driving position, Giugiaro, VAVLE GUIDES

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

At 2:34 PM -0400 9/25/01, alfa-digest wrote:
>I've never understood why there is a misconception that the classic Italian
>driving style is "arms fully stretched out".  Even reputable car magazines
>talk about the ape-like driving position of Italian cars, as if Italians
>have short legs and long arms.

It's quite easy to understand, from my perspective anyway.  For one 
thing when you get into a traditionally Italian car (the unadjustable 
FIAT Spider is a great example) you discover two things: 1) your legs 
are bent more than you might be used to (after 14,500 GTV6 (s)miles I 
have the reverse problem when getting into "normal" cars--you should 
see the looks on my parents faces when they get into the '87 Jag 
after me and try and figure out what kind of strangely-shaped beast 
was responsible for the seat adjustments) and 2) you can't 
comfortably reach the top of the steering wheel.  The conclusion that 
naturally results from the latter discovery is that Italians must 
drive with their arms relatively out-stretched since you assume that 
at some point in manouvering that car the driver's hands pass through 
the 12:00 position.  Even if you put 2+2 together and realize that 
the stereotypically Italian driver keeps his hands to the bottom half 
or bottom-most third of the wheel's circumference, the relative lack 
of vertical hand motionin that driving style and lack of space 
between you and the bottom of the wheel means that the 
stereotypically Italian driver sits further from the wheel than 
you're used to and does, indeed have his arms straighter than you're 
used to, if only due the fact that he/she can do so do to the fact 
that reaching for the top of the wheel isn't necessary.  Another 
possible cause of misconception: I once explained the above to a 
friend of mine in what I thought were fairly clear terms, and even 
from my careful explanation he went around for several weeks thinking 
that what I had said was that Italians drive around with hands at 9 
and 3 and their elbows locked....  So much for the effectiveness of 
the English language, John...

John mentioned the Alfetta GTV and its growth of weird plastic bits 
during the eighties, and alluded to its deviation from Giugiaros 
original design.  It was always my understanding that the design was 
so changed from what he conceived that he never officially took 
credit for the car.  Well, I noticed last week that not only is it on 
his website, but the one shown is an '80s GTV6/GTV 2.0 with all the 
plastic junk!!

AND CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT KIND OF LABOR AND EXPENSE ARE 
INVOLVED IN RENEWING THE VALVE GUIDES IN MY GTV6???


Joe Elliott

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