[alfa] Alfa GT at Imola

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, here's the 'rest of the story'.

Alfa always loans me a car when I go to Italy because I write articles 
about them and sell the articles to US car magazines (see my article on 
the Alfa 147 GTA in the September 2003 Issue of "Sports Car 
International"). I try to pick models which will keep up the interest 
in the marque amongst US Alfisti, and apparently, Fiat/Alfa agrees. So 
I usually get sporty models rather than the more staid sedans and 
wagons (although, without doubt, the Alfa Romeo 156 Station Wagon is 
among the most beautiful automobiles on earth) which are Alfa Romeo's 
bread and butter. This time, I requested and received the new Bertone 
bodied GT. This car is probably the closest thing that Alfa has built 
to the original GT of 1964 in layout and is also the logical successor 
to the GTV-6 that so many of us here on the Digest seem to own. Like 
the GTV-6, the GT is based upon a more prosaic sedan chassis (in this 
case the 156 and in the GTV-6's case, the Alfetta Sedan) and like the 
GTV-6 and the original GT (ne GTV) is a 2+2. Of course, as we all know, 
the +2 part is mostly a joke as the seats are only good for very small 
children, the dog, or any packages which might fit back there. Anyway, 
the new GT is a very nice looking car in the flesh, but somewhat 
slab-sided looking in pictures. It is FWD (naturally, and 
unfortunately) has a 240 BHP DOHC V-6 and a six-speed manual gearbox 
(the F-1 type semi-auto is not available in Alfa's sixes). It also 
sports the biggest brakes I've ever seen on an Alfa. The front disk 
rotor is a full 15" in diameter with six-pot calipers. The rear brakes 
are 13.5 " discs with 4-pot calipers. The car rides on 18" wheels, has 
225 series wide tires (mine was shod with Pirelli P-Zeros). The car has 
beautifully designed leather sports seats which are substantial and 
have good support. The steering is Alfa's super-fast variable-ratio 
power steering, and comes in at under 2 complete turns lock to lock. 
Like most of the FWD Alfa's I've driven (especially those with V-6's) 
the turning radius is atrocious. Three-point turns become 5-point, and 
a thirty-some-odd feet turning circle is more befitting a 16-wheeler 
than a car, but one gets used to it.

Start it up and the grins begin. First of all it has that Alfa V-6 
sound. Nothing short of a Ferrari V-12 sounds anything like it for 
shear visceral pleasure, and the car is quick and fast. I don't have 
any numbers, but it's 0-60 time has got to be in the low sixes, and the 
top speed is advertised at about 155 MPH (250 KPH).

Anyway, I picked this well-used press example up in Milan on the 4th of 
October, and immediately set out for Austria, Germany, and Switzerland 
via Bolzano and the Brenner pass. After about 5 days in those environs, 
I headed back for Italy through Lucarno, and ended up heading to San 
Marino via the A-4 Autostrada. Passing the town of Imola, I got off the 
A-4 in order to see if I could find the track - just on a lark, you 
understand. I also tried once to find Monza  on an earlier trip and 
couldn't, so I didn't hold out much hope. Once I reached the SS9, which 
serves as Imola's main street, I saw signs everywhere, and soon found 
myself behind the pits at the Ferrari store. I was surprised to find 
the store open as it was approaching 6:00PM. I asked the lady in the 
store if she knew who I had to talk to in order to get on pit lane to 
take what automotive journalists call "   beauty shots" of the car. I 
had already decided to stay the night in Imola, so I was thinking that 
I might try to get to the pit lane the next day. The lady in the 
Ferrari storer directed me to a manned gate around the corner, so I 
drove there, told the gate keeper what I wanted and he directed me to 
the office of the press relations coordinator just a few yards beyond 
the gate. I explained that I had the car from Alfa, and wanted some 
pictures of the car taken in the pit lane, and the nice lady in the 
office looked at the press documents supplied to me by Fiat and said 
that she'd have someone meet me. A few minutes later, a young man named 
Simone came up to the car and led me through a pit door onto the pit 
lane. I took a number of shots of the car with my trusty Nikon D-70 
from all angles, and then casually asked: "Any chance of taking the car 
out onto the track?"  I wasn't expecting the answer I received: "Sure, 
there's no one out there this time of the evening, I'll give you five 
laps. Don't drive too fast, and if I wave you in, come right in." I 
couldn't believe my ears! Well, "too fast" is a matter for 
interpretation, isn't it? So without further ado, I jumped in the car, 
peeled out of the pit lane and onto one of the world's most famous 
Formula-One tracks! It was great. The car handles very well for a FWD, 
and I was able to drive what seemed to be very quick laps (not timed, 
unfortunately), but of course, that was very subjective and my times 
were probably terrible. On the first couple of laps, I early-apexed 
several turns, but by lap three, I was driving like Ed Schumacher (I 
don't know who Ed Schumacher is, but that's as close to comparing 
myself with Michael Schumacher as I am going to get). When the 5-laps 
were over, I was beat. I don't have any idea how these guys can last 
50-60 laps in one of the grand-prix races. The answer is, of course, 
that they're young, and they're athletes. I'm neither.

At any rate, It was a thrill of a lifetime, and I'll never forget it.


How fast did I go? At the end of the long straight, just before I 
shut-down, I glanced at the speedo, it said, roughly, 245 KPH.


George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
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