Supercharged GTV Project

["Ahmet Tuncay" <atuncay@domain.elided>]

Several of the list members asked about my '72 supercharged GTV
(http://photos.yahoo.com/atuncay62).  There's certainly a long story
behind this project and it isn't quite finished.  Briefly, I purchased
the GTV about 5 years ago from Alfa Performance Connection's stash of
fine vintage Alfa's in their garage/warehouse with the sole intent of
doing a cost-no-object original restoration.

This first part required about 2.5 years, Stewart Jr. delivered the GTV
as promised, a perfectly restored '72 with few minor embellishments such
as Panasport wheels, blueprinted engine, and the VVT mechanism from a
later 2-liter.  It worked very well, and I should have stopped while I
was ahead.

My daily drivers have been Alfa V6's since '84, and once you've had an
Alfa V6, there's no going back, the power is just too addictive.  As
sweet as the 2-liter in the GTV was, it left something to be desired
when it came to flexibility and effortless power (as I age, I seem to
prefer more torque). After considering a number of alternatives, we
decided to try the supercharger route as some of the OEM and aftermarket
units available have advanced the state of art in this area to new
levels.  We ended up with a full custom setup, main components of which
are an Eaton pressurizer, an air-to-air intercooler from a 930 turbo,
custom programmable fuel and ignition control subsystems, and one very
beefy 8.5 to 1 compression 2-liter engine with Carrillo rods and various
other pricey bits.

The resulting power basically meets my expectations.  In other words
there's plenty of it, we're trying to keep the boost to around 10-12psi
max and run about 25 degrees advance with 91 octane to control
pre-ignition.  When Stewart first assembled it and put 107 octane fuel
in it to be on the safe side, we found there's a lot more power there
with more advance, but ultimately we decided that this will be a street
car and should run on pump gasoline (and not scare little kids and
elderly folks who happen to be within a mile of the thing).

What needs to be done is some fine tuning on a dyno, so that the rears
don't break lose with the slightest suggestion of forward motion, and
figuring out how to manage intake and compressor noise when the
supercharges goes positive boost (there's a bypass valve so that it only
assists when the manifold pressure goes negative).

I'll try to report on the progress of this project, if any of you are
thinking about similar enhancements to your loved Alfa, let me just say
that it is not for the faint of heart nor pocketbook.

-ahmet
atuncay@domain.elided

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