"Last of the V8 Interceptors.."

Ever since I heard that Alfa will no longer make their V6 engines but rather outsource them to that exciting and performance-oriented company named GM , I was reminded of that phrase from the Mad Max movies where someone refered to his car as the "last of the V8 Interceptors". Well, I think the same can now be applied to our GTAs - in the future, when we open the hood on our cars, people who know anything about Alfas will say with awe and sadness "this must be one the last Alfa-produced V6 GTAs"...

Yes the last Alfa made V6 in a FIAT chassis

I suppose that makes an Aston Martin Vanquish a "tarted up Ford Fiesta"? <sigh>!

Ralf S.

Originally Posted by Stori

Yes the last Alfa made V6 in a FIAT chassis

You almost make that sound like a bad thing

Originally Posted by Stori

Yes the last Alfa made V6 in a FIAT chassis

Not many great movie lines that extoll the virtues of a car's chassis...

I chose my Nissan 240Z (way back in college!), my M3, my Imprezza Sti, and now my GTA mostly because of what sits under the hood - those engines; their power, their unique sound, the proof that Nissan, BMW, Subaru and Alfa Romeo all had engineers with technical expertise and passion.

Myabe putting a Hyundai engine under a Ferarri's hood doesn't make a difference to some people, but it sure does to me. I will enjoy and cherish my GTA (at least for this GTA the beauty isn't just skin deep), but if they are still sticking GM engines in their top of the line cars when I am in the market for a new car 2-3 years from now, I can assure you I will be going with another marque...

Originally Posted by jozza

You almost make that sound like a bad thing

Well I have a "FIAT" motor in a FIAT chassis so at least you have an Alfa motor

Originally Posted by Ralf S.

I suppose that makes an Aston Martin Vanquish a "tarted up Ford Fiesta"? <sigh>!

Ralf S.

And I have a tarted up FIAT

Originally Posted by GTACharlie

Not many great movie lines that extoll the virtues of a car's chassis...

I chose my Nissan 240Z (way back in college!), my M3, my Imprezza Sti, and now my GTA mostly because of what sits under the hood - those engines; their power, their unique sound, the proof that Nissan, BMW, Subaru and Alfa Romeo all had engineers with technical expertise and passion.

Myabe putting a Hyundai engine under a Ferarri's hood doesn't make a difference to some people, but it sure does to me. I will enjoy and cherish my GTA (at least for this GTA the beauty isn't just skin deep), but if they are still sticking GM engines in their top of the line cars when I am in the market for a new car 2-3 years from now, I can assure you I will be going with another marque...

I suspect that even if Alfa Romeo does decide to go with a different V6 it will not be in your time frame of 2-3 years.
And even then it is unlikely to be an Alfa V6 due to demand

I suppose the question is ..if Alfa have a Maserati V6 is it still an Alfa engine or rather a lovely Maserati engine with an Alfa Romeo chassis attached. (ie a bastedised Maserati renamed as an Alfa Romeo )
Or is the problem only that Alfa Romeo are using a highly modified "Italianised" GM based engine and the engine is not "Italian" so-to-speak ?

The real problem with having a GM based V6 is in countries like Australia where there are as many cars made per year, as the total numer of Alfa Romeos made per year, running around with GM V6's and also in the US



reason for edit-added (And even then it is unlikely to be an Alfa V6 due to demand )

Originally Posted by Stori

I suppose the question is ..if Alfa have a Maserati V6 is it still an Alfa engine or rather a lovely Maserati engine with an Alfa Romeo chassis attached. (ie a bastedised Maserati renamed as an Alfa Romeo )
Or is the problem only that Alfa Romeo are using a highly modified "Italianised" GM based engine and the engine is not "Italian" so-to-speak ?

Yes, for me, as an American who knows how poor most American cars are (ie mass produced at the lowest possible price point for a public that for the most part cares more about the $1000 rebate than whether the car is going to tip over ala the Ford Explorer, or even explode! ala the 1980s Ford Pinto), I would view VERY differently a GM engine in an Alfa and a Maserati engine. One I would buy and one I would not.

In fact, I was strongly drawn to my 147GTA knowing that it's Selespeed system was basically the same system, parts and maker that the Ferarri F1 and Maserati use. On the other hand, if I knew that the Selespeed system was based on one of those sloppy slush box push-button automatics that GM produces, I wouldn't have gotten the GTA and would have instead (yet again) bought another blandly styled car with excellent in-house produced mechanicals such as an Audi A3 DSG, or the upcoming BMW 130i with SMG...

This is my second Alfa, both containing shiny Alfa produced V6s (147 GTA, 156 Q-System Sportswagon) that have made me and the wife very, very happy. Sad to say that beauty has to be more than skin deep for us and once the GMs start going into these cars, we will probably go elsewhere (Are we really the only Alfa lovers that feel this way? Does GM have such a great reputation in Europe that most people welcome this and think it makes no difference or is actually an improvement?). In Japan, the only cars that rank lower than American cars on the quality and status meter are the Korean cars.

I suspect most people are willing to see what Alfa has done to the GM based engine before panicking.
It is unlikely that the Alfa version is built to a "lowest cost possible" senario.
If it was, then they would not have gone to JTS and made major modifications to most parts of the engine and spent time and money to make the engine supposedly sound good.

In reality, the current Alfa V6 is the only Alfa engine to looks good. It is a shame it is going, but sometimes change is inevitable and was probably made more likely because Europe is largely a Diesel place.

Originally Posted by GTACharlie

Are we really the only Alfa lovers that feel this way?

Probably not, but time moves on.
Some people bang on about Alfas being Fiats.
Some people haven't recovered from Alfa stopping the 75.
Others think the rot set in (literally) with the Sud.
Did you know that A.L.F.A. was an offshoot of a French company??!
French!!!

But what can you do?

As far as I am concerned since 1910 to now, they have all been Alfa Romeos. If they look, drive and sound like Alfa Romeos, that's fine. Who provides the bits and the money is irrelevant to me. If you choose to buy an Audi, that's fine, but a very posh and very dull VW is not a substitute for an Alfa Romeo, even if the Alfa has a GM derived engine in it.

Originally Posted by RicksAlfas

If you choose to buy an Audi, that's fine, but a very posh and very dull VW is not a substitute for an Alfa Romeo, even if the Alfa has a GM derived engine in it.

Hopefully by the time I'm ready to give up this glorious GTA, I'll have enough money to buy a Maserati, or there will be other, better choices out there. One of the reasons I am a Mac user is to try to avoid giving money to Microsoft, a company I don't believe in - I feel the same way about GM and sort of feel violated that the heart of all new high powered Alfas will contain a GM engine - sharing some steel, some electrical componets etc. is one thing, but at least for me, I consider the engine to be the heart of my car. Fortunately for Alfa it sounds like I am one of the only ones that feels this way - an Alfa with a Saturn or Oldsmobile engine in it - at least it will be a good plug for GM...

You could buy a Vauxhall Astra 1.9CDTi.
They use Alfa 1.9 JTD engines.

Originally Posted by RicksAlfas

You could buy a Vauxhall Astra 1.9CDTi.
They use Alfa 1.9 JTD engines.

Went from 321 hp in the M3 to 280hp in the Impreza to 250hp in the GTA - am already finding the GTA (just a bit) underpowered in certain situations compared to my previous cars - don't think a 1.9 liter diesel will tug at my heartstrings the way my GTA does... would want my next car to probably be 300hp+, which is one of the reasons I was interested in the 4WD high powered version of the Brera that is slated to come out in 2 years - just saying that if it has a 100% GM transplant under the hood I won't be driving a Brera no matter how fine it looks...

It's OK Charlie!
I wasn't really thinking you'd go for an Astra!

Originally Posted by RicksAlfas

It's OK Charlie!
I wasn't really thinking you'd go for an Astra!

I knew that, but in an echo of Mad Max, it looks like my car is indeed one the "last of the great V6 GTAs"...