Alfa Scuderia "non originale"

[Alfaholical]

It took a couple of weeks to get the pedal box modifications done and the car ready for paint. I trailered it back to my house to finish the prep.

The original paint of the era was Alfa AR501 but this is no longer available so I have chosen another Alfa red which is very similar and I actually prefer.

Marc (the painter) did an absolutely fab job on painting the car. He is a total perfectionist and the finish is like glass.





Now have to put everything back together. Takes so much more time than stripping it down but eventually all back together.

I made up a GTA style grille out of 3mm aluminum frame and some decent quality aluminum mesh. I didnt like the shiny stainless grilles that Alfaholics do and although quite a bit of work to make it saved quite a few quid. I also made up some grilles out of the mesh for the front valance cutouts.







I have decided to leave the bumpers off and give the car the GTA look.

Now to start getting the car ready for the track.....

[BWanderers]

So SO Sweet.

R.

[Kieran_E1]

car looks fantastic. engine choice still leaves me

[Johnny]

I love it ... by far my favoritist project car to have featured on the SXOC

[Jem]

That is epic!

[BWanderers]

car looks fantastic. engine choice still leaves me

Kieran, your right, I too would have specified an SR20Det.

R.

[Yakko]

I love it ... by far my favoritist project car to have featured on the SXOC

I'll echo that, brilliant car and utterly beautiful.

Don't suppose you're based around the Peak District are you? I'm sure I saw the car in Saddleworth a few weeks back.

[Alfaholical]

I'll echo that, brilliant car and utterly beautiful.

Don't suppose you're based around the Peak District are you? I'm sure I saw the car in Saddleworth a few weeks back.

Lovely part of the world but no I am based in West Sussex

[Alfaholical]

A friend of mine does a circuit weekend every August at the old Belgian GP circuit (Zolder) and he asked me if I would like to go along this year. I had promised my 17yr old son a Dad/Son weekend away and this seemed like an ideal trip. I would normally take my Bike Engined Fisher Fury for circuit work but my son is no 6'3" and 15+ stone, so he would not enjoy the 250 mile passenger ride trip. So the Alfa it is (being Turbo'd it will be much easier to get through the circuit noise meters.

But to take the Alfa I have quite a few mods to do....

Firstly cooling - The Alfa has always run fairly warm and whilst this is okay on the road I knew on track this would be a major problem. I have a shrouding around the radiator and GTA vents and more open grille at the front. So air should be getting in okay but the air needs to get out. I could cut some holes in the inner wings but dont want to undermine the structural rigidity of the monocoque. So the other alternative is to vent the bonnet. I bought a rather scabby bonnet on ebay last year to do this (I did not want to hack about my good bonnet).

I thought about louvres but I could not see how they draw enough air out even though there is a natural low pressure zone in front of the screen. The bonnet has an X frame to maintain rigidity but an ideal zone to cut away. Handily on my old bonnet directly where there was a nasty dent and small tear.



Next up is the full cage. I had only fitted the rear part of the cage previously because the down tubes were in the way of the window winders. The racers fit polycarb sliding windows. I decided to fit elec windows instead.

Whilst the Michelins I had were good on the road I needed something far more track orientated. My Michs will be going on my sons car so not gone to waste. I could have gone for R-compound Toyo 888 or Yoko 48s but they need huge camber which then makes then rather unpleasant on the road. So I have gone for the new Yoko AD08R.

I had to lose the sun visors with the full cage so an Alfaholics sunstrip in its place. With mesh inserts and bonnet painted I quite like the look but I can swap back to the original bonnet in 10 minutes.



A quick oil and filter change plus new plugs a tweak to the ride height and off we went to meet up with the other Zolder regulars at Maidstone services on a hot and sunny Friday

more to follow...

[Chriscooke]

Still love this jim. Seems its just getting better and better as well

[Alfaholical]

Well everything was going fine we all met up at Maidstone. An eclectic mix of cars from a Lancia Stratos replica, Porsche GT3RS, 550hp Sierra 4 wheel drive hillclimb car, GTM Libra spider, Supercharged Thruxton and a Mighty Metro. Most were on trailers with a selection of tyres. It was a hot day and I was glad I had given the bonnet some venting. So after a quick coffee off to Dover Port.



As we hit the Brussels rush hour we all got split up in the traffic. All going well though until I noticed my temps rise and when they hit 105 I pulled over. After a few checks I realised that the fan was not working. I checked fuses and wiring and checked that it was getting current. My son noticed something sticking out by one of the fan blades. It seemings that the fan had ingested some foam rubber.

We spent about 20 mins on the hardshoulder taking the fan out cleaning it up and refitting. Then all was good for the rest of the journey to our hotel.



We had a meal and a few beers and set our alarm clocks for 6:30am. As there was sign-on, transponder collection and scrutineering from 7am.

- Jim

[def]

Still my favourite car on here

[Egon]

(Looks at his 147, looks at the sr20det...)

Hmmmm. Still love this car.

[Alfaholical]

Saturday morning car number 51 receives the transponder and the number stickers, Callum and I receive our wristbands. A quick drive back to the hotel for breakie and load the car up with tools and other essentials.




We arrived at the circuit at just after 9am and before being let on the track all cars have to pass scrutineering.

Scrutineering was a very basic look over the car and a check that the indicators, headlights and most importantly brake lights all worked. These Belgians seem rather sensible.



We all drive to the pit lane and unload the tools and cars. There was some very serious race cars and expensive machinery in attendance. Before we can go on the circuit there is the normal drivers briefing. 30 mins of Flemish out of which I only recognised 5 or 10 words. Fortunately the officials did a special briefing for us Brits. Our only lasted 2 or 3 mins so not sure what we missed out on. The last words were we never have any problems with the English. They are well behaved... hmmm some are I thought

I have done loads of trackdays in the UK and France but now I was starting to get a bit apprehensive of track time with the Belgians. Particularly as this was the first time out on track in the Alfa. Then just to add that extra bit of spice it started to rain giving the track a nice slippery sheen.

At 10am the classics went out and I decided to join them for some sighting laps and see what traction there really was in the wet. First corner out of the pits and I discovered the answer was that grip was okay but everything got a bit snaky when ever the boost came in. A Jag D type replica lost it on a slippery section on the the down hill section to the ominously named hospital corner. Yellow flags and then white flags came out as they cleared up the debris. Fortunately it had only clouted the rear o/s corner on the tyre barrier so could continue. The rain came down harder and I decided to head for the pits (got the whole weekend so no need to get silly). After a tea break the rain eased and I went out and played with the big boys (Donkervoorts, Stripped out Porsche GTs and Corvettes were amoungst the quickest). After a few laps and with a drying out track I started to get into my stride and found myself exploring the abilities of the Alfa.



The 4km ex GP circuit is an a challenging combination of bends with plenty of change in elevation. For me the highlight is a wonderful crest that you can get some air under your wheels (you dont see that on GP circuits nowadays) and a downhill section under the trees than never dried out all weekend.

Skinny tyres and SR power was a bit of a handful in the wet but all very predictable. In the dry the car is better than I could ever have imagined. The Yoko AD08Rs provided good grip (but not too much) and on the limit were very predictable. On corners I found myself going around the outside of much bigger and powerful cars. On the straight they would power away but not get any big distance away from me and at the next set of bends I would catch most.

I took probably 20+ folks on passenger rides throughout the day so had to be on good behaviour. This wasnt racing.

The car was so easy to drive on track that I let my 17yo son have his first drive (of the Alfa and on a proper track). Once he got used to the lack of servo on the brakes and needing to be smooth on clutch changes he did really well. Callum with only two months since passing your test you did real good



On the brakes at nearly 130mph into a long off camber left hander. Excellent fun. Braking later and later into the bends and on a dry track with more bias on the front I managed to get a tiny bit of fade from the FD/DS2500 brake combo but nothing to worry about.

The only problems encountered were later on in the day when the sun came out ambient temps rose and as I started to push on (water temps crept up to nearly 105). I will have to change the intercooler from bar and plate to tube and fin so that I can flow more air through to the rad. Even with the cooling issues I could get 6-7 hot laps without problem and then come in to the pits for a cool down.

A side effect of the temps (I think) gave me a bit of clutch slip on full power towards the end of the day). The clutch was fine when cooled down. I suspect the slave piston expanding a tad as it has no free play. I'd be interested to see if other SX owners have experienced this. I may shave the rod down on the slave cylinder to give some free play or just replace it.



After a fab day back to the hotel for a few beers and then off for a BBQ to prep us for a repeat the next day

- Jim

[Dave270r]

Love this car, nice updates. I like it without the bumpers

[Alfaholical]

Yep I think I will be leaving the bumpers off.



Sunday was a bit of a repeat of the day before. Weather was mixed car was running hot limiting me to 6-7 laps. Clutch slipped a bit when very hot but fine the rest of the time. Not an issue on the road with the Michelins but a grippier track and rubber.




This was the hill where you could get a bit airbourne if brave. I refrained in the wet




Quite a bit of the day spent with the bonnet up waiting for it to cool down. Need to get someone to make me a better flowing intercooler over the winter.

Off on Sunday to do an Autosolo in the Alfa for a laugh

- Jim

[Egon]

every time my 147 gives me agg, i look at this thread and fall in love all over again.
sr20det in a fwd 147?

[pdh 14a]

Looks awesome

[Alfaholical]

photo.JPG

Out on track yesterday at Castle Combe. Picture does not show how damp and slippery it was. Car went really well, managed to be ahead of the full race 105's thanks to SR20DET power

Video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99jwXHYe5V8

[Yakko]

Love seeing updates on this car - absolutely my favorite car on here, and one of my favorite of all time. It looks stunning, the lack of bumpers and the lower stance make it look really solid.

Thanks for continuing to share!