Alfa's on Ice, or hard tires ADV7 # 772/773

["C.M. Smith" <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Thank you Brian.  Actual observation of great handling Alfas should be
shared. I've often thought that cars that handle well on snow and ice
should also handle well on dry pavement. The reverse need not be true.
BMW's have an ill deserved reputation for great handling and reliability.
In fact they are no more reliable than the average car (check road &
Track's actual used car surveys), and they are set up to oversteer on dry
pavement. Oversteer may look exciting and feel exciting, maybe even give
you marginally faster lap times on the track (for street sedans anyway),
but in the real world on the street they are slow. Blind corners, traffic,
enforcement of our Mickey Mouse speed limits, etc all conspire to make
oversteering cars a real handful on the street.

Alfa's are set up to handle neutrally under a wide variety of conditions,
and generally understeer at the limit, unless you lift off then they
generally tuck in and compensate for your lack of nerve. I recall one
Spider I drove was prone to oversteer when driven hard. As it had a rear
anti roll bar and adjustable SPAX shocks and my friend was fond of letting
it all hang out, I think he set the rear shocks harder than recommended
which, with the rear anti roll bar made it... well... a bit of a handful at
the limit,(power oversteer is a different thing and I'm not sure most Alfas
put out enough power to be considered power oversteerers,... I can feel the
flames already). The GTV6 and Milano are perhaps the most neutral handling
street cars sold in NA. The GTV6 is just as balanced on snow and ice. 

Amazing thing is, the front drive 164 also displays the same handling
characteristics, within the limits of the front drive chassis and the
considerable weight. Jess Liao ( AD 772)  observed a 164 doing hot laps on
M+S tires! Hard tires give essentially the same situation as poor traction,
so no surprise that the 164 handled well on inadequate rubber. The 164 may
be the most balanced front drive sedan available in NA, but it eats tires.
To get the handling the tire pressures are 3 psi higher in the front tires
than the rears, and the alignment calls for up to 2.5 degrees of negative
camber on the front and up to 1 degree negative camber on the rear. The
corresponding alignment for the GTV6 is 1 degree negative at the front and,
obviously, zero degrees at the rear. My mechanic at the time recommended
lower tire pressures for the front for the GTV6, but I liked the handling
better with equal tire pressures front and rear so I had to pump up the
fronts every time the car was serviced! The magic of Alfas is that the
street driver can drive basically at 10 10ths all day long without working
up much of a sweat. Formula 1 drivers dream of a competitive car that can
be driven like that, and the lucky one's who find one become world champions.

Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
91 Alfa 164L, White, original owner 

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End of alfa-digest V7 #775
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