GTV problems, Pittsburgh vintage race

["Greg Stewart" <gt_veloce@domain.elided>]

(kind of a long post - sorry)

Took the GTV on its first serious road trip over the weekend (Ottawa to 
Toronto to Pittsburgh for the Vintage Grand Prix).  All started well but 
brakes started geting mushy after about 3 hours of driving.  By the time I 
got to Toronto (about 4 hours) brakes were very soft.  In Toronto we started 
to bleed the brakes and the old fluid was about the colour of coffee - 
yipes!.  So, we replaced all the fluid with new DOT 3 fluid from the only 
gas station open at midnight.

Next day, brakes were okay until late afternoon when they started to fade 
again.  By the time we got to Pittsburgh I had nothing, i.e. pedal just 
hanging limp, me using handbrake and dodging oncoming traffic.

We bled brakes again, but fluid looked fine and few bubbles came out.

On Sunday, we drove home and brakes were fine all day - firm pedal, car 
stopped easily.

What gives?  Does the m/c need to be replaced/rebuilt?  Temperature on first 
two days of driving was very hot - about 35 celsius.

Other bad stuff:
(1) trunk release cable broke - trapping my wallet, camera, and tools for 
most of saturday afternoon.  Annoying but nothing that vice-grips couldn't 
fix.

(2) Motor ran very rough at lower rpms in very hot weather but fine on 
Sunday when temperatures were closer to 25 celsius.  We could smell raw gas, 
car had trouble idling.  Okay once revs got over 3000 but anything below was 
bad news.  What would cause this? Car has 45mm DHLAs in place of SPICA, with 
11mm autodelta cams, and free-flow exhaust.

Good stuff:
I recommend the PVGP to anybody who likes old racing cars.  This is a great 
event that gets better every year.  Highlights for me this year were Henry 
Wessel's  6C3000 and a gentleman from Chicago's 8C2300 Monza.  Also sighted: 
  several Giulietta Spider and Sprint race cars, a Ferrari F40 (wow), 2 
OSCAs, 2 Bandinis, a Cisitalia, and a gaggle of Fiat-Abarths (including one 
very nice Zagato bodied example that was eventually rolled up into a tidy 
ball by its over-exuberant driver).

Greg Stewart
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
1974 GTV



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