has anyone maxed out their 166

bro charlee, the beast of yours..is she a 3.0 or 2.5? coz i reckoned in one of your pics it badged 2.5...

I had a bit of a play the other night on my 'private test track' against a z4 bmw thing, i wound mine up to just under 160mph on the speedo and still had a little left but was fast catching the bmw and traffic was increasing so backed off, felt very comfortable there although the petrol gauge was going down rapidly lol

The main problem I think is that the gearing is is too low on the 166's. It's supposed to reach 260 km/h @ 7000 prm, and I wouldn't dare to run at those revs for any period of time over a minute The 166 v6 could use a slightly longer gera,, the motor is powerful enough to go a little faster. Apparently the diesel had two gearings to choose from, one regular, and one "autobahn" one. Is that true?

Overdrive on 6th would be useful .

The car was saying 249kph, the GPS indicated 236 kph: still not bad when you're a few gears short ;-)

Originally Posted by Tony Rome

Overdrive on 6th would be useful .

I would like an overdriven 7th gear also - I think fuel consumption would be better when cruising.

The old Lotus Carlton had a 45mph/1000rpm top gear (6th in those days), IIRC, but it's 30-70 in 'top' gear was one of the slowest of all cars sold at the time

I find the 166 v6 pulls from 25ish just fine, top I have taken it to was around 135 following an Octavia vRS.

120 in 4th is a nice sound, and 5th pulls well from there

Originally Posted by HowardA

I would like an overdriven 7th gear also - I think fuel consumption would be better when cruising.

Yeah, a tall 7th would be useful! Over the weekend, I covered about 500 miles and definitely could have used a 7th for improved consumption on the Autobahn. 6th is relatively low-geared on the 166, it seems. The car pulled nicely up to 140mph on the return trip but couldn't test the top speed, as weather was bad for much of the journey, so had to take it easy.

Originally Posted by HowardA

The old Lotus Carlton had a 45mph/1000rpm top gear (6th in those days)

Ahh, I remember the Lotus Carlton. 178mph top speed, wasn't it? Still worth crazy money. Two on Autotrader at the moment, one at £20K and a low mileage one for £40K! For a car which is now 16 years old .

Originally Posted by Tony Rome

Ahh, I remember the Lotus Carlton. 178mph top speed, wasn't it? Still worth crazy money. Two on Autotrader at the moment, one at £20K and a low mileage one for £40K! For a car which is now 16 years old .

They rust like crazy and finding a good one is very, very hard. Some people are buying a second one to keep the first one going.

Oh, and maximum revs in top was good for 272mph.

Overdrive on a 166 would be good. But then again, RWD, 400bhp and 40mpg would be good too.

Originally Posted by minch

RWD, 400bhp and 40mpg would be good too.

Dear Alfa,

With reference to your forthcoming 169 model....

with my diesel ??

130 mph ? maybe after a launch of six miles

130mph - I lose my bottle after that. I remember doing 150mph in my dear old 164 Cloverleaf though. Steady as a rock!

Highest indicated in my 164 Super V6 was 143 or so, and there was almost certainly a bit to come...This was on a runway...of course.

All my 164s seemed to get steadier the faster you went. This is either an illusion or damned good aerodynamics.

AlfaLincs

Well it's not a 166 but a 155 2.0TS with almost 300.000km on the clock.
I drive her hard every day, we have like S/M relationship, the more i torture her, the more she likes

YouTube - alfa 155 2.0TS top speed

http://home.tiscali.nl/~rvbaar/pictu...d_IMAG0035.jpg

wooooah! That poor engine must have been screaming for it's life!