[alfa] Two questions

[alfacybersite <acs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In #821 Larry Rose has questions: "(1)  I've seen references here a
while back to 195/65 tires for 105/115 cars. Why not 60 series?  The
neighborhood boys with Rice Rockets are now driving 40 series tires....

"(2)  I love my SPICA injection -- I think it's a lot more tractable and
generally fun than I remember the Webers on my Duetto many years ago.
So just for academic interest, how come I never hear about some switch
to electronic FI for SPICA cars?  Why does everyone go to carbs?"

**********

While well aware your 'sign off' of "Just Wondering" probably means
you're not contemplating either 'modification'...

While I ran 60 series Pirelli P6's for (too many) years, I do feel the
195/65 size not only looks much better in that it fills up the the wheel
wells somewhat better, but of course the speedo is more accurate. They
are quite close in height to the original 70 series many Alfas came
with. While not suggesting going that route, if one were to install 40
series on one of 'our' cars, it would look absurd. Okay, I'll admit I
feel it looks  absurd on rice rockets also, but much more so on an older
car. True, one could probably find a set of undrilled (perhaps 17")
wheels, have them drilled to the correct size, and install, but it sure
wouldn't be anything close to visually correct and of course the
suspension wasn't designed for 40 series tires.

Virtually all Alfa wheels, while having 'vents', are of what I'll term -
a closed design. Virtually all new wheels which take low profile tires
are very open - to the point of being very spidery. A 195/65/14 on a
stock steel or forged Alfa wheel looks Considerably more substantial.

Richard Welty pretty much answered the question regarding the reason for
not switching a Spica to EFI - more complex to install. Obviously along
with that goes cost.

For 4-cylinder loving Alfisti who are looking for a fair amount of
additional reliable HP, who have a car which will require being smogged
for many years to come, And who have pretty deep pockets, I feel an
aftermarket EFI system would go a long way to resolving all of these
problems (perhaps the deep pockets 'problem' most of all).

Should someone be contemplating this, I suggest you go to someone (I
hate cliche's, but...) who's been there, done that. Jim Steck certainly
comes to mind. Should one want to keep a portion of their Spica and
still have a modern EFI, visit
http://www.alfacybersite.com/ACSBonnevilleTurbo.html and scroll to the
bottom. There you'll find a Steck modified inlet manifold using Spica
throttle bodies. It was made to go into a '72 GTV using the Spica
airbox.

Now, aren't you glad you asked?

Biba
Irwindale, CA USA
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