'Closet Guido' '97 Alfa Romeo GTV.

[JoweyObituary]

Okay I've been lurking enough, time to start posting.

I'm Jowey.

I was rolling this when i joined up but sold that in April.
I was static dropped and did sparks and stuff, great car.



I wanted something timeless looking, something that you wouldn't see everyday.

I have always had a crush on the 916 GTV so I bought this.
1997 2.0 Alfa Romeo GTV Twinspark



Nice enough, came with a few important bits: 17x7.5j speedlines 5-hole Teledials and the Zender 'cup' bodykit, spoiler and grille, just lacking vented wings which is fine because i dont like them anyways.


started up with a mighty good clean out of the interior because it was pretty gross.







considered running these speedline mistral 3pc 17x10 17x8 but decided against it as dish wouldn't work too well with this body style as it lacks 'bubble' arches.

replaced the shocks and a CV joint removed the yellow tint on the front lamps and tinted the turn indicators amber because I love amber turns on blue cars.


Pre-coil-over drop (running on 30mm drop springs front and rear and Koni shocks)

Just enjoyed blasting about in the car while I still could, great fun so much grip and great fun through long smooth bends.

Performed a bit of paint correction as it was looking pretty shabby, used a G3 compound and them some autgym and 3 coats of meguiars caranuba wax




Looking nice and clean OEM style. with that diagonal swage nicely enhanced with a touch of rake.


Pretty much from this point on it's a purists look away kind of thing..

[JoweyObituary]

by this point i was trwaling for coil-overs and started greasing a wire brushing threads and things to make fitment as smooth as possible for when they showed up.
Also removed the front arch liners and moved the screenwash bottle up and PAS resevoir forward to make some more room.

Some new wheels came into the mix.

Keeping with the teledial theme.. Autostrda Monza 17x8.5, 195/45's just need to get some adapters made up and give them a polish, could maybe work ?


Gave the lips a good polish, found some filler in the lip on the 3rd wheel gave up hope and sold them.




Picked these up for a lot less than the £1500 retail price, informed that the springs were way too harsh for road use so being proactive rather than reactive to the situation I had these ready.







Smaller tires needed (I will in future chop that peice of metal away as it does nothing other than support the plastics for the inner and outer wheel arch liners.




Ride height is really quite livable for now.

[X5X]

WOW! Now my favourite Alfa

[JoweyObituary]

The wheels got sold but were trial fitted first and I wasn't feeling them so they got sold
but I held onto the 5x98>5x114.3 adapters



Painted the roundels of the headlamps in a satin metallic grey to bring them a bit more up to date as the fake chrome roundels aged it a far bit I think.


Finished up de-creasing my washing and put the ironing board away.
Also a rabbit decided to put it skull through my splitter so I removed the whole kit to refurb it.




The aim with the kit was to do it in a satin metallic grey the same as the headlamp internals, again this is a retro finish that seems to be making a resergance on modern cars, something i'm a big fan of.

quick potato chop to boost my mojo:

Lost some helper spring and removed some rear suspension components to achieve a few more mm of squat stance.


Which within a week resulted in this:


Black tears of sad sorry Alfa!


It turns out I'd smashed the manifold support bracket which screwed into some threaded posts on the alloy sump and it'd cracked around the bottom of the posts.
Lucky escape, however because of where the crack was, there was no patching it up so off it came.

A Brand new sump from Alfa is over £250.. er thankfully after a bit of searching I found one for less than £100 (there were £28 brand new for my Mk1 Golf )


Lost a bit more fake chrome, Satin silver grille surround and repainted the mesh in gloss black, I need to get around to buying a new grille badge but no rush..also hi stonechips


weels



Rays MS-02 with 195/45/17's at17x8 et23 front/17x9 Et8 rear

[JoweyObituary]

then straight in the garage for winter.



I haven't used the car since October.

Not sure when it'll emerge again as I have no job so cannot afford to do anything with her but hopefully will pick this thread up again when I finish studying for summer and can find work.

Thanks for reading.

[Rubens]

Like it so far, especially that fat ass! Not sure about these wheels though..

[Mk1magic]

goddam this is mental i adore these n them teledial splits are sweet please keep up the updates love it

[jakkerd]

I never liked these, until now. Very nice.

[JoweyObituary]

WOW! Now my favourite Alfa

Thank you mate means a lot.

Like it so far, especially that fat ass! Not sure about these wheels though..

It has some proper fat rear quarters doesn't it?
The wheels are so hideous I know. I kind of like their ugliness though

The 17's are a bit small; really I need 18/19's. I will need to tub the rear arches to make those happen and run at a good height though as there is hardly is any vertical depth to those arches.

Hoping the current wheels will work better once they have been re-finished and have the text smoothed off the faces.

I never liked these, until now. Very nice.

The GTV is a really eyebrow raising car, I like to think it is a beauty that slowly reveals itself.

Glad this has caused you adjust your opinion

goddam this is mental i adore these n them teledial splits are sweet please keep up the updates love it

The Teledial splits were great looking wheels heaps of potential but i didn't feel they were working well on the car, too oldschool looking.

[D&W]

so sick!! i remember when these were new they were so bangin in australia, they were the best car you could win on The Price is Right too!!

[Chigga]

That is a wicked looking car, are those factory aero kit?

[TheBenzE]

Holy crap this thing is awesome!

[P78]

i want your speedlines

pretty neat setup u got going there mate

[Capt. Obvious]

Such a weird looking car! But in a good way...

Personally, I really like that spoiler on the boot lid, I think it pulls the lines of the car together.

[JoweyObituary]

so sick!! i remember when these were new they were so bangin in australia, they were the best car you could win on The Price is Right too!!

They seem to still have a huge following out in Aus' maybe because of the price is right thing

That is a wicked looking car, are those factory aero kit?

Thank you, glad you think so.
Also yes the aerokit fitted is the Zender kit available from the factory used in the 1999 GTV Cup racing series.

Holy crap this thing is awesome!

Thank you!

i want your speedlines

pretty neat setup u got going there mate

Speedlines are a great looking wheel aren't they. Once they have some fresh rubber I'll be using them as a 'proper driving' wheel when the car is jacked up and I fancy a blast

Such a weird looking car! But in a good way...

Personally, I really like that spoiler on the boot lid, I think it pulls the lines of the car together.

Totally different to anything else.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

from the side profile the spoiler looks ace, however from any of the rear angle the tailight sits so low and the spoiler over hangs so much it looks odd.



What it really needs is Maserati 3200GT style boomerang tailights. I'd love to haave them grafted on but i'll surely never find a Maserati for parts breaking