How Fast is Your Alfa?

[redspiderveloce]

Just making sure everyone knows, I'm not meaning to offend any straight line racers, and I definitely don't have any experience in the area. I know that when it comes down to real competition there is lots of skill involved, I just don't understand why people drag race at stop lights who have no drag racing experience. The guys that are good, well, I just hope they don't do it on the street. One day I would love to learn how to drive a drag racer though.

BTW Bill-Sims your car looks beastly!

[Bill-Sims]

Anybody who drag races on public streets is an infantile, stupid, *******, IMO.

I do think the fun factor of acceleration increases dramatically as the power factor goes up.

I know it's a hoot to be in my car under full acceleration. I had a co-driver back in April who is a multi-time nat'l champ in autocross, and when he opened it up he hollered "holy ****, this thing is a beast!"

That's now it's name--"the beast".

[ste10105]

I find that third gear in My sprint or spider on a twisty Santa Cruz
mountain road does just fine thankyou. Anything more should be
taken to a race track. Besides, even at these relatively slow speeds
most other more modern cars don't want to play.

[Oelholm]

I've seen 156 km/h on the GPS in my Alfasud - didn't seem to mind it at all

In the 1975 litterature, it is listed as having a top speed of 154 km/h...

[Arvid]

I have to say that i like to go fast, its a rush... and here there are not that many tracks so its a bit more difficult and expensive to drive on the track (usually around 100-300 $).
Normally i go just around the speedlimit, i have a long way to work and the prices on fuel are so high (its about 8,92 $ pr gallon here) that i have to try and save it a bit, but once a month or so, when i comes to me i have to push it a bit, and since its not fast when it comes to 0-60 mph (about 9 sek) i let it go to topspeed instead, where its ok fast and a lot faster than it should be acording to alfa
it's suppose to go 209 km/h = 130 mph but my picture shows that when given the right conditions ( down hill and wind in the back) its a Lot faster. In a straight line it goes 220 km/h = 138 mph and down hill and wind in the back i had it up tp 237 km/h = 147 mph and down hill is just a big bridge so its not a 15 degrees hill
so anyway i don't think its that bad to drive fast but ofcause its not wise to do so in traffic
Its standard exept for a -50mm lowering and an aluminium plate under the engine replacing the original plastic plate (40mm more hight under the engine)

[bianchi1]

on hy 5 just north of woodland ca..127 mph, no wind, cool morning,, short shot at that speed..

[Racer X]

While vacationing in Germany, I saw 240 Km/h in a rented Alfa 159 Sportwagen. Tucked in behind an A6 on the autobahn. Did not even feel fast until we caught up to slow traffic. The A6 driver did not mind passing cars at twice their speed, but I thought better and slowed down. It might have been OK in Germany, but in the California, there is always someone who thinks they are in charge of slowing down the fast drivers.

For me the feeling of speed is much more fun in mid-speed twisties. For example, the GPS shows that my Super hits 120 MPH on the straightaway at California Speedway. The only exciting aspect of that is the concern that I might throw a rod or something. When you come out of two and need to scrub 70 MPH with a pack of 10 cars surrounding you, now that is exciting.

As was mentioned in an earlier post, once you learn to drive a car at 10/10ths on the track, there is nothing you can do on the streets that even comes close. If you really push it on the streets, you are putting yourself and complete strangers in a very dangerous situation. That doesn't mean that a friendly game of "catch me if you can" is not fun. It just means that there is no point in taking it to the level of putting others at risk. I am easily baited into that game, but when I see the other guy is going to go insane, I just give a friendly wave, and slow down.

[Gary Williams]

Who's the idiot who started this thread?

Oh wait, it was me back in 2005. When you're old, you tend to forget things.

[crashmctavish]

And that was pre nemo for a fishy story

[180OUT]

Well since you mention fish stories, Keith, here's one. My wife and I were driving our newly imported 1600 GTV just outside Texarkana (yes, there really is a place called that) when a Mark IV Contential took umbridge at being passed by such a little 'furrin car. He tried to pass but I simply paced him, easily staying a few car lengths ahead. We kept increasing speed, until I very conspicuously reached over and selected 5th gear and began to pull away. At that moment a huge cloud of white smoke issued from under his hood as his headgaskets blew. Ture story.

One thing I loved about that first Alfa is that you could drive it flat-out across west Texas and the water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure remained rock steady.

[Ish-Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farace I think one of the more telling remarks I've read about Alfas is that they're not necessarily fast, but they are quick.

[jarrington]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 180OUT Well since you mention fish stories, Keith, here's one. My wife and I were driving our newly imported 1600 GTV just outside Texarkana (yes, there really is a place called that) when a Mark IV Contential took umbridge at being passed by such a little 'furrin car. He tried to pass but I simply paced him, easily staying a few car lengths ahead. We kept increasing speed, until I very conspicuously reached over and selected 5th gear and began to pull away. At that moment a huge cloud of white smoke issued from under his hood as his headgaskets blew. Ture story. One thing I loved about that first Alfa is that you could drive it flat-out across west Texas and the water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure remained rock steady.

[74spider]

No Idea, the Speedometer hasn't worked in years

[pmpfx]

Here's a question for all you guys. I have a '74 GTV which is fairly stock mechanically. It has FI and runs great. I drive it all the time and get the most positive responses of any car that have ever had. It's a beautiful car.

Here's the question: I have read that often the tachs read waaaay wrong, and I am hoping that mine is just that. At 70 mph in 5th gear my tach reads nearly 4500 rpm. Is this correct? Or should I get the tach checked (or put on an Autometer unit)? I've checked the speedo with a gps unit and it is dead on.

As for whether the car is fast or not, in my experience the car is not. That said, I am always in front of nearly everyone else away from lights and in general driving. I love driving this car, even though it doesn't have all the tech advances of modern vehicles, it just looks and feels good. It's flingable. Even though the speedo says I'm going slow, it feels like I'm going fast. I'm not sure if that is good or not.

[Gary Williams]

What? Your speedo is accurate. Are you sure you're driving an Alfa?

As for the tach, I've used an electronic one for years because the factory unit was way off, as yours seems to be. You can check engine rpm with a digital tach & timing light, like the ones Equus makes.