ALFAGTV6.COM

[Mericet]

Or how my GTV6 got home: (Dubbed the Africannonball by some friends!

The tale of two transaxles starts on Thursday 19 May. I am driving down to Miami with a friend (Tony) in his '85 944. Tony's comments are marked in italics unless otherwise noted. We plan to go our seperate ways down there and drive back together. Tony arrives at my house at 7:20am. We pack (my toolbag alone weighs a ton!) the 944 and take some pictures. We leave my house at around 7:40am.

...strangely enough, Neil's 150 lbs. of equipment is not the heaviest load the 944 has carried. . .. being parked on a slope and having the rear suspension lowered adds to the "Beverly Hillbillies" look... -TK
Tony takes the first leg and drives to our first stop just south of the Ohio border. I am impressed by the passenger seat in the 944. Boy, this is comfortable!
Tony and the 944 at the rest area in WV:

I take over driving and we do a quick systems check on the 944:

Not long after this the driver side mirror (glass only) decides it wants to stay in West Virginny and departs company with the car. Hmm, we will have to stop somewhere to attend to this. Luckily Tony remembers an exit with an Advance Auto and some food places (even we have to eat sometime!). Of course, we do not expect the Advance to have a replacement mirror but we are confident that they wil have something we can use. We find a plastic(?) emercency replacement mirror that needs to be trimmed to size. We also borrow a pair of "Powercutter" scissors from the for sale bin in front of their parts counter. Mirror install pics follows:



We need to do an infomercial on this great product!. . . . The town is Kanawah (sp?) City, WV. For those of you who have traveled the WV turnpike, this is the little town in the valley below the big green bridge just south of Charleston and just before you get into the turnpike's wonderful twisties. -TK
And the finished product with the proud installer:

Thank you Advance! BTW, we did return the "Powercutter"!

We get some sustenance and get back on the road. We follow this for a while:

I am enjoying the drive in the 944. Tony informs me that the car needs some minor maintenance in the front suspension and is actually a little sloppy at the front. Wow! I wonder what it feels like when everything 100%. We find the new "mirror" to have a funhouse mirror effect. But, hey at least we can see behind us now! We stop for gas after crossing into North Carolina. Premium costs $2.40 a gallon. The trip is fairly uneventful but we do hit some rain in the Charlotte region. Actually the first rainstorm is more like hitting a wall of water! The fast speed on the wipers on the 944 is good! We see 2 crashes on the north side of I77 in less than a mile. About 10 miles later we see another big crash on the north side. The new tires on the 944 work like a dream with virtually no aquaplaning. Somewhere in this section we pass a Dodge Superbee (I think) travelling north pulling a Geo Storm on a tow dolly!
Finally we hit the peach state. We think the governor's name is appropriate: Sonny Purdue. He just needs to open a chain of BBQ shops!

We stop at a Subway in Savannah for some more fuel for our bodies. I will let Tony speak more about this but at least we did not get threatened! (This references an altercation a friend had towards the end of this year's One Lap of America at a Subway towards the end of the trip)
Hoping for our own street-tough Subway adventure, we head into a mean-lookin' sub shop off the freeway. We encounter an interesting character in Subway, but by no means a challenge of mortal combat: Our server seemed to be a 16-17 yr. old male, however he was wearing nail polish, and his blond hair was tied up behind his head and poking out of his baseball cap much the way you would expect from a girl of that age. To complete the ensemble, he had his ears scalpeled-out to the point that all that was left of the lobes was a thin band of flesh holding what appeared to be a bearing outer-race (about 3/4" outer diameter). ! . .. . . . .indeed, things must be very different when he is "not wearing this Subway uniform"!
We finally get to Florida!


Ever in the hurry to get there, we busted out the tripod in the rest area parking lot and experimented a bit with f-stop and exposure time on Neil's camera. Very "miami vice", no? .... State troopers on guard must have thought we were a bunch of freaks. . . - TK
We fill up in St. Augustine Florida for the final leg down to Ft. Lauderdale. I am still feeling fresh and am now really impressed by the seats in the 944. It does not even feel like I drove all the way from WV! A quick fluid check shows the oil is still nice and clean after 1500 miles.
...as always...
Tony takes over driving duties again. We hit a bad road (bridge) transition really hard somewhere south of Daytona Beach and pick up a vibration from the rear of the car. We stop to check things out but see no damage. The vibration also disapperears. The rest of the drive is fairly typical of Florida. Straight, flat and a good portion of law enforcement around. We check into the hotel at 3:30 am check the board and catch some sleep.
For the second time on this trip and the second time ever since I owned this particular car, the suspension bottomed out/hit the stops, and very hard. I was fearing the worst, but we could find no damage. Only thing is a quick run up to about 100mph brought a faint wheel bearing noise that was never there before. Will have to do further "testing" to diagnose this potential problem for sure. No big deal, though - car will turn 150k miles on its way home to Ohio - perhaps new wheel bearings are deserved at this point anyway! - TK

[Mericet]

Friday:

I see the car for the first time. It has a bit more rust than I expected but it is not of great concern. The car starts easy enough but dies as soon as it warms up. I notice the intake is loose after the air/fuel module. There is a second intake hose in the trunk which is in better shape and I swap this out. I take the car for the first drive. The engine is strong , clutch feels good but the brakes good be better. I also manage to break the turn signal stalk while checking the lights





I also swap the driver side mirror for one from the trunk. The exhaust has one huge gaping hole. It will be a noisy drive home!
After the obligatory Italian tune-up (drive the car hard and to redline a few times) the engine is running really well. This is despite the fact that the exhaust has a few holes in it. I did take the car out onto the Turnpike and saw just shy of 100mph a few time on the speedo/GPS. The car feels a lot stronger than the 944. The brakes will be good enough for the drive back but will need a total rebuild once it gets to Ohio. They are feeling better than when I first drove the car at least. Even in some stop/go traffic the water temp stayed in the center of the guage. Oil pressure seems a little low when idling but does pick up when driving the car. Some fresh oil tomorrow should help. (I know now that this is to be expected with the 2.5)

Got to my friends house and started going through the car in more detail. Although the car is generally solid (bodywise) there is a little more rust than expected. But since she will never be a concours car, that is no problem. There is some play in the front and one of the front shocks were a little loose. Some new bolts from Lowes in the morning will fix that. One of the tires shows dryrot but I moved it to the back. The spare is one of the original wheels with a metric tire and still looks good enough to use if I do have a problem going up to Ohio.

I need to repack the front bearings even though everything looks clean there. I think the grease has been in there for some time!
Saturday update:
I start the day by packing the front wheel bearings with fresh grease. The old grease was actually green! I break for breakfast, watch qualifying from Monaco with my host and head out to get some supplies for the rest of the repairs.
I fabricate a new airfilter since I never ordered a new one. I also replace the upper radiator hose.

I go out for the evening with my hosts to a get together with a group of South Africans and one Russian. It almost feels like I am back home!
This morning I finished up my temporary flashers, do an oil change, fill the coolant and wrap some duct tape around the inboard rear CV joints as the boots is showing some signs of leakage. I take the car for a test drive and make sure everything is OK. It is. I pack away my tools, take some pictures, go for a swim, shower and start watching the GP. I am leaving as soon as I hear from Tony.

[Mericet]

The long awaited (and maybe dreaded return):
I get the call from Tony that he is leaving South Miami. I am packed, ready to go and take a final pic or two with my old KMA friend Bjoern (BTW, he has a bunch of pictures of Alfa's racing at Kyalami in the old days (old track). I will post some soon) before heading out. Thanks to him and his family for the hospitality this weekend!

First stop is Publix (Kroger south if you like) for some H2O, Red Bull and snacks. First problem comes up as I leave the parking lot. The normal lights on the car would be put to shame by the horse drawn carraige lights used by the Amish around here. They also look like they are pointing straight down. The high beams are excellent (looks like Euro spec ones) but set high enough to get other drivers in serious fits of rage. I try and adjust the low beams. They cast slightly better light. I take the Turnpike to meet up with Tony on I95. I get a "I have not seen one of those in years" comment while filling up and re-torqueing lugnuts before meeting up with Tony. When we meet in a rest area we try to adjust the high beams down only to find out the adjusters are broken. We use a matching yellow ziptie to replace the up/down adjuster. At least we get the lights low enough and I can now drive with the high beams on without blinding other drivers

At least the GTV6 is running, unlike the new Exploder that pulled into the rest area looking like the Exxon Valdez. Onto the GTV6: she is running fine, but starts shaking above 63mph. At first I think it is the wheel balancing but the vibration comes and goes. I keep speeds at 60mph as a precaution. We take a break at around 2:30am somewhere along I95. The store clerk rushes out to look at the cars. Rants and raves about ASE certified mechanics and his detail job he had in Detroit. Took some pictures as weariness is setting in. I know I did not have much sleep the weekend (Thursday-4hrs, Friday-4hrs, Saturday-5hrs) and worked on the car each day. Although she was inside a garage, the door was still open. I was sweating even at 8am. I think Tony had less sleep.


We head out again. The Africannonball is now the Africannoncrawl due to my self-imposed 60mph speedlimit. We finally get to Georgia around 5am. We decide to get some sleep. I wake up at 7 and check the car including the rubber bushings on the driveshaft. Everything seems fine and I decide to up the speed limit. At least Tony can now see if parts start coming of the car as it is daylight. Taking photographs is becoming a distant memory as I try to keep cool in the heat (no AC), noise (the hole in the exhaust is just below me and I have the windows open) and arms that are taking a beating from the steering wheel vibrations. Luckily the radio is working well and the MP3 player keeps on pumping new tunes. I did have to recharge it's battery while sleeping as the power invertor does not want to stay on while driving. We stop at a few place along the way for some rest and purchase some new batteries for the FRS radios and for a recharger for the MP3 player. I also buy some Starbucks cooled coffee stuff and Gatorade (all the water I drank the weekend was obviously not enough). The long drive continues. I am slowly building confidence that the Alfa will indeed make it to Ohio. At our first stop in North Carolina Tony grabs the camera from me. He wanted to take this shot:

He also takes a few other pictures:


In Virginia we stop for something to eat in the afternoon. The lights on the Alfa is on. No matter what we do they stay on.. At this point I could care less. The Alfa is ogled by someone in the parking lot while we are eating inside the Wendy's. The 944 sadly gets hardly a look. The drive continues. The joints in both my arms are past aching due to the shaking steering. I slow down again until Tony asks me to go faster. I oblige as all the passing trucks is not too nice while running down the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. Before the final toll gate on the WV turnpike we stop again. I find that the stalk for the light switch can be pulled out of the steering column. Upon re-insertion, I try to switch the lights off again. Success this time! Tony decides to catch some sleep while I will go on at a reduced speed. I check the front suspension as it feels like the vibrations are getting worse. I see no problems except for aging suspension bushings. I take some photos:



I carry on at a reduced speed. I miss the exit from 77 for Columbus and do not even realise it until I get to the Ohio border. I fill up inside Ohio and head for home. On I70W to Columbus I bump speeds up a bit again. The car actually feels better up to 65mph. I wait for Tony at the rest area on 71N north of Polaris and we drive together to my house. Arrival time is just after 11:30pm. The Africannonball is over! Both cars made it with some minor but no major mishaps.
The Alfa averaged between 27 and 29mpg on the trip back. I did an oil and filter change, installed my home made airfilter, a new upper radiator hose and some fresh coolant. I could nopt change the plugs as I could not get a spark plug wrench down the well. I suspect plugs get changed every 30K miles with the timing belt and a valve adjustment when you have the valve covers off.
I am glad to be home even if my arms are still sore and my ears are still ringing. A big thanks to Tony for driving along!
PS: I REALLY like this car!

[Mericet]

Here are a few comments from Tony about the TRIP:


CANNONCRAWL - Yes, 60mph indeed. On I-95. Through Florida. Loooong Florida. All 400 miles of it. Straight, boring I-95. Straight, boring I-95 with the flow of traffic doing 80. Given Neil's concerns about the suspension and driveline, I'd have done the same, though! However, this was definitely one of the trips for Neil to tell his grandkids about: Southern summer sun looming directly overhead, summer temperatures, hot noisy I-95, no air conditioning, more panes of glass than a greenhouse, and the car painted black on top of it all. . . . and drawing out the torture by going SLOW! . . . While Neil was suffering through that, I was faced with the dilemna of whether I should run with the top on and the A/C blasting, or with the top off and the A/C blasting...


HIGH-BEAMS - The high beams on that car are by Cibie (pronounced "C-B-A"). Arguably the best optics you can put in that car.


150K AND COUNTING - Somewhere in one of the Carolinas, my trusty 944 turned 150k miles. And the trip odometer read straight sevens to boot! . . . This kind of mileage is "spring chicken" for a 944, but nice even numbers don't happen that often nonetheless! I celebrated by redlining it in 4th gear and driving it like a rented bitch. (This also helped me to catch up to Neil sooner.) This summer I will treat the car to a respray of the front valance and any other areas with stone chips. To think that just two years ago it only had 100k..


WENDY'S - This trucker that Neil mentioned was checking the car out so closely that you'd think he was looking to see if he left something inside of it. The Wendy's restaurant itself deserves mention: The walls are decorated with body panels from NASCAR cars and other sorts of NASCAR memorabilia. There are fenders and hoods hanging from the ceiling like a Quaker Steak & Lube. In contrast, CNN news is playing on the four televisions hanging from the center of the dining room. To quote Neil, "Talk about a conflict of interests!"


FOLLOWING THE ALFA - I fell in love with GTV6s over the course of the trip. Anyone want to buy a 944? Every time we stopped for gas, food, etc., I rolled down my windows so I could hear that beautiful engine as Neil accelerated away. The tunnels through Virginia were a special treat! . . The car has great poise on the road: even being in need of new dampers, the chassis' movement over the road is as graceful as it gets.


OTHER DRIVERS - I've never seen such an "uh-oh-better-get-Maaco" get so many admiring looks. As we troddled along in the right lane, it was fun watching cars come up quickly behind us, slow down and drive alongside the rear quarter of the Alfa until they realized they were holding up traffic, then speed away!


THE GAS STATION ATTENDANT Neil mentioned apparently owned a detailing business and a shop in Detroit and "can get any girl that he wants." He asked Neil some questions about the Alfa and even asked me about the 944 so I wouldn't feel left out. When he was surprised to hear the 944 is my daily driver, I noted that the body is galvanized, which makes it great for winter. Neil, with a sense of humor, added "The Alfa is not galvanized. I have proof of this -- I can show you."


ON SLEEP - Correct - I did not get much sleep, either. Didn't sleep at all the night before we left Ohio, stayed up till 4am with my crazy Colombian friends every night, and actually got up to watch Monaco live. Mountain Dew takes the place of Red Bull or coffee for me, but by the time we got to the service area on the WV turnpike, nothing worked!


TAIL LIGHTS STAYING ON - Neil, at Wendys's, after my pointing out to him that his tail lights will not turn off, had the following to say: "Three things you usually hear about Alfa Romeos that are true of this car: 1) The engine is glorious 2) The handling (although a bit compromised) is good and well-balanced, and 3) It has its own breed of electrical quirks.


NEIL, COMMENTING ABOUT ITALIAN ERGONOMICS - "Whoever designed the interior must have been drunk..."


"BUY-AND-DRIVE" - I think something needs to be said for the fact that the Alfa, in its neglected state, ran so well for the long trip home. A hose, fluids, grease, and away it went! Alfa Romeo is known for quality and is one of the most admired car companies around the world. There are a lot of cars with which, in similar condition, I would not have attempted such a trip. . .


FINAL COMMENTS -

On the Alfa: If you are a gearhead, you will love this engine. If your spine doesn't tingle and your hairs don't stand when you hear this engine, then I suggest you buy a Ford Taurus with an extra cup holder and leave this forum.

On the trip: I had a great time. It was great to finally meet Neil. I am looking forward to seeing this Alpha Romero, now in deserving hands, returned to a healthy state and used for what it was intended!

[Mats]

Great trip report!
Sounds like you had fun.

[Fernando]

All I can think about now is planning some nice long trip down to the coast in my 3,5 GTV6...Excellent article Neil.You have to a large degree captured a major part of the appeal of these cars.

My last major trip was a distance of about 700kms in my 3.0 litre.I was actually sad to reach our holiday destination,but I had the 'consolation' of a copy of EVO magazine and the G.P first thing the following morning to console me...

Cannot wait to see those pics of the old Goup 1 days at Kyalamy.

Fernando

[Murray]

Neil excellent write up.Brings back fond memories.I've done similar trips twice to pick up Alfas purchased long-distance site unseen.My first trip was from Montreal to Baltimore where I got my first Alfa-86 GTV6.It was the end of March,I knew nothing about Alfas and had to put 100% in the seller's claim that the car would make it no problem.Car was exactly as described and drive home-14 hours- was wonderfull except for the last 3 hours through the Adirondacks in a big snowstorm on Eagle GT summers.I learnt all about balanced weight distribution. Second trip was from Halifax N.S. ,14 hours,where I picked up my 75TS ,also sight unseen, last November.Car was perfect but once again I hit another major snowstorm.This one was big enough that I had to stop overnight because they closed the roads.LSD helped a lot but 75's don't work well as plows ! Just in case anyone thinks Canada is snowy and miserable it's been 30C - 88F for the last week and AC is real nice !

[Greg Gordon]

Great trip report! Although I was expecting to hear about a GTV6 vs 944 drag race.

[Mericet]

Thanks everyone. Yes, I did have a good time even if I was tired as hell by the time I got home. But, I had a good time in Florida and can now at least trust the car (having bought it sight unseen with the suggestion to trailer it back to Ohio).