re: like the finest wne, cheese, and steak

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

At 6:56 AM -0400 8/30/1, alfa-digest wrote:
>Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 02:20:42 -0400
>From: "Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>
>Subject: RE: like the finest wne, cheese, and steak
>
> > > How many of you have faith in the Alfa V8 and think
> > > we'll make it the entire 1500 miles?
> >
> > I have a lot of faith in an Alfa... storing it unrun for a long
> > time somewhat
> > diminishes my confidence... but I would have NO faith in any
> > leftover fluids
> > (esp benzina/petrol/gasoline) nor in the tires.  The fluids are
> > easy, but I
> > wouldn't consider running on the old tires.
>
>A couple of years ago, MG-Boy (remember him?  He's driving a Miata now..)
>and myself bought a Spider from APE that had been sitting for 17 years.
>After a stop at Barber Shop in Sacramento to clean out the gas tank, the car
>made the rest of the 3k mile trip to Boston without any problems.
>
>If the tires don't have visible cracks (dry rot?), bubbles, or other obvious
>flaws, I don't think I'd panic.  The tires on my rarely used GTV6 are well
>over 10 years old at this point and are holding up well - four years of
>sitting shouldn't kill tires (however, if they're 30 year old tires then I'd
>change them..).
>
>I'd agree wrt the fluids - they should all be changed before going anywhere.
>Good idea to bring some spare belts and hoses along for the trip, or to
>change them when the fluids are done.
>
>YMMV,
>
>bs


Brian's Spider story is pretty impressive--I guess that climates like 
that of California are somewhat less harsh than what I'm used to in 
Ohio in terms of deterioration on unused cars.  But I'm going to have 
to disagree about tires, based on personal experience, even if it was 
in Ohio.  When I bought my GTV6 it had been sitting for 3 years.  The 
tires, however, weren't very old and looked fine.  The PO said he 
even rolled the car around the yard periodically to prevent the tires 
from losing their roundness.  So I drove this car for ~500, not 
really pushing any limits, and assuming that the tires were fine. 
Then one day (December 20, 1999 I believe it was) I was in a hurry to 
get in to town to try and prevent my server from going down for the 
holidays, and was already late, so I thought I'd cross the bridge 
5mph faster than my usual 45mph.  I was so worried about other things 
though, that I thought 45+5=55.  As I was making the left off of the 
bridge, the car began to understeer so I dialed in more steering 
input, and although my stomach tightened up a bit I thought I was 
totally in control.  Then the front wheels hit the bump at the end of 
the bridge and gained traction, which put the car into a 
counterclockwise spin, which I managed to catch somehow, despite my 
inexperience.  This at least prevented me from slamming into a guard 
rail, but alas, I overcorrected and went off the right side of the 
road in a clockwise spin, tearing off the airdam and a turn signal on 
the way out of the shallow ditch.  The car's velocity was close 
enough to the original direction of travel that I avoided the chain 
link fence on the other side of the ditch, but travelling sideways as 
a passenger in my own car and seeing a fence go by the nose of the 
car at 50+mph is pretty damn scary.  The car came to rest back in the 
ditch parallel to the road but opposite the original direction of 
travel, the engine was stalled but Beck's "The New Pollution" was 
still playing on the stereo.  Most importantly, the sky was up and 
the ground was down, and all the mechanical parts were still on the 
bottom of the car.
Now for the relevant part:  When I told Jake "Milano" Bausano about 
it he asked how fast I was going.  "55?" he said, "I always take that 
bridge at 55 in the Milano with no problems."  Then it occurred to 
me--on the way home, the only skid marks I had seen were in the 
grass.  Sure enough, the pavement showed only the faintest marks 
where the road grime had been seemingly rearrange by the heat and 
friction--WHAT APPEARED TO BE PERFECTLY GOOD TIRES HAD ACTUALLY 
TURNED TO HARD PLASTIC IN THE 3 YEARS THEY'D GONE UNUSED.  And I 
could have died from driving on those seemingly fine tires.  End of 
story.

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