A brace of Montreals made it to Bicester. These increasingly rare cars were Alfas attempt at an affordable sports car for the 1970s, using Giulia running gear (live axle, steering box etc.) coupled to a brand new V8 engine allegedly lifted straight from the Tipo 33 sports racer. And apart from having a different cylinder block, single plug cylinder heads, a dual-plane crankshaft and mechanical fuel injection, it was. Kinda.
Later in the day. The initial crowds have subsided somewhat, as everyone sought what shelter they could. No such relief for the serried ranks of modern Alfas parked on the grass runway areas
Throughout the day there were parade laps of various models going around a short track formed from one of Bicesters long-disused aircraft taxiways. The Alfasuds had to be split into several groups so that everyone could have a go, and those raspy little engines were very popular with spectators. This Alfa Sprint Speciale got caught up in the traffic heading for the circuit long enough for me to get a picture…
Ted Pearson arrived in his latest Alfa, this beautiful Alfasud Sprint (nice colour by the way
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Second foray into the Giulia 105 area provided this opportunity for a study of light and shade…
...Meanwhile, some of the Alfasuds returning from their parade laps chose to park in the shadow of this large aircraft hanger… the silver Sprint, rolling on its standard steelies was really nice. I actually prefer them to the optional alloys (like the ones on Ted’s car), which I think look a bit 2-dimensional. Deep dish wheels always look better somehow, in spite of their aerodynamic disadvantages…
A final wander around the 105 area, and thence to the Giulietta 101 series cars, where we have our outright winner of the concours competition, and a worthy winner too…
Lovely colour, and matching blue tinted glass too, it looks like the perfect car for cruising home after such a long, hot Summers day. Unlike my journey home, which was slightly more challenging!
In spite of leaving the canopy part open to stop the inside cooking, things did get a bit hot inside my all-black cockpit. Fortunately after 5 minutes in the open the vinyl had cooled to an acceptable level, but as usual the polycarbonate instrument glass outgassing had caused a number of bubbles to form under the polarising film. Still, no matter – the instrument displays were still perfectly readable, so I fired up the engine and set off for home.
I thought that after a whole day of sitting idle the engine would have cooled off, but almost as soon as I left the site, the throttle problem reappeared. This time using the bypass around Bicester, things were not too bad until I hit the A34 Southbound. Then the problem got progressively worse, particularly in the 50 mph zone through the centre of Oxford. A very nice GTV6 sailed past me at 70+ mph, but with the temperature gauge rising it was all I could do to trickle along at a steady 55 mph, occasionally declutching and blipping the throttle to try and get the engine to come back to idle. A Matra Murena also pulled up alongside, gave me a thumbs-up, and then scooted off. Interesting cars, but with their 3-seater configuration the driver sits a long way over the to the left and makes the car look rather lop-sided…
20 miles further down the road, I began to smell acrid smoke. This is unusual in the Green Machine because the engine is behind me. Starting to panic slightly, the smell of burning became more apparent, until in the distance I could see the GTV6 that had passed me earlier rolling to a halt in a lay-by with what looked like a blown engine (large quantities of blue-grey smoke issuing from the exhaust). I thought about stopping to help, but frankly I had problems of my own, and in all honesty there wouldn’t have been anything I could do anyway. Instead, I pressed on, and the acrid smoke dissipated…
Another 30 miles of flicking the radiator fans on and off, eyes glued to the temperature gauge, while trying to manage the sticky throttle. I passed a group of Scoobydoos travelling even more slowly than I was, and one or two of them gave me a wave as I went by. Now on the A34 south of Chieveley, the road undulates as it passes through the North Downs, alternately climbing long hills and then rolling down steep decents. It was on one of these long climbs that the engine started to die
It had all the hallmarks of fuel starvation, yet the tank was half-full – the engine started spluttering under load, recovering each time I blipped the throttle between gears, then spluttering again as I tried to feed in the power. Fifth into fourth. Fourth into third. Third into second, and my speed is now down to a paltry 20 mph. At this point the A34 has no hard shoulder, only a narrow margin and a drainage ditch filled with gravel. The Scoobies that I passed earlier re-passed me, no doubt relieved that they were still running as others fell by the wayside, as the GTV6 had done earlier. By this time I was quite concerned – the car was rolling to a standstill with the gearbox in neutral. I flicked the hazards on and pulled in as close to the edge as I dared. Was this to be it? An ignominious end to an otherwise (almost) perfect day? How was I going to get out of this one? The Green Machine is too low for a typical recovery truck, and I had neglected to design in tow-points during the rebuild. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, several miles from the nearest exit in both directions…
Fortunately, at this precise moment the engine note picked up again, just as strong as ever! What had happened? I didn’t stop to speculate, I let out the clutch and and gunned the engine through the gears, this time with a satisfying burst of acceleration following each change! Only 40 miles to go, and fortunately the A272 between Winchester and Petersfield requires lots of gearchanges and throttle work, preventing the throttle from sticking in one position. This made the final part of the journey much more tolerable, and with everything seemingly back to normal (even the engine temperature had dropped slightly), I dared to relax a bit as I covered the last few miles home.
Total distance travelled was 185.2 miles, at an average fuel consumption of 40.7 mpg, in spite of all the throttle problems. Average speed was 46.1 mph which I suppose reflects the large proportion of motorway work. Total journey time was exactly 4 hours.
So far I have not discovered the reason for the engine dying on the A34. There are some obvious checks I need to make (like cleaning the filter in the fuel pump, plus the filter in the fuel regulator), and the fuel delivery pressure when the engine is really hot, but I think the main reason for the problem was the low coolant level that I subsequently discovered, which indirectly led to the throttle problems and may also have caused some fuel vaporisation. Another possibility is insulation breakdown in the ignition cables (the king lead and the leads for cylinders 1 and 3 are bundled together) although this seems less likely. It goes without saying that all subsequent mileage has been completely trouble-free!
So that was NAD 2022. The Green Machine makes an appearance in a couple of Youtube videos from the event, which I have linked below. I particularly like the dashboard shot in the first one, which exactly captures the retro-futuristic look I was aiming for. And I quite like the strange music…
https://youtu.be/qSo1-srsj6E
https://youtu.be/To1MwQNwZAA
Lauren