Thousand Dollar Supercar's 1988 Alfa Romeo 33 1.7QV

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

About time for an update! And about time this project thread became two pages so it doesn't take as long to load.

Black car:

Insurance claim not likely to work without witnesses as backup.

Damn Dean Robertson Plastering.

So I stripped off the damaged stuff...

Bought second hand door frames and front guard, paid panelbeaters to paint them and fix the rear wheel arch area, fitted panels, glass, door trim etc back to car...

Reapplied red striping, reattached side skirts with rough-as self-tapping screws, got new tyre and two wheel alignments ($#@! cheap garage afraid of Alfas and incapable of doing their jobs), and car is back to normal!

(Well not really, the panels don't fit very well at all. It's only superficially fixed and that's depressing.)

Black car has received a kind donation of some 6-inch Infiniti front speakers, which are so fancy and compact they juuuust squeeze in where previously I could only fit the next size down. They look a little bling but they were free.

New seatcovers and new thermostat installed - old thermostat was lazy, which I realised after replacing the definitely-faulty one in my grey car.

Grey car:

Received new cooling system thermostat, new strut pan bearings, an actual radio just like many car manufacturers have taken to equipping their automobiles with these days, speakers formerly from Black car, a ricey chrome exhaust tip and a few tidyings-up.

Car was off the road for a few weeks after its dodgy ignition system gave up. It turns out Alfa fitted three different ignition systems to Alfa 33s: Bosch, Bosch and Magneti Marelli. If, like Grey Car, you have the Italian one (Magneti Marelli), it will break and require you to buy a new distributor pickup.

But the car's running again and has been traumatising my friends with its rattly, noisy, barely-mobile ways.

^Wheels and grille changed, lower bumper extension added^

^New radio, speakers, seats, carpet, shift boot, Alfa script on ashtray etc..^

Company car:

Unfortunately I now drive one of these as my regular transport every week day:

It's like a Camry but with improved looks and handling. Even has the dopey 4-speed auto and bland-sounding motor.

Great sound system (band expander excluded), decent pace but no x-factor.

Gives me Alfa withdrawl symptoms and is forcing me to consider selling my grey 33.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Black car:

Went on a summer road trip and blew a Panasonic Supercheap Auto rear 6x9 speaker. They weren't even old and I don't have an amp.

So I bought Infinity this time to match the front speakers.

Above, the Infinity grilles (left) reflected in the rear window too much, so I put the new speakers under the old Panasonic grilles (right). Completed photo. Bass has improved, and I've noticed if I crank my soundz too loud with the engine off, the head unit turns off and restarts!

Also, I got around to fitting the oil pressure gauge from the silver series 1 car I put in the demolition derby.

The gauge fits into the completely different series 1 dash together with a voltage gauge, and they both go down infront of the gearstick where you can't see them. So here's the bits I started with:

I took the gauge out of its original housing, so it could fit into my high-tech gauge pod (top). And if you think my high-tech gauge pod looks like a towball cover, shut up! It was over 80% cheaper than a Supercheap Special rice pod.

I stuck the backlight to the frame of the gauge (closeup) without using its blue cover to see what the effect would be. Inside of the high-tech gauge pod was sprayed white. After considerable angle-grinding, melting etc, all the layers of the gauge face squeezed inside the pod.

Gauge assembled and mounted on A-pillar (also note bling Infinity speaker):

Gauge closeup:

The gauge grips around the A-pillar trim using a spraypainted piece of metal cut from a tin catfood box. Bolt the sender onto the engine (mounting hole still fitted to the block of later cars), run the wires quick (rough) as you please, and she works first time!

Gauge at night:

same shot as above with low-power flash

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Spot what's new.

So I got to thinking, how can I get the edge this trackday? Thorough scientific research was employed.

Phase one was to reduce weight. Not just any weight, unsprung weight. Because I read this will have additional benefits to handling, traction, acceleration, everything.

I looked at my mags.

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/wheels/coating_marks.jpg

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/wheels/corrosion.jpg

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/wheels/flaking_off.jpg

Not very pretty.

So I bought a cheap power drill and stripped the coating off the rims. Result - many grams saved. Probably.

I had to audition various attachments and techniques over bloody ages until I achieved this finish:

It doesn't look too flash up close, but my goal was ultimate performance.

Phase two of my plan? Track-focussed handling. I'm talking fixing the hilarious Alfa body roll to improve cornering speeds, reducing dive to increase braking performance, improving aerodynamics for maximum top speeds..

Booyah, lowering springs!

Bet you didn't know they made them specially for the Alfa 33!

(nor did I, until I saw them on TradeMe second hand..)

They're some German brand, and the installation guide says things like "An all-inclusive programme is offered with four different product lines, customized to specific needs of pretentious customers" and "Mounting should therefore not be carried out by private persons but only by trained personnel from a workshop, who dispose of appropriate mounting instructions from the manufacturer..."

After careful consideration I decided it would be more in keeping with the spirit of oldschool to fit the springs myself, at the last minute.

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/finished1.jpg

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/finished4.jpg

The rear springs aren't exactly captive at the car's generous full extension (bonus 50% longer than competitors at no extra charge), but we won't mention that for now. Shorter shocks shall be purchased later, in Phase 2.5.

I've still got more to finish than I've got days to do it, but the main bits are mostly done. This evening I even changed the oil.

So as you see, my rigorous performance development program will have the Supercar going better than ever for its oldschool trackday comeback.

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/lrfar_sm.jpg

The only thing that could possibly be my undoing is the rear brake bias valve. This senses the height of the back axle (hence the weight over the rear tyres) and regulates braking force to the rear accordingly. My lowered suspension may lead to a few wheel lockups.

I'll probably have to set my engineering team to work on that problem at a later date. Whatever the fix, rest assured it shall be precising and scientificable.

Grey car:

required more money to get its latest WOF (brakes AGAIN), and a certain carb jet keeps blocking up. Need to sort this and one or two other bits before I can put it on the market.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

I don't think I actually went faster last trackday.

The fledgeling motorsport startup, ThoUsand dollar supercar Race Development Specialists, are still a bit inexperienced and I.. um.. they didn't realise the car would need a wheel alignment because of the change of ride height. So I spent a lot of track time understeering, spinning wheels and producing unusual tire wear patterns.

But anyway, Phase 2.5 - shorter rear shocks.

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/newrearshocks2.jpg

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/newrearshocks3.jpg

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/newrearshocks4.jpg

Zing, shiny new suspension components!

The guy at the suspension shop and I chose these shocks from the specs catalogue because they were the right length and had the closest match to the Alfa's mountings.

To make them fit, I first had to grind 1mm off each end of the metal eye which runs through the rubber bush at the bottom of the shock. I then had to drill out the holes in the axle's shock mounting brackets, because apparently nobody but Alfa uses 8mm bolts to hold shocks on. The new shocks took 10mm bolts, and I got some spangley ones plus nyloc nuts from Mitre 10.

I had to get the upper spring pan thingies (between spring and rubber seat bush) welded because they'd both cracked through since having the new springs in with the too-long shocks.

And how does it drive with the new shocks? The rear is preposterously firm. It felt about right when I had 100kg of work gear in the boot, but I think I'll have to run less tire pressure and hope things loosen up.

That's what I get for fitting my little hatchback with shocks designed for a Mercedes!

At least now I can get that wheel alignment.

Grey car:

Scored the normal-length rear shocks out of the black car. These replaced its curious Alfa-branded ones that had lower bushes too narrow for the mounting brackets, which allowed dodgy-looking free play as the shock could slide along its mounting bolt.

Grey car still continually blocks the same idle jet, which will eventually unblock after a long drive. I am going to try replacing the transparent plastic tubing some previous idiot installed as fuel hose, incase it is decaying and causing the jet-blocking debris.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Black car:

Wheel alignment done (plus lower balljoint boot replaced), and fingers crossed the car can clatter through another track day this weekend.

I'm liking the feeling of extra high speed control from my super rigid and bouncy suspension, but not the feeling of springing up and down in the spongy old seats all the way down the motorway..

Grey car:

Thought I might improve some of the rubbish paint on the roof and the hatch. I should have left well enough alone, because what did I find?

Rust (along the edges of the roof)..

And more rust (at the lower corners of the rear windscreen)..

Car is slowly being painted really badly using spray bombs. And when that's done, it can get a wheel alignment so it'll drive straight when I push it over a cliff...

Company car:

Somebody spilt takeaways on the passenger seat, and another somebody backed into a front guard and didn't leave a note. The transmission, the traction control and I are coming to a mutual understanding - I understand that they suck and they understand I hate them.

Accordingly, the 'check engine' light is now on because some newschool problem is causing intermittent hard starting.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Black car:

Failed its WOF again for the same reason both 33s keep failing - right drum brake weaker than left.

I stalled it in busy traffic in the middle of a main road in the Albany Mega Centre area today, and it decided to do its slow cranking thing so I couldn't get it restarted. I spent a minute or so cranking it over in the hopes that the intermittent fault would go away again, but it didn't.

So I pushed it off into a parking lot where I picked up enough speed that I could roll start it. And later, when I opened the bonnet to stare angrily at nothing, I found something!

Big surprise, a bad electrical connection. (where the cable is crimped into the battery terminal connector)

This would only play up sometimes, but this time me cranking the engine for ages got it hot enough to melt insulation and give itself away.

Death.

Ripped out the battery ground wire. Ripped out the engine earth strap. Ripped out the positive lead from the battery to the starter motor. Threw them all in the bin.

Bought new battery terminal connectors. Put in shorter runs of fresh and thicker cable. Chopped off and replaced every other ring terminal which used these same grounding points.

The wires I threw in the bin vanished in smoke and the electrical gremlins scattered to the darkest reaches of the wiring loom.

(You thought they were dead? Dead? No, you cannot kill them. No.)

Grey car:

Was painting roof and hatch (above), now finished. Looks like rubbish but is still the best painting I've done so far. One day I'll bother to get the proper gear and do a good job! (yeah right..)

Car passed its WOF, got a wheel alignment and torn steering arm ball joint boots replaced. Still keeps blocking a carby jet despite new fuel filter and rubber fuel hose.

Company car:

No longer having trouble starting. Someone else crashed into it though - she thought she could turn right from the outside lane of a roundabout, while I was in the inner lane trying to exit. And on the way back from Hamilton that same day, one of the tires did this:

All the tires had been dodgy since we got the car, but now I had proof. Car got a new set of tires and is going in for panelwork for 5 working days (hooray!)

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Black car:

Failed WOF, got new brake cylinders to finally cure rear brake imbalance, passed WOF.

Backlighting in LCD clock failed again, so I replaced the bulb with a red LED, for extra satanic-ness.

Found some proper 40mm carb-to-airbox air intake elbow thingies, which I'll use to replace the undersize-but-bored-out 36mm ones the car currently has.

Grey car:

Broke the electric window mechanism on the passenger side this time, but that's not my problem cos the car is..

SOLD!

The first non-crashed car of mine I've ever sold in my life.

My cousin bought it as a runabout because his car's transmission died. He is a bit of a mechanic and has worked as a panelbeater, so I think he's up to the task. He's slowly restoring an MGB too.

While organising all my service history receipts for this car, I made the mistake of totalling them up out of interest. Never do this!

At least having this car gone will give me more free time and money and allow me to focus more on the black car.

Company car:

Panelbeating completed. Has more grip with the new tires so is less frustrating in the wet. The transmission and I are getting to know eachother better. Another tech at work is hunting for an identical Atenza. I pointed out the 4-speed auto is gay and he pointed out the later models with an extra gear are too expensive, and he's too wussy for manual. Toyota drivers. *sigh*

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

I pulled the air intake elbow thingies off the black car and compared them to the ones I was going to replace them with. The existing ones didn't look that much smaller than their replacements, plus Weber Specialties had done a nice job on them so I wanted to prove that changing them was justified.

I found that this casino chip would not fit into the existing enlarged 36mm intakes:

I was able to pass the chip through the 40mm intakes with no trouble.

So the 40s went on. I also took some tiny nibbles at the gaskets between the intakes and the carbs cos they looked like they might be acting as restrictors.

New intakes fitted - they look.. just the same

I noticed the enlarged 36mm intakes had been made very smooth and the intake ends had been flared as much as possible. There's not much flaring on the new 40mm intakes, and I just attacked the casting marks with a wonky drill-mounted grinding stone before sanding the insides with coarse sandpaper. I vaguely remember reading that intakes don't want to be perfectly smooth for some reason to do with swirl or turbulence. Shall I adjust my design? (I rather suspect it will make no difference and I should go fix real problems..)

Next induction point to look at is the flexible cold air pickup pipe, which is smaller than the decayed factory one it replaced.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Company car: I successfully managed to get rid of this - one of the other techs at work was only too happy to become its custodian. A win-win situation.

Black Alfa minor update - air intake upgraded with piece of Rover (top pipe) in addition to previous grey pipe (middle, above radiator hose). I damaged the distributor rotor by accidentally driving with the cap not clipped down , but have now replaced this. I drove the Alfa to Whangamata over the summer but have now stopped driving it, hopefully pending a partial rebuild. Although I haven't managed this so far. The reason I don't have to depend on the Alfa despite getting rid of my other vehicles is this:

I got me a nice economical, reliable runaround in the form of a 1984 Rover SD1. See the build thread in my signature.

Incidentally, I am using as my buyers guide the book "Lemon! 60 Heroic Failures of Motoring" by Tony Davis. 58 cars to go? Priceless.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

The Rover's not being good to me, so I'm asking the Alfa to do another track day.

It should be good though, because I inspected the timing belts and they still looked OK. This means they won't break. I also ran the engine and listened for funny noises - just the same old bearing type noise when the motor's hot. Sounds like it comes from the region of the right cam pulley though, not the right cambelt tensioner so I'll be fine there too. Don't worry about it.

Motor seems to be running warmer these days, but it's probably just the summer weather.

I sprayed some carb cleaner in the motor, and got under the car and tightened the joint between the headers and the rest of the exhaust. And just to be sure, I changed the engine oil - now nothing can go wrong!

Bring on Oldschool Nats 2010.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Grey car: The grey 33 I sold was apparently written off a while ago. =\

Black car: Got new timing belts a while ago. Makes squeaky brake noises these days and the dash has cracked around the glovebox. I have decided that the rear shocks are too firm to match the rest of the suspension, and since they clearly don't contribute to the final maximum body roll in long corners (see http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/falloffcorner.jpg), I bought some softer shocks to hopefully improve the ride. I pulled the suspension apart to install these this evening, then discovered that they won't fit fully up into the Alfa's strut towers due to the bulkiness of the shocks' outer guards.

Because I now have almost no time to get the car reassembled for the Alfa Romeo centenary track day at Hampton Downs, I've had to resort to my usual professional standards. I fixed my Supercheap angle grinder by cutting a hole in the case to allow the broken switch mechanism to be circumvented, then I put on a cutting disk and started cutting the guards off the brand new shocks.

I'll finish this when it's not too late at night to be angle-grinding, then I'll be interested to see how the car rides. The difference in effort to compress the old and new shocks by hand is quite heaps bro.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

I flew back from Australia late on a Friday night, got up early Saturday morning, fitted the rear suspension and drove straight to Hampton Downs and onto the track.

More importantly than how the car went,

Yay there's meee! In the third row even!

It was a great day (until the evening function, which was only saved by paper darts), and between the track and the skid pan I was too busy to take many photos. I had to wait this long just to pinch the above shot from the December issue of NZ Classic Car.

My 33 is better on the road and on the track with the softer rear shocks, which must be a better match for the rest of the car's suspension. Lesson learnt for now.

Despite a measly dyno-proven 80hp at the wheels, that straight's long enough for me to redline 4th at over 160kph. The more you push it, the more interesting the downhill sweeper over the rise at the end becomes.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

The Alfa will be coming with me to Nats 2011, so as part of my thorough preparation program I gave it an engine flush and oil change. But now when I drive it I can hear a ticking when the engine's under load at lower rpm. The ticking's at about the frequency of one cylinder and seems to come from the right hand bank. I pulled the spark plugs - cylinder number 3's plug was sooty whereas number 1 (on the same carb) was fine. Perhaps a hydraulic lifter isn't pressurising properly?

I shall drive the car a bit more frequently and hope the noise goes away and the car reverts to only sounding slightly like a sewing machine.

Current concerns for this car are:

* rust

* clutch

* ideally it wants an engine (and gearbox?) rebuild if it gets the first two investments

* other spending coming too - brakes and tires

So big bills and big decisions are getting ever closer. Should still make it to Nats though, and I'll fix a few unimportant things before the trip to make me feel good.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

It turned out that the ticking noise was a pinhole in the exhaust headers, possibly made by the headers hitting a suspension mounting point: http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/header_hole1.jpg

So I drove the car to a randomly selected exhaust shop. The guy gets me to drive onto the hoist and he notices my car's front camber. He asks if I ever take the 33 on the track as the Alfa club have a race series for these... Before you know it, we both know the guy around the corner who has bought a Lamborghini, we talk for ages and my repair is freee!

The car is back to its less-clattery-but-still-pretty-clattery self.

After this I tried to fix little things I wanted sorted out for Nats:

• [*:1cjnixv4]Tried to fix LCD clock but the leaky radio aerial above it has finally dripped it to death
  [*:1cjnixv4]Disassembled and cleaned rear view mirror, which that same leak also keeps making a mess of
  [*:1cjnixv4]Found out why radio cuts out when you crank it up with the engine off - supply voltage at radio was dropping below 10V due to crappy Italian fusebox. Fixed (for a while).
  [*:1cjnixv4]Tried to stop CD music skipping by strapping head unit to less-flimsy part of rickety Alfa dashboard - only partial success
  [*:1cjnixv4]Stuck an oldschool.co.nz sticker on. Tbh even I struggled to stuff that up, but I tried - the 33 must be the newest car on the forum to wear the sticker?

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Turns out I'm not the newest car with an oldschool sticker. Beaten by a BX Citroen - I feel so legitimate. =)

Anyway, the car looked a bit busy so I removed the gold dealership badge on the left of the hatch. Then the front grille bothered me - the chrome aerosol paint I'd so carefully masked up was grey and fading off:

Now I know how much I like bling.

So dawg, I hooked me up with some chrome foil tape from Bunnings. Now I've got bling on my bling!

But while I had the original grille off to do that, I test-fitted a series 1 grille from my long-departed silver parts car. I think it looks fractionally more aggressive and now I can't decide which I prefer.

Series 1 grille (remember this could be partially painted / blinged / red stripes applied):

or original series 2 grille with bling:

Sorry for dark photos. Votes?

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Series one grille wins by a landslide.

So if I'm gonna switch to that, does it need anything done to it other than a bit of a clean?

Spray some of the (plastic) mesh, use up some more of my chrome tape / red pinstripe etc?

Mix & match ideas / leave it as is..

It's gonna be an adventure this weekend driving through hours of storms in this uninsured little Italian car. Looking forward to it / maybe I should put reflective safety tape on the grille.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

As I feared, the Alfa failed its last WOF on rust. And also a brake imbalance. But the car wanted me to know our relationship isn't getting predictable after eight years together; that's why the brake imbalance is on the fronts this time.

Here's some rust that the car did NOT fail on, at one end of the radiator support beam:

It's OK, it's not structural. 1980s Alfas don't have structure; they're like automotive jellyfish. :albino:

Anyway, the car has sat in the garage for two months while I found a sunny spare weekend to strip bits off and expose all the rust I want fixed. I'm getting a few more bits done than just the one piece it failed on, for obvious reasons. Today I drove it down to the panelbeaters, and how cheerfully and smoothly it clattered along! It does this on purpose.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Because I'd gone to the trouble of removing the headlining to facilitate rust repair around the sunroof, I decided the headlining ought to be spruced up.

The material Alfa used in 33s turns to dust and marks really easily, like this:

Mine also had some stains from sunroof leaks.

So I tried to pull the material off its cardboardy backing.

No go - too much UV damage.

Grabbed my drill and a gentle stripping disc, ground it all off and vacuumed it up.

Next I visited an emporium and used my considerable expertise in the field of textiles to select some stretchy kinda fabric stuff. Naturally, I chose a light colour to enhance the feeling of spaciousness.

The emporium lady told me stories of people she'd known who refused to give up on their Alfas when the cars were knackered, falling to bits, bumpers held on by sellotape etc.

Starting from the center, I used spray adhesive to cover the headlining with the fabric and simultaneously make myself woozy.

I managed to get the fabric to follow most of the contours quite well. I trimmed off the excess and cut out the holes etc:

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/headlining/finished_onfloor.jpg

The headlining backing is quite weak around the sunroof hole, and it got a little damaged during removal / reinstallation. A few finger marks / patches of too much glue are also visible, but generally it looks marginally better than before I started. If I restrict my images to 640*480, you won't see any of the bad bits and my effort will appear justified!

http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/headlining/pursuedbyrover.jpg

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

So obviously the car's back from rust repair, but I sure know how to pick my panelbeaters.

At one point I turned up to check on my car's progress and I found the business closed down! My Alfa was parked on the street minus its sunroof, and the rest of the yard was empty, gates closed. I asked the guys cleaning out the building if the panelbeater was coming back soon, and they told me "Aw nah, he's moved on, mate!"

Turns out he hadn't gone bust, just not renewed the lease because he's buying his own site and getting a building built to his specifications.

But they did a crap job on my car regardless.

The rusty areas were plated and painted on one side only, with the rusty metal not removed or even painted - in fact more paint / underseal was burned off behind the repair plates due to the heat from the welder. Where they'd painted panels e.g. the roof, they'd done so with sloppy masking / overspray, grit set in the paint, no prep etc. E.g. if you flake some of my paint / bog off, you've gotta fill it up again, not just paint right over it!

For my money, I also got welding burns in my seat cover and physical panel damage which they just applied metallic grey touch-up paint to!

I was pretty mad.

Spent my holidays grinding away at the rusty metal with wire brush attachments, applying rust killer, enamel, fish oil, whatever.. all the time thinking I could soon join the group camping up north for a few days as my reward.

This would surely work out, because I'd been a good boy wrestling with rusted bolts and munted clips to take the car further apart in a hopeless attempt to try and improve panel alignments. And only the front brake imbalance was left to deal with, and that'd be straightforward, right?

Once the shops opened again after the New Years break, I rocked up to Pitstop. They told me to take my old Alfa and stick it. So I rocked up to Sterling Clutch & Brake. They told me the brake imbalance was caused by cooked brake pads.

They showed me my old Hawk pads, and to be fair, the pad material was crumbling away at the edges.

Then they told me the brake rotors were too thin (I've known that for a few years but I'd been ignoring it). And the brake hoses were perishing too. At this point I knew I wasn't going to make it to the campground.

But now look.

Yeah. Brembo vented rotors and Ferrodo pads. And you thought I'd have to get something custom-made by an old man with a lathe.

They stand the car on its nose smoothly and don't make dodgy noises. Do I qualify for some big Brembo / Ferrodo stickers for my front wings now?

So anyway, I replaced some dodgy coolant hose, renewed coolant, rotated tires, changed the radio aerial, painted the driving light reflectors to hide the rusting, plugged some holes in the exhaust, bought a carpet offcut and cut a new boot floor piece out of it, reassembled and cleaned the car up and took it for a WOF.

WOF Man asked me if I did the rust repair myself.

But the car passed.

Bought it a year's rego.

By this time I'd spent too much money and too much of my holidays on this car. One or the other would have perhaps been OK, but if I spend both and then find the glovebox lid half falls off when I open it and I still have to chase the panelbeater to fix up his work....

I wonder if I'm one of those people who won't give up on his Alfa when the bumper's held on with sellotape.

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

Hi, my name's Ben and I went to another track day.

I hit the centrifugal distributor rev limiter and the car did a big backfire and blew a hole in its patched-up muffler (so that's what the rev limiter does!)..

And then I did this to the outside front tire:

And by the end of the day there was an unrelated vibration under braking.

So after Nats I parked the car up until I could get it back to the exhaust shop, cos it was pretty loud. Because I was changing the muffler, I switched to a single exhaust tip. I aaaalmost got Mr Muffler to weld the tip at a random Italian angle or upswept boso style, but I decided it would have looked silly since the muffler's quite prominent. So it looks plain, and the new muffler's quiet too - I now have an exhaust from the Sheepers' Sleepers school.

The vibration turned out to be the outside rear wheel bearing. Craters had appeared in the outer bearing race and the metal fragments had been partying everywhere. I soon sorted it out with a hammer and a screwdriver and a new bearing kit.

Because of my trashed tires, I went to the tire shop and asked about semi-slicks. They said don't rock them errday on the road, Thousand Dollar Supercar, they'll get punctured by stones. Get some race rims. So I got some Falkens for my road wheels, and looked at what other wheels were out there in a 4x98 bolt pattern.

Yeah. Pretty much I only found these:

So I saved heaps and bought some factory mags from a 1990s Alfa 33 P4 on TradeMe.

They look pretty yucktastic and 1990s, so I'm doing something like this with them:

I've already started and in fact got them mostly done - repainting wheels is much faster than doing the polished bare alloy thing!

A problem I faced is that although these are Alfa 33 wheels, they use different bolts. My car as photographed above couldn't be driven. I have ordered sixteen suitable bolts (and received fourteen so far) - they're chrome so shall help the black paint to distract the viewer's eye from the rank P4 mag design. Photos to come once everything's finished.

If I decide the car's in an adequate state, I may enter the Fiat Club Waikato's Tarmac Series this year to give the Alfa more use. Diary goes here if I get my act together.