This poor Alfa...

[dcalfa]

I am hardly a purist when it comes to vintage cars, including tasteful engine swaps and such, but for God's sake will you look at what they did to this Duetto:

eBay Motors: Alfa Romeo : Spider (item 230188946512 end time Nov-12-07 06:44:00 PST)

Why oh why would you do such a thing?

[Tifosi]

Dunno, but I bet it goes like hell.

Mabe something for brockbr to take a peek at

[lgbalfa]

ive seen a thread on this before.

no idea on why they changed it.

[bianchi1]

...why do 'some people' thing to fix anything..stick a small block in it? all that iron....wonder if they know that the alfa 2.0'stock' has more horsepower to weight ratio than that iron peice of '****'?

[bianchi1]

..you may be a 'redneck' if ........

[Geezer]

From a distance it looks like he did an acceptable job. This comming from a guy who put a Ford 289 in an XKE (lighter weight,more power, better reliability) and a Nail Head Buick in an Austin Healy 100. There is no substitute for good ole American power. I'll bet it cost him less to rebuild the iron ingot and modify the chassis to fit than it would cost for a rebuild of the original engine.

[john.harrill]

A monumental step backward......

[lowmileage]

Dunno, but I bet it handles like ***t.

[maxwedge]

I kinda like it. I'm sure it probably handles like crap, but I bet it's pretty fun to drive in a straight line anyway. Seems like we had a sticky for a year or two about something like this, didn't we? Nobody seemed to think that was such a terrible idea. Must be the Ford VS Chevy thing again. This car actually looks to be way less hacked up than that one. I'd change the wheels, and some cosmetics, and yes the SB chevy swap is way overdone, but otherwise, it looks pretty well built to me.

[lowmileage]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxwedge I kinda like it. I'm sure it probably handles like crap, but I bet it's pretty fun to drive in a straight line anyway. Seems like we had a sticky for a year or two about something like this, didn't we? Nobody seemed to think that was such a terrible idea. Must be the Ford VS Chevy thing again. This car actually looks to be way less hacked up than that one. I'd change the wheels, and some cosmetics, and yes the SB chevy swap is way overdone, but otherwise, it looks pretty well built to me.

[Bill S]

There was an article in the Alfa Owner a few years back about someone checking out his buddy's V8 Spider swap. The handling on that one was so squirrely that it felt really unstable at speed even in a straight line. 0-60 was fun, everything else was a thoroughly miserable driving experience. Of course if you've never driven a real Alfa you might not know the difference . I'm sure some implementations are better than others.

[Geezer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowmileage I'd hate to have one of those tie rod ends pop at say, 135 mph.

[Nicola]

The V-8 GTV at the New Hampshire Convention in 2004 shore did go like stink.
It was a very nice conversion. It CAN be done.
I didn't see its top end speed, maybe it was 135.
Here's a photo of a friend's Alfa-engined Spider's speedometer taken on a road trip a couple of years ago. Shows 124 mph.

[brewtech]

I agree with there being no substitute for American power, and I haven't owned anything American in 10 years, but that Small Block is way too heavy, and the air filter looks ridiculous. Another thing i don't like is the ride height, looks too tall, and I bet it's to clear the oil pan. I bet you can swap in an LT1 an lower the weight, and add better looks. The air filter really kills it for me.

[ddouglas77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geezer HMMMM I thought we all had decided that a Spider couldn't go 135mph.