Alfa Romeo GTV6 2.5 review. The eighties Alfa icon with the best sounding V6 ever?

[Music] welcome to a new harry's garage video and today's car is this the alfa romeo gtv 6 2.5 liter this is the example 1983. um if you're similar to me this was a big hero car in its era it would the gtv looked fresh when it first came out we all loved alfa romeo it's all car enthusiasts around then um and we moved from the 105 i had that two liter version previous version rounded and that was doing great things on track and then in 1974 gezario design this came out from alpha remote this gtv first of all in 1.8 liter form and then two liter and then 1980 v6 form and it was recognizable by a hump on the bonnet instantly a cult car also around this time was the full capri 2.8i and bmw were just making a mark with a 325i so injection was the name of the game and this was injected and i always with these sort of cards when i get them in i always just check back on my old car magazines and i just wanted to see as a reference point what car magazine said in their very famous good bad an ugly but it was interesting adequate and boring in these days and i was shocked to find it wasn't listed in interesting i thought oh it's because i've got a 1985 magazine i just checked adequate and they actually listed this alpha under adequate not interesting so i had to delve a bit deeper and they say four lovely engine lively four-cylinder performance spectacular with v6 lots of character chassis has good balance of ride and grip against in different economy both cars gear chains cramped in rear alfetta's funny steering sum up charismatic gt cars good at long distances i had to get one in farmer friend up the road bought this one a couple of years ago i mean it shouldn't have a go in it so here it is let's go and have a closer look first thing that struck me when i picked this car up is how tiny it is especially it's so narrow across here i almost thought it was the alpha sword sprint when i first saw it and it was when i looked at the checklist spec on it it's 1665 mil wide this car just over five foot that puts it on par with today's fiat panda obviously fiesta or ford fiesta or something like that but it's a great start those typical two quad lights the grill shrunken and quite a deep air dam on the 2.5 you see down here it was the era when plastic was taken over from chrome trim so alpha are very proud of all this trim down here slight sill extension coming around here as well it's not got the standard wheels on this car unfortunately and this little trim here used to say gtv on the earlier models now it's just this vent but the black trim as well it just looked the part and looked exciting on the road and it was a v6 so all in all enthusiasts just loved these cars and it actually sold pretty well but its most distinctive feature was of course this power bulb basically the v6 didn't fit underneath it'd have been an alfetta saloon or something up to now with carburetors diloto carburetors bit like the cuntas stacked on top of the v6 there was no room here so when they went injection they could finally fit it into the gtv but they still had to increase the bonnet this bulge here and this strange panel here again in plastic let's go and have a look underneath there is the famous busso v6 there isn't that much to see here intake comes around here this is the air intake here the v6 sitting down below it wasn't ribbed at this stage it was only two valve per cylinder etcetera 2.5 but it's what it did and what it did it for the reputation of alfa romeo and what it sounded like as we'll get to see later just inside as well i love the velour trim on here we'll have a closer look at the interior in a moment two decent sized rear seats another slight oddity is this rear window which i couldn't work out what it does but it does open it does like this it's got a turn handle inside for rear seated passengers you'd think it might be electric but yeah a slightly odd design then around the back there's this hatchback lift that up you think it's going to be a hatchback and the seats fall down but no they don't this hump here is actually where the fuel tank is and i love this sort of central strut here never seen that before and that sort of sits on top so i'm sure yeah you can take that out if you wanted decent sized boot as you used to get in those days the batteries hidden down there as well but yeah what this car is all about is the way it drives let's take it outside now yeah just before i get in i just wanted to show you a few things first of all this car is in amazing condition i'm checked underneath and it is smothered in barrel loads of underseal sort of anti-rust protection and then the other giveaway if i just open the door you'll see a little plug this is a something used to do back in period and it's when you in you used to find those plugs when they've injected sealant rust protection all through the cavities i can see another one here and another one there i used to call it zeobarting there's another one and it just means that all the inner cavities of the car are protected and they do it from new and that's why this car is in such good condition and then the seat the velour trim this this was posh this was instead of having a sort of plastic trim you had this velour trim as well which actually works really nicely i also love this handle here this is this what makes it go up and down it's on here manual control and then of course infamous electrics and on this age of car you used to get the electrics right to hand so if i just do this there we are there are all the fuses i don't know if you can see there but all the fuses they're displayed and relays up there so the driver could make adjustments on the on the move and then the final oddity of this car is this it might have fuel injection but it needs to sort of choke to start it from cold which is like an added uh injector here we go one of the things i should point out also down by the fuse box there is a the fog lights are down there and there's a heated screen down here but you can't see or you can see sort of orange buttons but you can't actually see what they're for it's only by getting in the footwell and looking up you can actually see what's on the buttons yeah so alpha typical alpha here is a slightly later model of gtv with the v6 you get this pinnacle here that i remember going in one early one and you had a speedo in the middle it was all very odd just sitting there on its own and then another call in front of the of the driver but they're completely separate yeah it's all a bit of a memory lane looking at this yeah electric windows on the v6 so those rocker switches here what i can't get over there's three blanks lord knows what they're for i mean it's not exactly poverty spec this car but it's just to make you think you should have bought those extras but i can't think what they are because it'll be fog lights and heated screen hidden under there crank it into life all very familiar and immediately because of the transaxle they all did it every now and then you'll hear a sort of chatter from the gearbox and it's a sort of worrying noise if you're not very mechanically minded because it's just a slightly uneven idle and it just makes the gears in the gearbox right just there sort of make a horrid of rattling noise but if you put your foot on the clutch that it all disappears a wonderful gear lever um not as you'll see in a moment not the nicest of changes and then but weirdly you think oh you've got dual control sort of heater controls but it's temperature on this side an air mix on this side so it's full cold i've got on there has the most peculiar sort of fan as well as two-speed fan they're very proud of their two-speed fan but if you slip you do it once you think oh that's noisy is there an even noisier position no it goes down to one so it goes naught two one on the fans bizarre but it's an alpha and it's got italian electrics i suppose we should expect it making up for it i have i have a um opening roof now this is the old style which was just a manual i remember those with no electric sort of winding its way back i had one of the saab 900 just the same and instantly opened the roof which is good because there's no air conditioning in here what else is the typical handbrake and just the buttons they all sort of all have a slightly flimsy feel to it that is alpha well quite a lot of other cars actually of this period etc they weren't robust didn't seem to figure in the um yeah in the development cycle that wasn't an issue though we had to wait for the germans to invent robust sort of switchgear that would last many years there we go there's that rattle coming back i put my foot on the clutch driving position needs to mention as well your your legs are sort of closer to the pedal like and it's a bit of a stretch of the wheel i know from the asparagus that actually it's more comfortable over a long distance than you would ever imagine but uh initially when you get in you think well that feels a bit odd as does trying to find first gear there it is over there right what i'm going to do now head out warm the car up this car needs a fair bit of warming up gearbox particularly likes a bit of warp because it's hidden at the back and not next to the engine doesn't warm up as quick that takes a little bit longer so i'm going to head out onto some better roads and you'll join me i suppose just as we're going into burford ah v6 goodness coming through already doesn't doesn't rev very high red line starts at well yeah five seven it starts going a bit red but i think it actually cut out comes just over six about six two but it starts to get quite musical from 4000 rpm onwards the other thing i've noticed on this car is it's really very well damped and i checked the mileage it's 27 000 miles this car it's from news 27 000 there's one guy who owned it for about 30 years before my friend bought it and it sort of shows it's been looked after and underneath there's evidence of new dampers and ball joints and things so it all feels quite tight what doesn't feel tight is the gear change they're notorious for it they just i don't know if they wear as well so it probably needs some new bushes in it but there's uh i can you have to just think and use the revs and if i want to go from third to fourth there's like a little wobble it's like there's an extra chicane which is embarked on the gear knob when it goes straight through third or forward it's not light in real life there's a little chicane just to go over the midpoint get used to it though but you just have to think in the end you can't rush the gear change and it's all a bit pop look at what gear you're gonna get but at least you get to listen to the v6 this isn't actually the standard wheel on this car it's a very period monolith i think this was red once but um it's so old that it's sort of gone a sort of brownie tan color typical pioneer stereo of the period in there what i can't get over it doesn't quite fit so there's sort of bits covering up where it where the size of it should have been i don't quite understand why luigi didn't make the din slot the right size there's no speakers in the front as well there's a big bulge here electric windows so you just get where the winder goes in there but yeah speakers in the back i suppose you've got a v6 to listen to big fuel tank as well 75 liters i know so i did actually weigh this car because i was fascinated you know what sort of weight this period of car they just somehow made their cars way lighter and the same with this one it was 1150 kilos on my scales and they're almost a 50 50 weight distribution because of the transactions and the batteries in the back as well so yeah but it's not the quickest of cars well i could i didn't i'm slightly shocked when i saw the performance claim performance of it 8.1 to 60. i can't see anyone actually did that they got 8.8 seconds at motor when they road tested it in the uk and then a yawning 24.4 seconds to 100 miles an hour that's that's sort of diesely any diesel hatchback would do that 24 seconds is pretty slow sub 900 turbo i remember it was 20 seconds or thereabouts but it did do a good top speed they claim 127 miles an hour and actually they got 132 miles an hour out of the press car around the millbrook bowl now i'm going to do my usual thing i just sort of hoofed it up the hill here um i mean third at the moment i might just be brave and try second a lot of healing and tearing change in this so i'm gonna hit that at 30 miles an hour and i'm already at three and a half rpm in second it's quite short geared up off we go so yeah not particularly quick but it's only got 160 horsepower it's 5 700 rpm and then 157 pound foot of torque at 4000 rpm it's always turned over square engines so he's just quite a short stroke wide ball but it does sound good it's not loud it's just quality really nice sound but it's the handling which this car really scored at as i'm going to take it down one of my favorite bits of road now [Applause] [Music] right let's go through here's where the compression is because it ground out it's just on the edge into third it's slightly vague around the straight ahead but once you've got into the bed this feel yeah it's oh it's in another age just a little bit of float coming through there yeah it's got the balance but it's very definitely a sort of road car it has no none of this sort of race of feel um that some of today's cars have and yet in its time it was really quite a successful racer he won european touring car championship four years on the trot i think it was 82 to 85 and then in the uk andy rouse became a british touring car champion in a uh gtv six now for g26 even though looking it did rallying as well and taller i think he won its class group a four years again on the chart so yeah it's got some pedigree it's just a different age it's softer than today's super sports cars the gt in his name is the clue he's actually reasonably civilized behind the wheel once he got used to the driving position it soaks up bumps you beautifully this was a period when cars had suspension travel not crazy low ratio tyres it's 195 60 15s on this car all right tyson benz coming up here see what it feels like here obviously no abs but quite good brakes even got inboard brakes imagine it might just take a second you have plenty of roll around the point for the apex and power out it just hasn't got that punch that you expect from the gtv6 sort of name it's got but you have to use the revs it's just softer yeah steering is strange they they do mention it don't they outfetter steering it's just around the straight ahead it just there's not a lot of action you can turn the wheel nothing's really going on right i think it's time to summarize this car what do we think about this 80s iconic alpha well we go through the dislikes first well i'm afraid i have to agree with car magazine um gear change is not my favorite at all it's all a bit of a lottery you get used to it but it doesn't have that precision you expect from the from the spec sheet the transaction or the four five-speed earbuds and then everything's a little flaky should we say um around the build quality it seems to be the same sort of plastics as they used to make those um well cassette cases from it's the same sort of plastic used in this alpha and i mentioned the steering before it's just a bit odd around the straight ahead and the seating position i'm right into here i'm almost head butting the top of the windscreen but i do have great visibility so there's a trade-off there the likes are much it's just the character that engine gives it and the looks the crispness of the tajario design exterior i mean it still looks super neat today and i love that it's the size that it is you know it's reasonable space in here i don't want to sit in the back but um there's a reasonable space in here and yet it's tiny exterior and it's you know a tiny narrow track but um yeah just have a little concentration here that's going through my favorite beds you just have to use that gearbox quite a lot unfortunately with the pedals you can heel and toe no power steering you expect it to really power out of the rev so i've already passed peak power there's no more pull to pull me out of the corner so really just like car magazine said this car is all about charisma and that it has by the bucket loan there is something joyous see in this car it's a survivor i can't believe how rare they are now they all just basically disintegrated they did what love best and that's rusted into a little part of ferrous oxide but this one is a survivor and that's great and is in the right color engine is feels healthy the handling feels healthy it's been joyous to revisit one of my heroes from the 80s so there you go that's the alpha gtb v6 2.5 liter i hope you've enjoyed this video if you have well please subscribe please tip notifications all that nonsense because there'll be some more videos coming along very soon you

Channel: Harry's garage

Views: 648,872

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Id: I9yhdKeUbwQ

Length: 20min 54sec (1254 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 06 2020