Tony Theophilos, of San Francisco, CA, sent in an email about his 1974 Alfa Romeo GTV: I have owned and loved a 1974 Alfa GTV for about six years now. I bought the car out of storage (20 years) in Colorado with only 27,000 miles on the odometer. The lesson I learned was to never buy a car that has been in storage for 20 years. I was able to get the car running without too much trouble, but over the next month or so, everything began to fail and the car started to smoke badly (piston ring problems). Consequently, I turned […]
Tony Theophilos, of San Francisco, CA, sent in an email about his 1974 Alfa Romeo GTV:
I have owned and loved a 1974 Alfa GTV for about six years now. I bought the car out of storage (20 years) in Colorado with only 27,000 miles on the odometer. The lesson I learned was to never buy a car that has been in storage for 20 years. I was able to get the car running without too much trouble, but over the next month or so, everything began to fail and the car started to smoke badly (piston ring problems). Consequently, I turned the car over to Gino at The Alfa Center in San Francisco for a complete mechanical restoration.
Never content to leave well enough alone, I had a full top and bottom end rebuild with higher compression pistons, an aggressive cam, the head ported and polished and a lightened flywheel. In addition, for no good reason I replaced the SPICA fuel injection with dual Webers, and added an Alfaholics performance exhaust system and suspension.Finally, I had the interior redone. The body and paint needed only a wet sanding and polish.I own a number of vintage sports cars ranging from Ferrari to Austin Healey, but my favorite car to drive is undoubtedly the Alfa. It likes to be driven hard, revs freely and handles like a go kart. That’s what Alfas are all about!
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