My Experience Driving the Ex-Kwech 1966 Alfa Romeo GTA

[GarySheehan]

Hey everyone,

I received another one of those telephone calls that you just dream of getting. Bob Lee was on the other end and asked me if I would like to join him at Infineon Raceway to help him set up his freshly restored 1966 Alfa Romeo GTA. This was the car driven by Horst Kwech to lead the overall points in the 1966 Trans-Am Championship. It was one of those calls where the caller hasn't finished his first sentence when the callee gently interrupts with a subtle "HELL YES!"

It's important to mention that I would not be considered an "Alfa guy". It's not that I dislike them. It's just that I don't know them. So I really didn't know what to expect when I got to the track. After this weekend, I definitely see the appeal of being an "Alfa guy". These little cars are cool!!! I'll not live under my rock any longer.

What I found was a little red car that looked like it had been transported directly from the 60's the day before it saw it's first race. The restoration of this car is amazing and the car looks brand new. I climbed in to the GTA right away because I wanted to start getting familiar with it. I'd never driven a right hand drive car before and shifting with my left hand was going to be very different experience for me.

There were a couple of things I noticed straight away. The first thing was the throttle pedal. It was sitting about 3" above the brake pedal. That's without pushing on the brake pedal. The issue is that the throttle sits right above the right front tire wheel well and cannot be located in line with the clutch and brake pedals. For the first time in my life I contemplated the feasibility of downshifting and blipping the throttle with my shin.

The second things I noticed were the "racing seats". Definitely a stretch of the imagination. I would say they were much more closely related to the family of low backed bar stools rather than a racing seat. The top of the seat ended at the middle of my shoulder blades. If I needed one more reason to not back this car into a wall, no upper back and head support fit the bill. The were nicely upholstered, I might point out.

I was anxious to go out for my first session in the car because I wanted to get familiar with it as quickly as possible. There was a lot to get used to. The wood wrapped steering wheel felt as if it was taken right out of a school bus. It was pretty big. In order to have a comfortable reach to it, I had to scoot the seat pretty far forward. The brake and clutch pedals were then too close, so I had to compromise between leg comfort and arm comfort. The steering wheel was a little further away than I would have liked and the brake and clutch pedals were a little too close for me.

Forget the throttle. If there is an achilles heel with this car, it is it's current throttle pedal position. No, seriously, my achilles tendon is killing me. I have never had the opportunity to torture myself for so long doing something I loved. With my foot over the throttle pedal but not pushing down, I had to maneuver my knee to the right so as not to bang into the steering wheel. My knee was bent at 90 degrees and my ankle at an angle even more accute than 90 degrees at zero throttle. I think that might be why these cars are so much fun to drive. It is nearly physically impossible to stay off throttle! I wish I had a video camera inside the car. I swear I must have looked like I was pumping a drum kit bass pedal while working the throttle.

My first session out was just OK. I took my time with the left handed shifter and got a feel for the brakes, clutch and steering wheel (my right leg is still partially numb, so the jury is still out on throttle pedal feel). The car was very unstable under braking. It would move to the left and right a lot, which was unsettling. There was had a lot of oversteer in it as well. And the car was short on gearing. Scott (the engine builder and car's current caretaker) suggested that I not rev the motor up past 7,800rpm. Well, the 2nd time out of the esses, there I was feathering the throttle at 7,800rpm as I came droning down the hill, around turn 10 and all the way to 11.

Once I had done about 8 laps I came in to download with Scott and Bob. My best lap was a mid 2:02. The thinking was that we were on the front bump stops during braking events and by shortening the front bump stops it would give more front travel in an effort to cure the braking instability. Also, Scott removed the rear swaybar entirely to remove some of the oversteer. Finally, Scott suggested it was OK to go past 7,800rpm to see where the tach ended up. His thinking was that the tach may be optimistic and that it was OK to rev the car up to 8,200 rpm as long as it wasn't every single shift.

During that first stint I had determined that I didn't need a joint mid-shin to actuate the throttle during heel-toe, but I wasn't far off. I was able to catch the throttle pedal with the bones of my foot that are about a 1/2" inch away from my ankle bone. I've never had a bruise there before. Now it hurts to wear shoes and it hurts to walk. What if I have to drive this car again? Will I be the first person to develop a callous on their ankle bone?

I went back out with more confidence in myself and in the car. I started pushing it a bit harder and uncovered a few other traits. The steering was fairly heavy under hard cornering, so it took some effort to steer the car through turn 1, turn 6, turn 9 and turn 10. And while removing the rear bar helped a little, the car still had way too much on throttle oversteer and was starting to show scary oversteer at the bottom of the Carousel and through the high speed turn 9 left hander. I was also starting to suspect that there was a brake bias problem because I could hear the engine RPM dropping significantly under braking at the entrance of the Carousel when the inside rear wheel was light. I could also sense that maybe engine RPM was dropping slightly in the braking zones for 7 and 11.

I came in after several laps and Scott checked the tire pressures. The tire pressures were pretty high by then, so he bled about 5 lbs out all around. I mentioned the brakes to him and he made a brake bias change to full front and sent me back out. Overall, the grip was up, but the balance was the same, tending to oversteer on corner exit and high speed sweepers. I focused a bit more on the brakes and really got on them hard in the straight braking zones. There was definitely a bias problem as I was modulating the brakes based on how much engine RPM I was losing. I could hear the engine bog down from overslowing the rear tires and had to let up a bit to keep the car straight. It's odd modulating brake pressure based on engine pitch! I think my fastest lap in that session was a mid 2:01.

When I brought the car in and we looked around, it was obvious we were using way too much rear brake. The back wheels had more brake dust on them than the fronts and the rear rotors were blued. It turns out that we adjusted the brake bias the wrong way and the last time I went out we were on full rear bias. We got that situation corrected right away! I briefly spoke with Roman Tucker, who restored the car for Bob, and got some advise on where the bias should be set. I communicated this to Scott who then set the bias to full front and then back two turns. Based on my feedback of inside wheel lock-up and on-throttle and highspeed oversteer, Scott decided to make a big change in the back by softening rear rebound.

Once the changes were made I went back out for my final session of the day. I was now quite confident with manipulating the car's controls despite the contortions required. The rebound change was very good and completely eliminated the high speed oversteer, making it much more pleasant through turn 1 and turn 9. The car still had significant on-throttle oversteer, but if I was gentle on the wheel and eased into the throttle, I could keep the car's momentum up and dial in just a little opposite lock to keep things tidy. The car's braking was much improved with no lock-up but still a little bit of dartyness.

After about 4 laps I came in to discuss things with Scott in the pit lane. Th fastest laptime was a 1:59.8. We shed another 4psi of pressure from the front tires and 2psi in the rear as the tire pressures were following the heat of the day. I also asked Scott to pull out those last two turns of brake bias to see if that would help keep the front end from moving around under heavy braking. The stop was very brief and I zipped out back on track with 10 minutes to the end of the day.

The tire pressure decrease improved grip nicely and I started carrying a bit more speed through the corners, especially 3a & 3b and the Carrousel. By this time I had the shifting down pat. I was proud to have stopped banging my right hand into the door panel in a quest for the shift lever. The top of my foot had become intimately familiar with the bottom of the throttle pedal. My shifts were quick and smooth. There was still a bit of braking instability in the hard braking zones which was probably from bump steer from too much nose dive. I could smoothly control oversteer at corner exit and even use it to my advantage. I think that we probably got the best out of the car with the adjustments we could make that day. We're really hoping that the tachometer is optomistic, because I was seeing 8,200+ in 5th gear in three places on the track; before turn 10, before turn 11 and before turn 1.

[GarySheehan]

Bob and Scott were very happy with the 1:59.1 laptimes that the car was capable of by the end of the day. They had mentioned that the unofficial lap record at Infineon for these cars was a 2:00 and were quite excited that Bob's car was capable of beating that record. There is probably more speed to be had from the car by raising the front ride height or increasing front spring rate to allow earlier and harder throttle application at corner exit, but that's got to be saved for another day (fingers crossed).

What a cool experience to drive this famous little car. It's amazing that such a little motor can make so much noise. My head was buzzing from my first session without earplugs. Once I got familiar with the car's controls it was a blast to drive and required quite a bit of driver effort to get the most out of it. I can only imagine what it was like to be racing these things wheel to wheel with big slip angles at corner exit. It's a little car, but it's a driver's car!

Some of the memories that are still fresh in my mind from the test day:

- Exiting turn 11 and almost crapping myself when the sound from the left side exhaust bounced off the pit wall directly onto my eardrum.
- Carrying big oversteer at the exit of the Carousel and startled to be passed on the outside by a Formula Mazda car, thinking to myself "oh, dude, if you only knew what's going on in here..."
- Being sucked into the wake of a Lola Can-Am car that passed me on the front straight with at least 50 more mph on me.
- Cursing that damned throttle pedal on every blip in my last session.
- Realizing that these little cars must have required large appendages back in the day!

Here's a video taken from the final session of the day. The YouTube version will be the quickest download and the Brightcove version will be the best quality.

YouTube
Brightcove

Thanks again to Bob Lee for trusting me with another one of his beautiful vintage racecars and giving me an opportunity to experience an earlier era of motor racing!

Gary Sheehan
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com