Quote:
Originally Posted by KA
Yes, I'm pretty sure it was the local equivalent of Group 1/Group A
The 3-litre GTV seems to have been pretty much a South African-only thing, built in small numbers in South Africa- around 200 which seems to have been the magic number for homologation locally.
http://www.alfagtv6.com/gtv6_30.htm
I won't swear to it, but possibly Europe didn't get the 3-litre until the 164 and 75 were introduced around 1987 |
The Alfa Romeo GTV 3 litre was created out of the intensely competitive Group 1 racing in South Africa during the 1980s between Alfa Romeo and BMW. This project was spurred on by the enthusiastic Dr. Vito Bianco, who by that time was MD of Alfa Romeo South Africa (ARSA), and Sampie Bosman, a racing expert in charge of the Alfa Romeo racing department.
During 1982 and 1983, the GTV6 2.5 litre was a match for the BMW 525 and 530cars and won more races than it lost, but with the arrival of the BMW 535, with a litre more engine capacity and 70 bhp advantage over the GTV6 2.5 litre, a solution was needed to maintain superiority.
The enlarged Autodelta 3 litre engine had been built using the standard 2.5 aluminium block for use in a rally car, which ran with some success in European rallies, but plans to increase the 2.5 engine to 3 litres for production GTV6 cars had been shelved, because it would have placed the car into a higher tax bracket in Europe. Also, Alfa were already dominating the ETCC, winning the manufacturers titles from 1982 to 1985 with GTV6 2.5 litre cars, so a bigger capacity engine was not a priority for racing purposes. However, in South Africa that was not the case, and ARSA made an independent agreement with Autodelta, who began manufacturing the parts needed for the capacity increase - crankshafts, pistons, sleeves, cylinder head castings and bigger valves, all of which were made to the Sampie Bosman ARSA specifications. At first the engine work was carried out by Autodelta in Italy but due to the aggressive schedule, a team of technicians were sent to join ARSA personnel in South Africa, where the machining of the blocks and cylinder heads and most importantly, the development and tuning of the engine was carried out. The new crank gave a stroke of 72 mm, against the 68.3 of the smaller engine. The bore was increased from 88 to 93 mm. giving a capacity of 2934cc. This is slightly different to the configuration of the later 3.0 litre V6 produced by Alfa in 1987 for the 75, which had a bore x stroke of 93 x 72.6, giving a 2959cc capacity. The power output from the Autodelta engine was initially 192bhp, but was successively increased to 240bhp with increased valve sizes and continuous improvements to the inlet and exhaust tracts. For comparison, the original 2.5 V6 engine produced 160bhp and the later Alfa 3.0 V6 produced 188bhp. The Autodelta GTV6 also had a weight reduction of almost 100 kg over the 2.5 litre model. For racing, low and medium range torque was more important than top end power, so six Dell’Orto FRPA40 down-draught carburettors were installed, rather than the fuel injection used in the standard 2.5 litre V6. The series 1 Alfa 90 (1979) saloon had used a similar induction system, until replaced by fuel injection for the series 2 version (1983). This configuration was selected because air and fuel-flow modifications, essential for the large altitude differences between the various race circuits in South Africa were easier to accomplish.
200 were required for homolgation, but informed estimates for the actual numbers made vary from "less than 200" to 242. Very few original examples still exist, but I was fortunate enough to import one to the UK earlier this year. It will be on The Alfa Romeo Owners Club stand at the Classic Car Show at the NEC next month - Come along and say 'Hello'