. In addition, while it looks very probable that all the bolts can be accessed from below, including the starter bolts, there is a world of difference between working under a car on a lift, six feet in the air, and working on one 18 inches in the air. For me, it was easier to remove the starter from above, something that I'd gotten very good at lately, but that's another story.
The rest of the unbolting was surprisingly easy, except for separating the exhaust downpipes from the exhaust manifold. In reality, that's a step which is not strictly necessary, but for me, it allowed access to a burried bellhousing bolt. So, after about two hours of unbolting, I was ready to drop the transmission.
Contrary to my experiences with American cars, Alfa transmissions don't just pop out. It took a fair bit of wiggling, pulling, and choice words to finally wrestle it out of its resting place. Finally, it was in my arms. Now maybe I'm just not as strong as I used to be (surely true), or maybe I'm not as ambitious as I once was (also true), or maybe that Alfa transmission is really heavier than a Borg-Warner T-10 (possibly true), but after the initial excitement of getting it out passed (about 30 milliseconds, to be exact), I found myself struggling to get it off my chest. After I rolled it off my body, I realized that that wasn't such a smart idea, as it was not relieving itself of its lube, through the top vent holes. Quickly I righted itself, and mopped up the mess.
Remember that I had been wondering whether my clutch really was worn? Well, once I removed the pressure plate and disc (a very simple task), I wondered no more. The face of the disc was covered with tiny hairline fractures. I was relieved, for there is nothing worse than replacing something that doesn't look like it needs replacing. At that point, I called it a day.
A few days later, and a few days closer to the Lime Rock event, I was back under the car installing the new clutch. It was ten-o'clock on Sunday night, and I had just finished cleaning up the flywheel surfaces and torqued the new clutch assembly in place when I decided to give installing the transmission a go. This was the task I was dreading. I had a terrible time installing the transmission before, and that was with the engine outside of the car. Now, having to work from beneath, I was not looking forward to the same task. I gave myself fifteen minutes, after that I planned to go to bed. Well, in one of those rare occasions when things go right, the transmission slipped into place in seven minutes flat. The key to this was putting it into fifth gear, and turning the output shaft with one hand as I pushed it home. The splines on the input shaft can sometimes hang up, and a little bit of turning is sometimes necessary to get it home. It was now time to go to bed. "Better to quit while I'm ahead," I thought.
Over the next couple of nights, I finished the reassembly. Overall it took me about six hours of work, not bad for an amateur. While it was apart, I took the opportunity to add some sections of rubber hose to the voids in the transmission mount. I've heard many recommend this modification to reduce overall driveline movement during hard driving.
Before taking it out on its maiden drive, I readjusted the clutch pedal so that it was even with the brake, which makes driving so much easier. Once on the road, it felt like a transformed car. Pedal feel was now as light as our new Subaru's, even Marie could tolerate it (which is saying a lot, believe me.) And, most importantly, any signs of slippage were now gone. I could finally flog the car with abandon. As far as those pieces of rubber hose in the transmission mount are concerned, I can't honestly say the car feels any different. I can say, however, that when I was at Lime Rock in May, I managed to hear what sounded like the driveshaft hitting the tunnel on the downhill turn. In November, after the modification, I never once heard any signs of that. So, maybe it did do something after all.
Stopping with Confidence:
In preparation for last May's time trials, I put new brake pads on the GTV. After talking to a few people, I decided to go with a set of "street" semi-metallic pads from a well-known source. Well, as soon as those pads went on, my usual confidence in the very capable GTV brakes was lost. Those pads just didn't stop. Now granted, they didn't fade either, but it almost felt like my booster was broken. After living with them for Lime Rock (a track where you really don't need brakes) and suffering with them at Summit Point (a track where you REALLY need brakes), I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get a set of semi-racing pads.
Hawk, Porterfield, and a host of other manufacturers make performance pads for our Alfas. They all offer full-race pads (which means they won't stop very well until they are hot; good on a track, not so good on the street) Most manufacturers offer "street performance" pads as well. These are a compromise compound which stop well under moderately hard conditions, such as time trials, but also don't require a lot of heat to provide friction. Again, after consulting with many people, I decided to go with the Porterfield R-4S pads, which are their "street performance" carbon/kevlar compound. While not cheap, about $160 for the car, they stop very well. When cold, they require a little additional stopping distance, but when hot, they stop like bubblegum on your shoe. As an added bonus, this compound doesn't require any special "bedding in" procedure. So with the new clutch installed and the new pads in, the GTV was ready to go and stop at Lime Rock.
That Annoying Wheel Dance - Redux
Recall in a past newsletter how I was bragging that I had solved the tendency for my GTV to lift its inner rear wheel in hard turns by adding an inch or so to the limit straps? Well, I must confess, it returned. It's not clear whether it was replacing the rear trunnion bushing with a stiffer, polyurethane busing or whether it was replacing the Shankle Super Sport rear springs with W&D units (same wire diameter but about 2" shorter) that did it. Nor is it clear that it wasn't the combination of both that did it. What was clear, even while driving on the street, was that my inner rear wheel was back to lifting itself.
At Lime Rock, I quizzed other GTV and Spider drivers about this problem. As it turns out, it seems like everyone experiences the same effect, even Bill Shields who has a Panhard bar on his GTV.
I think the ultimate solution is to make my limited slip differential a bit more limited. I recently saw an advertisement from Wes Ingram for this service. It looks like a bargain, at $105. To me, that seems like money well spent.
The other rear end problem I was experiencing on my GTV was some wheel hop under heavy braking. This was really severe at Summit Point, and gave me a bit of a scare. In November, at Lime Rock, I could still feel it with the grippier pads, although it wasn't nearly as unnerving. Fortunately my GTV is equipped with Spax 14-way adjustable shocks. Even more fortunate is that the adjusters are conveniently located on the outside of the shock. All it takes is a screwdriver.
After the first track session, I changed the setting from half hard, to full hard. Seconds into the next session, it was obvious that the hop was virtually eliminated. As a bonus, the rear wheel lifting was reduced as well.
Loathing in Lime Rock
As Bill Shields alluded to in his article on the Fall Driving event at Lime Rock, all was not rosy for me. The GTV made the drive up to the track without incident. Even the first session went very well, although the car seemed suspiciously slow. After the first lap of the second session, the lack of pep was even more obvious. It all came to a head when I mashed the accelerator exiting Turn 2 and the car died. Let me tell you, that is not a good feeling.
After coasting safely to the side of the track, I restarted the car, which it eagerly did. Then, I gave it some gas, to which it responded by dying. I restarted it again, listened for the fuel supply pump, watched the oil pressure, checked the engine temperature. Everything was fine. I then gave it some gas, to which it responded by dying.
I knew it was a fuel problem, but what? I've broken altitude compensation springs before, but the car will always run at full-throttle fine when that happens. If a fuel filter was clogged or if the fuel pump had a problem, the car would just run poorly. If the fuel cutoff solenoid was causing the problem, the car wouldn't start at all.
After an embarrassing tow into the pits, I tore into the Spica pump. First, I checked both the altitude compensation spring and the hair pin spring to see if they were broken. Neither was. Then, I checked fuel pressure. It too, was fine. Baffled, I started grasping for straws when Stephan Fog, a fellow GTV owner nonchalantly gazed into my fuel system and commented that the lever on the fuel pump had broken its braze. Every time I gave the car gas, the butterflies would open, but no additional fuel was delivered. "I've seen that happen a bunch of times, " he commented. "I've read a hundred ways for the Spica system to fail, but I never heard of that one," I mumbled to myself. Relieved by knowing what the problem was, I quickly removed the broken piece. The seconds of relief quickly turned into panic once again as I tried to figure out how I was going to fix it. (While I had brought a complete spare Spica system with me in May, I only brought a few "critical" pieces with me in November; none of which included the errant lever.)
It is beyond me why Luigi decided to make this part from two pieces of steel and braze them together. It is the perfect candidate for a singly machined piece. Apparently, they have accountants in Italy.
I was about ready to bum a ride to Alfas Unlimited to get a spare piece, when Bill suggested I try Skip Barber's garage. Bill generously threw me the keys to his GTV. At the garage, I showed the two mechanics the problem. I told them my plight, and one responded with an unconvincing "I can try" when I asked if they could rebraze it. During the next 20 minutes, I nervously shot the breeze with the other worker as I tried to imagine how he kept drinks from spilling through the hole in his lip through which a ring passed. Ouch!
Just as they were announcing my group to line up on the grid, the part was ready. While the repair wasn't going to win any awards, it looked serviceable. I dashed back to my car and frantically worked to reinstall it to make it to grid. Despite my best attempts, it was clear that I wasn't going to be finished in time. With the pressure off, I finished the job, started the car, and listened to the beautiful induction noise of an Italian twin cam at 7000 rpm. At that moment, Bill Prout's daughter stopped by asking if everything was okay. (Did I mention what a cordial event it was?)
The repair got me through the next three sessions, although it was apparent that the system needed some adjustment. Unfortunately, about 20 miles outside of Lime Rock, on the way home, the car started acting up. This time, it was just a loss of power, nothing catastrophic. I think the braze had slipped some and the car was running lean. I was able to compensate somewhat by flipping the barometric capsule to "F" and by pumping the gas to get more power. That worked fine on the highway, but dealing with the stop and go traffic on the Garden State Parkway was no joy. In the end, though, I made it home fine. The little red GTV had survived another event. And, I learned a valuable lesson: don't go to the track without my spare Spica again!