Alfetta 2.0 Turbo Sedan

Updated NEWS !!!!

Well, what can I say. 2003 will go down as the year the car finally made it onto the road. And not only that, but it won 1st Place, at the annual NSW Alfa Romeo Owner's Club "Concorso D'Eleganza" for 2003, in the Modified Road Cars class.

FINALLY - IT'S ON THE ROAD !!!!!!

After what seemed like an eternity, and after a lot of blood, sweat and tears (and needless to say bucket-loads of cash) - we finally got to hear the starter motor crank over and bring the engine to life. I was able to start reconciling all my efforts, money and plenty of help from my friends (you know who you are) and start believing that it was all worthwhile.

This project has been on-going since 1996. It was supposed to have been completed a few years ago but the major steps in the project took MUCH longer than originally anticipated. Try almost one WHOLE year for the engine bottom end to be balanced, machined etc, and try over six MONTHS for the custom fabrication. The list goes on and on, but who's complaining now, I'm just glad I can finally drive the "finished" product after 8 years (yes, 8 bloody years) being off the road.

The car, a 1978 Alfetta 2.0 sedan, was originally white in colour. I bought it back in the mid-90's for a couple of grand and originally intended to use it as a runabout. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up doing this !

Well, after driving it the way I bought it for almost a year, I got the itch to do something special with it. Originally my intentions were to take it off the road, clean up a few rust spots, give it a fresh paint job, clean up the interior and freshen up all the mechanicals; including a fresh engine and maybe converting from carburettors to Fuel Injection (the Dellorto's sounded nice but that's about it). I wanted to keep the car normally aspirated but with a possible 30-40 hp power increase.

Normally Aspirated -  Did I say that ????

My friends talked me into stepping up to forced induction, by way of Turbo-charging. I liked the idea (little did I realise what I was getting myself into) and was persuaded very easily. After all - I would never say no to all that extra power !

I didn't need much persuasion as I already have had the pleasure and blood-rush experience of driving my mate Paul's insanely modified Alfetta GT 1.8 coupe. First he had a under-bonnet supercharger in it but a couple of years ago he switched to Turbo-charging, and now it produces a genuine 350HP+ performance (Oh - by the way that's at the rear wheels, no bullshit here as we have dyno sheets to prove it). Believe me when I say there was plenty of inspiration extracted from Paul's car for my own project.