I had a rare pass last night, out for dinner with a friend I used to work with. On the way back I was making reasonable progress with barely any other cars on the road, and became dimly aware of a car well ahead, on an sweeping A-road, that I wasn't catching as quickly as usual. A big S-bend brought us onto a dual carriageway and I had a pretty big closing speed over the car ahead and went past, noting as I did so that it was a late original shape Scooby turbo or WRX or something (don't know much about them) with a big wing and an exhaust I could almost have parked in.
Anyway, I settled to a rapid cruise and was enjoying some music when matey boy in the Scooby (presumably not used to being overtaken by Alfa estates) came barrelling past at max chat and continued this way ahead - his engine clearly audible due to the silliness of his exhuast. This is a very quiet road replaced in function by a motorway so I thought we could have a little comparison. Snicking into 5th and flooring it brought steady gains on Scooby boy, before in top gear, I went slowly but increasingly persistently past. A little while after, I noticed with surprise (it was all very refined and stable) I was approaching 6000rpm in 6th.... Ooops.
Anyway, we ran in polite convoy for a bit when we got back to single-carriageway, overtaking in tandem, before another short straight empty stretch of dual carriageway. He indicated he'd like to play once more, in case what had happened before was some kind of freak of nature, I selected 4500 rpm in 4th as a start point, and off we went again - and again a steady lead was pulled out as I went through all of 4th and 5th gears.
After this we caught up some traffic and he politely (i.e slowly and temporarily) eased right up to my bumper, no doubt to read the badging and try and work out what the hell the Alfa was. I wonder if he was any the wiser - presumably he assumes it is not standard. It is. The best bit of all? The water temp and oil temp stayed rock steady - the oil temp only on the second bar (80-100 degrees). The bloody great ducted oil coolers and radiators recessed into the nose clealy do their job...
I've had a few plays with rally reps, as new as a recent but pre-2.5 litre STi, always with the same result above 70mph. Of all the cars on the road, they seem the most shocked at what a GTA can do. For lovers of Q-cars, this kind of good-natured game is great fun
Anyway, I settled to a rapid cruise and was enjoying some music when matey boy in the Scooby (presumably not used to being overtaken by Alfa estates) came barrelling past at max chat and continued this way ahead - his engine clearly audible due to the silliness of his exhuast. This is a very quiet road replaced in function by a motorway so I thought we could have a little comparison. Snicking into 5th and flooring it brought steady gains on Scooby boy, before in top gear, I went slowly but increasingly persistently past. A little while after, I noticed with surprise (it was all very refined and stable) I was approaching 6000rpm in 6th.... Ooops.
Anyway, we ran in polite convoy for a bit when we got back to single-carriageway, overtaking in tandem, before another short straight empty stretch of dual carriageway. He indicated he'd like to play once more, in case what had happened before was some kind of freak of nature, I selected 4500 rpm in 4th as a start point, and off we went again - and again a steady lead was pulled out as I went through all of 4th and 5th gears.
After this we caught up some traffic and he politely (i.e slowly and temporarily) eased right up to my bumper, no doubt to read the badging and try and work out what the hell the Alfa was. I wonder if he was any the wiser - presumably he assumes it is not standard. It is. The best bit of all? The water temp and oil temp stayed rock steady - the oil temp only on the second bar (80-100 degrees). The bloody great ducted oil coolers and radiators recessed into the nose clealy do their job...
I've had a few plays with rally reps, as new as a recent but pre-2.5 litre STi, always with the same result above 70mph. Of all the cars on the road, they seem the most shocked at what a GTA can do. For lovers of Q-cars, this kind of good-natured game is great fun
