[Flame_Out]

I've been thinking about this for a while now, are alfas built for thrashing, driving hard to the redline all the time, real sportscars that love to be raced about everywhere etc

Or

Are they just built to a price by fiat with just enough to make them feel special and although the inherant sportiness is there if you give them a damn good thrashing they just start to fall to bits, develop electrical faults, wear their tyres out in an unusual manner and leave you wondering why they are so high maintenance...

Is it real or is at myth...

Discuss?

I love Alfas' BTW, and although I suspect the latter espescially these days I can't see me driving anything else...

 

[James Junior]

In my mind the current Alfa range are ordinary day to day cars, with a leaning toward the enthusiast.

They are not out and out sports or performance cars though.

 

[0of0]

Mine gets a thrashing when 'appropriate' - there's nowt like doing nearly 60 in second gear :lol:

 

[Gaz]

drive the TS normally with the occasional spirited drive

thrash the V6 more because it begs me to do it but it hurts my ears :lol:

 

[K9d]

Mine gets a thrashing when 'appropriate' - there's nowt like doing nearly 60 in second gear :lol:

Stop short shifting

Both of mine will be past 60 in second :lol: and heading for almost a ton in 3rd, on my test track of course

 

[0of0]

Stop short shifting

Both of mine will be past 60 in second :lol: and heading for almost a ton in 3rd, on my test track of course

Hmm - will have to do a run tomorrow with the satnav :think:

 

[Gaz]

i think you should, mine does 71 in second :lol:

 

[Spider Aktiv]

I've been thinking about this for a while now, are alfas built for thrashing, driving hard to the redline all the time, real sportscars that love to be raced about everywhere etc

Or

Are they just built to a price by fiat with just enough to make them feel special and although the inherant sportiness is there if you give them a damn good thrashing they just start to fall to bits, develop electrical faults, wear their tyres out in an unusual manner and leave you wondering why they are so high maintenance...

Is it real or is at myth...

Discuss?

I love Alfas' BTW, and although I suspect the latter espescially these days I can't see me driving anything else...

If they were just built to a price they would just a Fiat with an Alfa sticker over the Fiat badge, think they went down that route with the Arna/Cherry carry on.

They ARE built with an inherant sportiness, a little laurel resting and a little of the kings new clothes and still manage some cracking headline models (GTA, 8C) though. The glory days are long gone and I guess the range will become more and more mainstream with fuel comsumption and emmisions being targeted not performance and fun.

 

[KiwiAlfa156]

Pretty much everything is built to a price, especially if you want to sell more than a couple of examples for the sake of publicity (i.e. Veyrons, 8C, and the like). All that ever varies IS the price. So my thoughts are:

Yes, Aflas are built to a price, you can tell that by the 'cheap as sh*t' nuts and bolts they use hold them together (the ones that either corrode and seize, or turn to some form of cheese, and in some cases do both). This is not new and the build quality of older 'post-classic' Alfas (late 70s and 80s cars especially) is legendary and not for the right reasons. The old joke about the floor pan rusting through quicker than the car did 0-60 is just a minor exaggeration. Having owned a few Mercs, I often think when something falls off or stops working on the Alfa (most recently the door check strap)......... I often think that Mercedes wouldn't have necessarily have designed the offending part to be better functionally, but they would have tested the bejeezus out of it and it would have been good for 500,000 km,... and be held on with better quality fasteners.

Yes, Alfa's are designed with 'sporty' driving in mind with either good power (V6s) and/or very good chassis dymanics, and are rewarding to drive. The Twinnies are beautifully balanced. Alfas are correctly identified as 'Drivers Cars", but they are road cars... not detuned racers with number plates (see Evos and WRXs for that carry on).

All cars are a compromise and an Alfa is car as someone said earlier that is designed leaning towards the enthusiasts, its not something you would necessarily want if just getting to A to B with a minimum of fuss and maximum reliabliity is your thing. There are better cars for that duty and most are Japanese. I think Alfas do need a bit of fussing to keep them from either falling apart or going pop if you give them a thashing. Buts that's just part of the fun

 

[alfasudman]

Hate to say it but they're not what they used to be. Safety and emissions legislation and the corporate obsession with 'brand' has seen to that. But they still have some of the old brio and it seems Alfa is starting to see the problem and create cars like the 8C that are for enthusiasts. They're still amongst the most beautiful and exciting cars on the road so we shouldn't complain too much I suppose. Quality has never been great and still isn't - you've got to go back to the 60s to find a well made Alfa. My Alfa Romeo Spider S4 is well built - but Alfa didn't build it.

 

[bazza]

Alfas have never been "built for thrashing, driving hard to the redline all the time, real sportscars that love to be raced about everywhere etc "


You're mistaking what Alfa is all about with what Subaru is all about.

 

[zulu ferret]

+1Mr.B. Lanny TT thrived when given a thrashing, kill me before I killed her, real tough cookie.
Enter the 147, a totally different animal. Pussy cat frequently at the Vets? :lol:

 

[EddieGTA]

To second what Bazza said take the GTA compared to a Honda VTEC Type-R jobby.

My mate has a Civic Type-R, a great car and not too shy of the GTA's 0-60mph. Totally different animals though. The VTEC needs to be thrashed to do anything and has no torque low down. The GTA V6 can be thrashed to the red line, but is just as good low down the rev range. One of the things I love is that you don't have to work the gears to get the best out of the car, it's nice to have a blast every now and then but going for a drive without having to constantly work the gears is just as pleasant. In my experience this has been the same for all alfa engines I have come across.

 

[bazza]

To be clearer:
Alfas aim (I believe) is class, style and enjoyment. Not the shortest possible 0-60 time.
Happily that coincides with exactly my desires from a car.

 

[Spider95]

If you think Alfas are sports cars then you are seriously deluded:lol:

 

[AlfaLincs]

When the 147 was almost ready to be signed off the then 'new' boss was of the opinion that the interior/dash was too cheap looking and he demanded that the materials and overall 'cabin appeal' be upgraded. This involved delay and a further £20 cost per car and the company accountants fought it very strongly, but thankfully lost. What the boss had spotted was that 147 was as likely to be bought by women as men, it being quite chic, and that women would demand a high quality interior. He was right.

Now £20 might not seem here nor there to you and me, but in the world of car production this is a massive amount, but every car has to be costed down to the very last penny, so yes they are built to a price, but if you make a strong enough marketing case then extra can be found sometimes.

The job of accountants is to keep costs down, but they don't do the 'vision' thing terribly well.

AlfaLincs

 

[Squadrone Rosso]

They are not ordinary cars and are a choice for the enthusiast, despite some platform sharing

 

[Dave Brand]

The job of accountants is to keep costs down, but they don't do the 'vision' thing terribly well.

On the first statement, I'd argue that the job of accountants is to record costs; cost reduction is the job of engineers - but I'm biased! Meanwhile, back in the real world, accountants can & do over-ride engineering decisions; I remember back in the early 1990s one manufacturer changed to smaller rear brakes across one of its model ranges because the bean-counters insisted on it, despite the protestations of the engineers.

On the second statement, I won't say what I really think as some of my best friends are accountants!