New member in Scotland

[PaulQV]

Have you ever had - or thought about - an Alfa SZ? Bizarrely there is something about the styling that is A2-ish to my mind although otherwise completely different. I had strong desires for both the 80s Alfa GTV6 2.5 back in the 90s as well as a Delta Integrale but I was a student then and they were well outside my cost-justification equation at the time and even more so now!

I admire the SZ, but then again I have always admired the Zagato designs, I always wanted the Lancia Fulvia and Alfa GT Junior Zagato's. I call them the Zagato twins. I have never had a Intagrale, although driven them as my mate has one. I enjoy design. I like Gandini and have collected his cars for 30 plus years. I had two others of his designs; the 308GT4 and Countach QV.

I picked up the car yesterday and did my first 110 miles in it! I spent last night giving it a good clean inside. One I have finished cleaning it I will upload some photos. It will need a bit of fettling, but firstly need to get used to it and understand it better. I have not driven one before so quite a lot of learning to do. AS the car hasn't been used much in the past few years, it may need some time to free up and show any adjustments needed.

It is the 1.4 petrol. I do notice the lack of power at motorway speeds. However i want to go through the car, check air filters etc and get injection cleaner through the car etc. It will be nice to meet other owners and their cars to increase my knowledge and understanding.

 

[Evoman]

I admire the SZ, but then again I have always admired the Zagato designs, I always wanted the Lancia Fulvia and Alfa GT Junior Zagato's. I call them the Zagato twins. I have never had a Intagrale, although driven them as my mate has one. I enjoy design. I like Gandini and have collected his cars for 30 plus years. I had two others of his designs; the 308GT4 and Countach QV.

I picked up the car yesterday and did my first 110 miles in it! I spent last night giving it a good clean inside. One I have finished cleaning it I will upload some photos. It will need a bit of fettling, but firstly need to get used to it and understand it better. I have not driven one before so quite a lot of learning to do. AS the car hasn't been used much in the past few years, it may need some time to free up and show any adjustments needed.

It is the 1.4 petrol. I do notice the lack of power at motorway speeds. However i want to go through the car, check air filters etc and get injection cleaner through the car etc. It will be nice to meet other owners and their cars to increase my knowledge and understanding.

Welcome Paul

Fine taste you have there sir. I do admire the Italian influence having owned a few Lancias over the years. I'm over Cambuslang way so close by. I own a Tdi but happy to share any A2 knowledge over picked up along the way.

Rich

 

[Crikeymikey]

It is the 1.4 petrol. I do notice the lack of power at motorway speeds. However i want to go through the car, check air filters etc and get injection cleaner through the car etc. It will be nice to meet other owners and their cars to increase my knowledge and understanding.

Sadly, the 1.4 petrol is not blessed with any significant grunt. Quite the reverse! This is doubtless why @ICowie refers to the one in his stable as "Brian the Snail". If you want shove, the diesels are the way to go, or the mighty 1.6FSI. Personally I'm pathologically averse to diesels but there's no disputing the torque advantage, or fuel economy. I just think they are the work of the devil. ;-)
Our own 1.4 petrol is in as fine health as it can be but there's a big incline heading South out of Glasgow on the M77 that still reduces the speed to about 55mph by the top of the hill. No matters the revs, we end up being overtaken by half the HGVs we'd just gone past earlier!
I think the 1.4 petrol is the most "city car" of all the variants and you take to the open road in it as an exercise in humility.

 

[LexFire]

Sadly, the 1.4 petrol is not blessed with any significant grunt. Quite the reverse! This is doubtless why @ICowie refers to the one in his stable as "Brian the Snail". If you want shove, the diesels are the way to go, or the mighty 1.6FSI. Personally I'm pathologically averse to diesels but there's no disputing the torque advantage, or fuel economy. I just think they are the work of the devil. ;-)
Our own 1.4 petrol is in as fine health as it can be but there's a big incline heading South out of Glasgow on the M77 that still reduces the speed to about 55mph by the top of the hill. No matters the revs, we end up being overtaken by half the HGVs we'd just gone past earlier!
I think the 1.4 petrol is the most "city car" of all the variants and you take to the open road in it as an exercise in humility.

Amen to that.
Sums up my 1.4 SE petrol almost perfectly!
Thankfully my motorway drives are fairly horizontal (don't enjoy those hills!)

 

[PlasticMac]

Amen to that.
Sums up my 1.4 SE petrol almost perfectly!
Thankfully my motorway drives are fairly horizontal (don't enjoy those hills!)

Does using Super Unleaded, 98/99 octane, make any difference to the power/torque?
Edit: The alcohol in E10 lowers the energy, compared to E5, which normally has zero alcohol.
Mac.

 

[Crikeymikey]

Does using Super Unleaded, 98/99 octane, make any difference to the power/torque?
Edit: The alcohol in E10 lowers the energy, compared to E5, which normally has zero alcohol.
Mac.

I already run Tigger on E5, Mac. It probably does make a difference but marginally. A greater performance gain would come from ditching the rear seats permanently, á la our illustrious @timmus but that may be a tad extreme.

 

[PaulQV]

Guys

Thanks for the advice.

I do own some higher performance cars, so could use them if I wanted speed. I am going to do some more checks on the car. I didnt think it was too slow if pushed in 4th etc and it will happily rev to 5000rpm. I have a lot of reading to do on this forum and a lot to learn.

i don't think E5 will make much difference. for 95 octane as opposed to 98/99, it would depend on how clever the engine ECU is in spotting the difference. Petrol quality varies significantly, even in the UK. I think one may get slightly better mpg on 98/99 but possibly not worth the cost difference

I hope to be able to meet up with some of you soon.

 

[Robin_Cox]

Guys

Thanks for the advice.

I do own some higher performance cars, so could use them if I wanted speed. I am going to do some more checks on the car. I didnt think it was too slow if pushed in 4th etc and it will happily rev to 5000rpm. I have a lot of reading to do on this forum and a lot to learn.

i don't think E5 will make much difference. for 95 octane as opposed to 98/99, it would depend on how clever the engine ECU is in spotting the difference. Petrol quality varies significantly, even in the UK. I think one may get slightly better mpg on 98/99 but possibly not worth the cost difference

I hope to be able to meet up with some of you soon.

Having bought a reasonably tatty 1.4i the improvements that can be made by ensuring that the fuelling and ignition are in good health and that especially things like the lambda sensor are quality parts in good working order make a huge difference to how smoothly and efficiently the engine runs. It may seem like a slightly obvious statement, but even a good 1.4i will have many parts (if not replaced) that are probably somewhere beyond their design lifespan. Every A2 I have has needed ARB bushes and most of the wear parts of the suspension replaced as well as all braking components - but the result is that all three run, perform and handle pretty sweetly for a 20+ year old car.