MY alfa life - part 5

DRIVETRIBE

my alfa life - part 4

the trials and tribulations of a serial alfa romeo owner #alfa-romeo #giulietta

I'm loving driving the Maserati Ghibli S as my daily driver. Its a lovely car but I am putting a lot of miles on it. We were looking at replacing our second car, a Mito, with a nice convertible but the figures weren't working out favourably. Instead we decided to look at a cheap second hand one. In particular an Alfa Romeo Spider (916)

I looked around on the usual suspect web site and managed to find a couple nearby then went through the process of checking MOT history etc. One stood out, a blue Lusso with decent history and a recent engine rebuild. That meant new cambelts, which with a little over 73k miles on the clock was a positive.

Spider Twin Spark Lusso

We went to see the car, take a test drive, and check it over. It looked to be a good car. The current owner had no problem in pushing the car, throwing it into corners with vigour, and that gave me confidence. Still I wanted to think about it so headed home.

After a little more research I decided that it was worth buying and came to an agreement on price and went through the business of arranging for payment, insurance, road tax, and pickup. We drove over in the Ghibli which meant that I didn't get the first drive. Instead, as the weather was good, we took a detour and I acted as the follow car as my partner drove the Spider.

Harewood house motor show

A week later I was looking for something to do at the weekend and spotted a local motor show at Harewood House. Its not far from us so we thought we'd head over for the a day out showing the car and talking rubbish. The sun was shining and the drive over was fantastic.

The show was interesting, not least because we were the only Alfa to be showing. There was a 4C tucked away in the corner, but we were the only one in the main show. It was fun to watch people looking at the car, and we had a few interesting conversation about it and other Alfa Romeos.

After enjoying the car at the weekend I had it booked into a local specialist for a service, it hadn't had one for a year, and a check over to see what needed to be done. The report back confirmed the spotting on the road, that there were a couple of leaks. One of which needed immediate action. The water pump was leaking badly so needed to be replaced, at the same time it made sense to replace the cambelt, auxiliary belt, and cambelt tensioner. A hefty bill but as we planned a 300+ mile round trip at the weekend it seemed sensible to have it done.

National Alfa DAy

With the Spider ready to go I booked tickets for the AROC UK National Alfa Day at Knebworth House. This would be a good trip out and an opportunity to catch up with old friends and hopefully make some new ones. We set off early in the morning with roof down and sun starting to break through the clouds.

After some initial fun we got onto the motorway network and set at a steady speed to get to Knebworth before lunch. Whilst driving down the A1 and approaching a breakfast stop I felt a hesitation beneath my right foot. I lifted off and was greeted by a massive loss of power. Luckily, I could see a lay-by up ahead so pulled across and managed to stop safely. When I took the foot completely off the gas the engine coughed and cut out. An attempt to turn it over gave a familiar rattling sound. I made a call to the recovery service and we waited for assistance.

An hour or so later, there was some initial confusion about our location, a very nice man turned up and started to look at the car. He confirmed my fears that it was something mechanical, likely timing related, and that we wouldn't be driving any further today. The Spider was loaded onto the towing rig and we headed home.

View gallery image

At present I'm waiting to get things looked at but the fun we've had so far confirm that this was the right car to buy and that its a keeper.