Not in a FWD car. Managed to sping an old Alfa, probably 33 that was a RWD if I recall. Went to Snetterton and a bloke in a Civic Type-R lost it on my bumper and ended on the grass facing the other way, amazing I was in a £500 Saxo

 

33 is a FWD car.

 

What sort of tyres do you have ?

I have lost cars in the wet also but they were older Fiats I never expected to lose. But cant imagine losing my GTV anywhere in the wet. Although your V6 might be harder to handle than a my 2 litre.

 

Not me, but I've driven past a GTV in a ditch at a right angle to the road so assume he'd spun, and one guy on the old SportsAlfa forum bought a LHD 3.0 which was modified and very tidy and lost that on a long sweeping bend, spun it and wrote it off.

Perhaps there was some oil/diesel on the road when you took that bend?

Glad there was no accident or damage. Be careful as those Nuvola blue cars are rare (and expensive to respray)!

 

Yeah, it is a bit nose heavy with the big lump up front - I never had any issues with my old 2 ltr GTV.

Dunlop P6000s all round - relatively new.

I think maybe I lifted off too far into the corner - unsettling the balance at the wrong time, normally I do all my slowing down in a straight line before the corner - I certainly will from now on...

 

I shall certainly be more cautious in the wet - especially as the last service was on the wrong side of £1500!

 

I thought P6000s were made by Pirelli?

 

Snap:lol:

 

err.. yeah, Pirelli P6000s, you must have misheard me ;-)

 

I'll bet you lifted off as it happened ? Ideally you need to keep the power on in a FWD car and point the wheels in the direction you want to go in (against all your instincts) and it should snap back, but I'll wager it felt close to a tank slapper, no? If you need to regain the front try sawing the wheel a only a little to the left (in a right hander) and the grip should come back. How do I know this ? How do you think ?

 

P6000's are not a great tyre, that is why you are having a problem.

The GTV is meant to have idiot proof handling, and doesn't suffer from lift off oversteer.

My car has Wanli tyres on the back and I am getting similar problems. I need to be very careful in the wet on roundabouts.

 

Happened to me recently, managed to catch it though, about the same speed as yours, mayb e it was as much the fault of my bald back tyres.

Yours isnt the nuvola GTV i see in between Northwich and Winsford is it??

 

Happened to me - but on black ice. A swift 180 on a dual carriageway.

 

i would also question if there was contamination on the road, especially diesel :tut:

the number of times i have been caught out on a specific junction on the A303, it turns out there is a truck stop round the corner and this is the first serious bend after that, so if a truck has filled to the brim then frequently there will be spillage on this corner, hence the tricky situation

 

Do you have the Q2 fitted? My 3.0 seems to grip throughout the bends and the only prob I have is spinning wheels under full acceleration on any bend. If I have to lift off from full throttle in first or second I get oversteer, but that is to be expected.

I reckon it would be more to do with road conditions as you were going so slow, was there a small bump in the road before the spin?

 

I'd rather have Kuhmo's on my car than P6000s. They are absolute rubbish and should be replaced as soon as you can afford to.

Any car can give unintentional lift-off oversteer, especially whilst in a corner; it depends on weather / road conditions, gear selection and, more importantly, car condition, amongst other factors. It's not hard to intentionally produce lift-off oversteer in the GTV.

 

YouTube - Alfa GTV Jeremy Clarkson


I know it was dry though.

 

Not a GTV but I managed to spinn my 1980 Sprint on the track once, on the cool down lap, in the wet. I think I jerked the stearing a little more then while driving fast, and lifted off at the same time as it was cool down. Clutch and opposite-lock was not enough, should have applied power but did not, so I made a nice 180.

 

Id say 50% of your problem is in those tyres. There not the best tyres and pretty average at that. I used to have them on my Alfetta GTV and were pretty average. I then changed them to a soft and sticky set of Yokohammas the softest you could get and it basically transformed the car ! Wet weather grip was phenomenal ! I would be going so quickly in the rain when everyone else had slowed right down. (well maybe I was a bit Gung ho when I was younger)
but defintely get a better set of tyres they will make a HUGE difference to your car.

 

Had a Fiat 128 3P 1.3 L if anyone remembers one of those and it was a brilliant little car in every respect. Used to blow away my friends bigger 1.6 Ford Escort in performance and handling.

But when it came to the rain It turned into a Jeckle and Hyde and would completely let go at LOW Speed in a SLOW corner. Next thing I know Im doing a 360 with the world turning around me. That happeded twice. It had fat Michelin tyres on it at the time which were quite expensive. The first time it happened was ok in a slow corner and the second time it happend in a slow corner but it was on a steep curve and could have been much more dangerous.

To this day I have no idea why it was so bad in the wet when it was brilliant in the dry.

 

Get underneath the car and check the rear suspension. In particular look at the condition of the bushes on the transverse arms, and most especially the bushes on the springpan arms and also check the torque on the springpan arm retaining bolt (this runs from the base of the damper bush right through to the outer bush on the springpan arm).

Any significant play particularly in the springpan arms or if the retaining bolt has slackened off will result in the spin you experienced. This once happened to me on a fairly tight bend, only travelling at 30mph and totally lost it, more than 360 degree spin and landed up in the farmers barley field. The springpan bolt had worked loose.

Nice scenery in the field, always welcome to be 'at one' with nature, but I'd rather view the beautiful English countryside via a conventional route thanks:lol: Fortunately nothing was coming the other way otherwise it would have been 'crunch time'

So something is wrong with your GTV, could be tyres, could be suspension, but don't ignore it. These cars have a superb rear suspension set-up and they are not meant to spin. Get it checked, don't gamble with your life.

 

Thanks for your input and advice fellas.

Der Teufel (Kommst du aus Deutchland?) - thought about powering out of it for a split second, but when I saw the eyes of the driver coming the opposite way I wanted to stop asap!

Wscwunda - I dont think that is me... I live in south Manchester and I have been working at Bentley in Crewe - my route takes me from Wilmslow-Holmes Chapel-Middlewich-Crewe.

Steven 156 - no Q2. The road surface was very lumpy bumpy - and on reflection, I think has a lot to do with it.

Simon - Thanks for the You tube Link - not seen that one before.

I shall certainly look at different Tyres when it comes round to it next.

Spider95 - I shall get under and see what I can see.

Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

Thanks for your input and advice fellas.

Der Teufel (Kommst du aus Deutchland?) - thought about powering out of it for a split second, but when I saw the eyes of the driver coming the opposite way I wanted to stop asap!

Nicht komme ich aus Kent, Der (rote) Teufel war ein Name gegeben zu Tazio Nuvolari durch die Deutschen. Er ist mein Held

von chortle !:lol:

 

Their gtv!

 

:thumbs:

 

Spinning Around...

I managed to spin my Spider out of control when oil leaked from under the engine and onto the road and tyres whilse taking a left corner at 30kph! I went flying, how I didn't write it off is beyond me! Gosh, that was 5 years ago now, I've still got my 1996 Spider, yay!

 

I haven't spun my Gtv, but i have certainly had her fishtailing coming off a roundabout, they can be prone to a bit of lift off oversteer, but Pirelli P6000's are awfull, i once wrote off a 6 week old 145 QV shod with those on it on a damp road.

 

I spun mine through 450 degrees after a pant-smattering lift off oversteer moment on a wet motorway overpass (J6 on the M74 down into Hamilton for anyone who knows the area). Went into the corner a little fast, lifted off and then spent the rest of the curve completely sideways with the nose of the car centimeters aways from the crash barrier in front of me, full lock & full power (possibly even hard on the brakes too such was the lack of skill involved). Just when I thought I was going to get away without actually hitting anything, the front wheels went from tarmac to grass, lost whatever traction they had, hitting the nose/numberplate mount off the crash barrier and spun me out accross the lanes.

Not going to blame the tyres or road conditions - all happened because I was driving beyond my limits. Mercifully there was very little damage done to the car & a shedload of growing up was done!

 

I have almost lost the backend of a GTV V6 before, I lifted of mid corner and the rear swung out so I turned into the slide and kept on power and I was fine if a little shook up