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Home is where you parked it.
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Films:
Wake Up With An Espresso Shot Of Alfa Romeo GTV
Owner seems to be enjoying his alfa having a blast driving it the way he wants to.
Great video, Petrolicious mixing it up from their usual style, keeping everyone on their toes. Not every video has to show a car puttering along gently at 30km/hr, with period and factory correct everything, and the owner in leather driving gloves.
thankfully, owners like this exist. His car. His way. If you dont like it there are plenty of other videos on the site to cater for the “caretaker” mentality.
For the rest of us, especially the younger crowd of classic car owners, old mate shows the lighter ,more care free spirit of ownership i believe should be embraced. After all, if you love your car, who cares what someone else thinks.
Go hard mate. drive it like you stole it.
At one point the driver seems to attempt a ‘pendulum’ turn and in another he attempts to ‘steer with the throttle’. The former maneuver is hard. The latter easy. Yet in both cases a few video edits are necessary to create the illusion that the turns are completed in a single pass. They are not. To see someone execute these turns properly try the video 1974 Lancia Stratos Group 4 video later in the series. Comas makes these turns look easy.
Driving any performance car to a major fraction of its potential, or slipping the tires, without a four point belt is pretty dumb. This is doubly true when there is no air bag.
In a series that contains so extraordinary cars and exceptional drivers perhaps we have been spoiled. This video has only the extraordinary car.
So, he’s java’d up, and the red mist has descended. His car’s got a half-cage, which isn’t padded. His head is helmet-less. He doesn’t seem to be wearing a seatbelt, certainly not a harness, not even an over-shoulder belt. He’s driving on the edge of control, apparently on public roads. And he’s hoping that some kid in a stolen car, who’s driving like he’s stolen it and the cops are on his tail, doesn’t pull out of one of those side street or switch lanes. Cos when his skull hits the roll-cage tube, well, he’s THE MAN, and it will be the tube that bends. Right? Not Petrolicious’s best effort.
What happened?
I love Petrolicious. The artistry, the amazing cars, the cool car people.
The car is amazing and gorgeous. The dude?? Slamming the gearshift lever like he hates mechanical machines. His lame donuts and lantern jaw grins are hideous.
Something went terribly wrong with this film, and I have loved and adored all previous films.
Sorry, I know I’m not paying for this, it’s hard to do. I just know what artistry you are capable of.
Sincerely,
Mike
Isn’t this just coffee advertising?
For a real Alfa GT-A (plus a bit) experience check out Chris Evans driving the Alfaholics 290R:
https://www.topgear.com/videos/chris-harris-drives/chris-harris-drives-alfaholics-gta-r-290
Rollbar….check
Extinguisher…check
Racing Harness…???
At least the car will be rebuildable after a serious shunt. The driver, not so much.
Not to be a wet blanket, but having once made a very sudden stop from 180 mph, I just can’t understand why people put so much effort into building tuned older cars…and then only put in a lap belt, feeling it somehow keeps the car “period”.
Exactly. To my eye the driver loses control of his at car at 0:37. There is an edit and a change of cameras at 0:38 as the car starts to go sideways, so it is less obvious. I love this series of videos. The cars. The collectors. The fabricators. The stories. They are wonderful. This driver? Not so much.
If you want to gain skill and confidence controlling a car at the limits of traction, there is no substitute for finding a skid pad, and gently working the car and tires up to the limit; at the limit; and over the limit. A figure eight pattern is useful for this. What you do not want to do is throw the car into the turn as this driver does, by first taking the car briefly to the right, then sharply to the left. This ‘unsettles’ the rear suspension. Cojones are not necessary. Work slowly, patiently, and deliberately until you know when the car will start to break away in back, and practice bringing the rear wheels back into line. You are going to destroy the rear tires, so you will want to start with an older set.
