Re: The Incredible Journey + Spider Suspension & Tires

["Thomas Moll" <moltek@xxxxxxxx>]

Usually just lurking but this one was to good to pass up on.

r.m.bies wrote:

>Second, the Milano is the least troublesome Alfa imported into the US.

Puh-lease! The least troublesome??  That's funny!


A couple productive contributions:

There has been a couple of questions about suspension upgrading and setup;
my Spider "Happy" (full name Happy Tail, named after the cars handling
characteristics at my early track days on 5 year-old street tires ...) is
one of the faster streetable Alfas up here and does a pretty good job of
keeping up with newer BMW M3's on the track, usually catching them in the
corners.

Suspension components:
Stock springs - cut to lower the car about two inches
Stock spica shock on the right front, something rusty and unidentifiable on
the left
Red Konis set 1/4 turn from full soft in the rear
Adjustable upper control arms -   3 degrees negative or more on the track
Shankle "sport" anti-sway bars front and rear
Limited slip set to a more positive lock
All bushings replaced with new genuine Alfa Romeo stock parts


The only real disadvantage to running stock springs is that the car really
stands on it's nose during hard breaking. Going to try to help that this
winter by replacing the stock front shocks with well used Konis that i got
off the Super. With the old front shocks there is about equal damping front
and rear. So i'm going to stiffen up front and rear about equal amounts.

Tires:
Depends on what my friends has the kindness to donate. I have run 195/60-15
Yokohama 008Rs on 6" "MAG" aluminum rims (don't know the offset) 205/60-14
Yokohama 008Rs or BF Goodrich R1's on old 5 1/2" steel wheels and my
favorite, used at this years annual time trial, 185/60-14 Yokohama 008Rs in
the front and 205/60-14 BF Goodrich R1's in the rear. The car understeered a
bit but still did pretty well.

Just got a set of 205/60-15 Yokos and a set of 205/60-15 R1's that God and
weather willing i'll get to try out at our September 18th track date, maybe
even with stiffer shocks. One concern is that stiffer shocks and fresher
(stickier) tires with a larger contact patch will destroy the cars wonderful
balance. I will report what i find out to you.

In all honesty the car is lighter than stock, seats are replaced with molded
plastic ones, the kind typically found on sega racing car arcade game. The
big reinforcing beam behind the front bumper is gone, as well as the
bumperettes. Plus everything i considered non-essential; like the parking
brake system and trunk springs. However besides the seats the car still has
stock appearance and interior, even a stereo (going soon though.)
So the lighter weight of course  relatively speaking makes the "stock
springs" stiffer.

Thomas Moll
NWARC
Seattle
- -74 Spider "Happy"  turning into a dedicated racecar as funds allow
- -67 Super "di Duper" daily driver named by my 4-year old Vincent (rides with
me on the race track and recently wondered why we didn't go full speed on
the straight. When i assured him that we were he pointed to the end of the
scale on the speedometer accusingly....)

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End of alfa-digest V7 #67
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