Alfa Spider stage 1: “what donor?”

In reply to alfadriver :

And the Miata rear track is like 5 inches wider than the Alfa. Can be narrowed, but work and $$$

In reply to NOHOME :

That is a lot easier than moving the engine back 5 inches. 

For the GTV, there are some sweet flairs that will make the width up 

In reply to RichardSIA :

I’ll definitely let you know, but for the foreseeable future we will be keeping the shop racecar alive with some rally cross and street driving, maybe SOLO to get licensing for hill climb eventually. 

In reply to stylngle2003 :

South side, moving to church hill soon though. The shop is on the south side at Hull and Midlothian tpk though

As far as track width goes, I aim to fix that with cutting of the fenders and probably some flares, it’s too bad it’s not a boxy Alfa so I could do big box flares

For the engine moving back 5”, that really is going to be an engineering issue. 

We also kicked around the idea of a 2.3 turbo ford, but the suspension on the Miata is one of the biggest draws towards that platform, (plus I can maybe eventually swap in a rotary a little easier, much to the chagrin of my boss haha) 

any other ideas for what would drive under the Alfa body?

If the chassis already has a SRVA cage (and log book?), I'm having a hard time understanding why you'd want to put something that would make it less than race legal.  Beyond an "interesting project", what are the final goals?  Street car/ track car?  Does it have a title?  Is the VIN still there?

corytate said:

In reply to stylngle2003 :

South side, moving to church hill soon though. The shop is on the south side at Hull and Midlothian tpk though

good deal.  i feel like the Rosen shop was over that way, years back, no?  the manchester area in general is a pretty cool place to be right now.  if i could walk to Proper Pie in Church Hill, i wouldn't fit in my miata for very long!

In reply to Ian F :

All very valid points, and it won’t be built to be particularly competitive, just fun and weird. I’d love to drop an Alfa v6 in, and we have a 2.5 sitting around at the shop actually(that was the initial idea I had going into it) but I’d still have to source a mostly complete spider, plus the swap manifolds from APE, plus figuring out what in the world to do with that rear mounted gear box, etc etc etc.  But good lord the sound would be incredible. 

In reply to stylngle2003 :

Im very very excited to live close to Proper Pie lol. As far as RVA history goes I’ve only been here 1.5 years ish, when I moved here it was my first time being in Virginia actually. I’m a little foggy on a lot of the history around here, but I do know our shop was at boulevard and leigh for ya 18 years, and there are a few other really cool shops in the area as well. 

In reply to corytate :

If you can source a bellhousing from an Alfa 6, you can use that for the spider gearbox. 

But those never came to the US. 

corytate said:

In reply to stylngle2003 :

Im very very excited to live close to Proper Pie lol. As far as RVA history goes I’ve only been here 1.5 years ish, when I moved here it was my first time being in Virginia actually. I’m a little foggy on a lot of the history around here, but I do know our shop was at boulevard and leigh for ya 18 years, and there are a few other really cool shops in the area as well. 

ah, Sportscar Workshop?  loved driving by that place when I used to work over in Scott's Addition.  

there are definitely some awesome places around town.  some newer, some with lots of history.  i'll be excited to see how your project progresses

In reply to stylngle2003 :

Yup! It was a great location to show off the cars but sadly Scott’s addition is being overtaken by condos and breweries it seems like. The new shop on the south side is a biiiiiiig upgrade workspace-wise and we’re all really excited for the future once we get settled in. 

As soon as I can score a Miata base, phase 2 will begin with (working title) Project Alfiata Romeo Spider

This winter is going to be chock full of updates

This one will be interesting to watch. Especially putting a more modern chassis under a cool body.

In reply to alfadriver :

very excited about it, its going to be a whole lot of work but should be worth it in the end after getting it titled and getting antique tags on it.

In reply to fiesta54 :

Many moons ago, I had an idea of putting a Miata under a TI body, and using it as a "rental' car at one of the homes we regularly go to.  I doubt I'll ever do that, as I'm quite happy with having both a Miata and a GTV, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.

I *suspect* that using an Alfa motor even with the Miata chassis will be easier- mostly because of where the cross member is relative to the firewall.  Now if you can match up a Miata 6 speed with the Alfa engine, that would be pretty cool.

Got the alfa loaded up and moved to the new shop, plans still slightly up in the air, maybe more of a Frankenstein than previously planned, discussions of b230ft swaps occurred, and all we really need to nail down running gear wise is engine+whatever management/carb/whatever needs to be done, trans, ds, rear sub and diff, entire suspension and brake system essentially, and some exhaust Magic (to side exit or not to side exit?)

In reply to corytate :

Definitely in favor of the side exit.  One less thing to deal with on the rear subframe.  

In reply to corytate :

I am going to run a 2.2 ecotec,l61..215 hp

In reply to corytate :

Check my new post and also the Alfa Romeo bb.need help? Contact me

Alfaromeoguy said:

In reply to corytate :

I am going to run a 2.2 ecotec,l61..215 hp

I stumbled on your build a couple of days ago.  Awesome stuff

Also we have a new plan.  Axis of evil.  Italian body with German and Japanese drive train. 

It will be interesting to see what you choose.  

A lot of swaps I see don't really add much to what an Alfa 2.0l can do, which makes them pretty questionable, at best.

Same kind of goes for the rear end- while it's a live axle, making behave really well is a lot easier than putting most IRS systems back there.

The front is where real help can be nice- that's a lot tougher to make nice without major harshness.

Speedway  motors. Front springs 1150 inch pound's 9x 5.5..  rear spring ( coil over) 180 inch pound's  12x 2.5 inch. I also run a custom chassis stiffener

Allows the front sway bar to be backwards

 Not using nose of car to clamp down on the swaybar. New location uses the bodyshell and stiffener to control it

 All shocks qa1 double adjustable shocks on the front ,single adj. On the rear. Have extra trailing arms. But no bushings

 Will set up trailing arms with qa1 bearings to be more supple