Re: First-time Alfa owner needs info

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

First-time Alfa owner Colin Talcroft (1978 Spider) asks a bunch of reasonable
questions. The one with the least debatable answer is color: "I can't figure
out what the paint color is. It's a medium to dark brown. Chocolate Brown and
Mocha Brown appear to be two colors used around that time. Anyone know?" Yes;
the 1978 chip-chart calls it "Chocolate Brown"; the company color number is AR
836; DuPont's code # is 45944, and Ditzler (PPG) code number is 24623. Any
body paint shop should be able to match it from either of those numbers. In
the past, when Alfas were sold here, and perhaps still either through the
authorized service shops here or from sources overseas one could buy a small
tube of touch-up paint; the part number for touch-up paints was invariably a
fourteen-digit number 10000 90XXX 0000, with the AR number plugged into the
XXX, thus 10000 90836 0000 for the 1978-80 Chocolate Brown.

 "Second question: Needs new tires. Anything that is particularly suited to
this car?"

 Hoo boy, you do know how to put a contentious question. There is a running
popular-brand-of-the-month thread, a subset on best-type-within-brand, and an
ever-important topic of which one is the greatest improvement over the wimpy
original equipment.

 Tire and suspension design of the fifties, which was carried-over from the
750/101 cars to the 105/115 cars of the sixties, which is what a Spider of the
eighties is, accepted considerable body lean on curves and matched it with
Pirelli Cinturato and Michelin X tires which, like motorcycle tires, had
treads extending up the sidewalls and had near-circular cross-sections and
consequently maintained relatively constant contact patches at all degrees of
lean. Some suspension and tire technologies of the more recent past have
exploited much wider tread contact patches which may stick better but which
must be kept flat on the road partly by basic suspension design but also
partly by minimizing lean in other ways. There is no doubt that today most if
not all owners who want to seriously autocross and/or time-trial their cars
will pick wider tires, stiffer torsional stabilizers, games with caster and
camber, and body mods to save tenths of a second, but on any car which was
really good to begin with, which Alfas were, such gains usually involve
trade-offs against losses.

 People who are not planning on driving their cars seriously in competition
may enjoy the luxury of a different path. The 105/115 cars, in good new stock
condition, were delightful cars to own and drive. My minority position is to
urge the new owner to make it as near-new as possible and enjoy using it that
way for a while before embarking on any modifications which are intended to
"improve' the car. That means starting with and living with stock or
near-stock springs, shocks, roll-bars, ride-height, and 185/70-14 tires on
stock wheels. For brands I am enough of an Italophile (or Italochauvinist) to
think Pirelli first. There are undoubtedly better tires elsewhere for
particular purposes or standards, but they are certainly good enough for
establishing a baseline. Deviations from that plan would be toward earlier
specifications; certainly the exhaust systems and injection pumps of the early
seventies were less restricted than the later ones, and for myself I wouldn't
rule-out reverting to the 165-14 tires of the early seventies; any loss in
ultimate cornering would be weighed against lighter (and I think more
responsive) steering.

 The remaining major question was Where do I take this car for service? I
don't know which end of the state Santa Rosa is in, but wherever you are in
any state I would say Join The Club. The alfa-digest is a magnificent
resource, far more important to me than the Club, but there is nothing like
face-to-face resources on the ground for finding out about local mechanics,
local parts sources, local activities, and making local friends over a local
beer. AROC anywhere, ARA also if you are within striking-distance of the bay
area.

 Enjoy,

 John H.

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided