ALFA ROMEO GTV Test drive 1995 - 2003 compartment
Impracticality triumphs
If a competition of names was held among brands, Alfa Romeo, no doubt, would have taken one of the prizes. In this name, more like a title, a breed, and power, and a hint of a long pedigree are heard. Meanwhile, its origin is prosaic: in 1910, Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili was formed (joint -stock car factory at Lombardy, abbreviated as Alfa), and five years later, Nikola Romeo was appointed by the director of the company and the second part of the name. The history of Alfa Romeo is rich in revolutionary technical solutions, loud sports victories, glorious names - here, for example, was born as designer Enzo Ferrari. About stilettos and cars
It is difficult to imagine anything less practical than a sports compartment or a class: expensive, gluttonous, cramped, with a choucean trunk and a meager road clearance. Like high -heeled shoes -spilles - irrational, but beautiful. That is why, approaching the silver spyder, I decided to forget about the test protocol in the portfolio of the protocol and surrender to emotions. First of all, Down with the roof - let them breathe in the limousines with conditioned air, and I can allow luxury to enjoy the wind in the face. The buzz of the servo, the sickle of the cover rose, and the tissue top, folding three times, slipped into the compartment behind the cab. The lid lay in place, reminding the hood thrown onto the shoulders.
There is no door handle, only the lock button and the recess to cling to the edge of the door. And the inscription of Alfa-Romeo on the threshold: they say, do not forget what you go to. Putting my leg somewhere under the wheel, I cautiously push my face from the glass frame and fall through - it seems, almost to the asphalt. Red skin creaked, and the body entered a chair without a gap, like a bayonet into a scabbard. No, I probably bent it: it would be more doubtful in the scabbard. Here - the landing is dense, with the care of fixing with developed side rollers, but at the same time quite comfortable: it does not cause a desire to get out of a hard sports boat immediately after a stop, and straighten your shoulders. There are few adjustments, everything is manually: sports and excesses are incompatible.
Do not spare your ears!
The arrow of the tachometer swayed, the spring air trembled from a characteristic pulsating roar. If my will, for sports cars, I would bring a muffler to the option list. Stop: on the panel, under the cap with a visor-handle, only two tubes with scales at the bottom. Where are the rest of the devices? Yes, here they are! - Comrade points to three round windows in the central console. Having mastered with rather tight pedals, I roll out beyond the gates of Pinfarina and, not noticing it myself, for some time I go in the first or second gear, enjoying the juicy sound of a new 3.2-liter six. You will meet, perhaps, the greatest variety of layouts in sports cars: classic, and central, and rear-engine, and all-wheel drive. Alpha profess the most common front -wheel drive with the transverse location of the power unit. Among the advantages are comparative simplicity, loaded drive wheels and the ability to control the traction vector, like in modern fighters. Perhaps one drawback - unloading the leading axis during intensive acceleration. The town of Cambiano near Turin ended after a few traffic lights - and I sincerely step on the accelerator ...
Injection of adrenaline
Two hundred and forty horses were picked up like a hurricane, the world narrowed to the gray tape of the highway, the roaring wind smeared the roadsides into obscure stripes ... An open car greatly enhances the subjective perception of speed, and then there is still a coffee with a camera literally blowing off the shelf behind the backs - no, accelerate to it, accelerate until Maximum 242 km/h, perhaps, is not worth it. Here is a turn on a chosen path: absolutely empty, it is bizarre between the fields and is visible three turns forward. May the Italian police will forgive me, I exceeded the permissible speed a couple of times. However, there are no long straight lines here, but from one turn to another alpha-romeo shoots, like from a gun, literally imprinting passengers in the back of the seat! It is good that the rules do not limit the acceleration intensity, because a hundred spider is gaining in just 6.5 s. 
Braking! Four ventilated disks (front diameter 305 mm!) And wide seventeen -inch tires make it hang on belts. A few clicks with gear down - roaring, the car flies to the turn ... In a six -speed mechanics with converged transfer numbers, the gear can be selected extremely accurately, holding the tachometer arrow near the vertical. ... the third - the car is aiming in the turn, the steering wheel is poured with weight - this is a suitable load! Everything that can move around the cabin sticks to the right side (poor camera!) - under the roar of the motor and the screech of the alpha -romeo rubber is screwed into the turn. The cows on the field were distracted from the chewing gum, and the colleague on the right was petrified and muttered: they say, and so everything is clear, you can slightly lose their move. So I believed him - now he will get to the steering wheel and this will begin to do this, remembering the rally past! Family ... compartment
After an extreme spider, a scarlet four -seater compartment with a two -liter power unit of 165 liters. with. And a five -speed gearbox was perceived almost as a family car. Well, not quite four -seater, but, strictly speaking, from 2+2 - two children will freely arrange from behind or, having crouched, two adults. They joked a little on this car: well, how do you, Julich? The sound is good ... and even goes well, ”the colleague answered diplomatically, clearly regretting the change of vehicle. The whole contrast: acceleration to hundreds for 8.5 s and a maximum speed of 220 km/h - the indicators are more than worthy.
Closer in the evening, having tried the most diverse combinations of the bodies and motors, I remembered the morning words of Andrea Pinfarina: in addition to increasing the return of the motor and improving dynamic characteristics, we paid much attention to increasing the reliability of control and stability in high -speed modes, as well as reducing noise and vibrations, improving comfort in ordinary urban ride. And it turned out that the truth is pure: the new compartment and the spider can not only inject a portion of adrenaline into the blood, but also calmly, with the maximum of amenities, carry the owner to work. After all, women go on stilettos every day ...
Brief data Alfa Romeo GTV
The debut of the sports coupe of Alfa Romeo GTV and Spider from the Pinfarin studio took place at the 1994 Paris Motor Show, and this year they have been updated.
The coupe and spider are equipped with a 2-liter four-cylinder engine (150 or 165 hp) or a new V-shaped six (3.2 l, 240 l.). The gearboxes are only mechanical, five -speed with a smaller engine (in some countries and with the V6 motor), six -speed - with a large one.
In Russia, updated compartment and spider should appear in the fall-winter. Prices, as promised in the representative office of Fiat, will be competitive.
The soft top is hidden in the lid covered with the lid behind the cab.
The updated Alfa-Romeo GTV and Spider are most easily identified by an increased size of the shield-blocking in the center. It is only a pity that the license plate does not fit into this composition.
In this breadbound, 110 liters are enough for a doctrine only.
It is hard to believe that the compartment from behind has a second row of seats.
New aluminum V-shaped six: 3.2 liters, four camshafts, 24 valves and 240 horses. It is a sin to hide such beauty under the lid.
EQUIPMENT Abs
Anti -boom system
Climate control
Adjustable steering column
Fog lights
Audiosystem
Anatoly Karpenkov, Yuri Nechetov. Photo: Yuri Nechetov
A source: The magazine "Driving"
