John
Russel once owned this power-tuned Alfasud Ti 1.5. It was his "toy" he
built for sprinting, hillclimbing and trackdays, but he
used it every
day as well! With its lowered body it looked quite aggressive - and as you
will see when you read on, it was indeed a very powerful car.
It has a 1530cc engine (85mm pistons) which is lightened and balanced,
with
gas-flowed cylinder heads and rally camshafts, along with an 11.5:1 compression
ratio. It breathes through 40mm Webers and a straight-through exhaust and currently puts out around 145bhp.
The brakes were still inboardly mounted (John
prefered the handling) with split calipers, AP
Racing ventilated discs and
aluminium mounting bells, and had adjustable front / rear bias. It also had a close
ratio gearbox,
and the front suspension top-mounts
were eccentric ball joints,
which give more castor and a sharper turn-in. The suspension was a 2.25" fully adjustable coilover, made by Leda, and the driveshafts
were balanced with uprated joints.
Road tyres were Yokohama A539, but John used slicks on the track. A full roll cage and Momo bucket seats assured John's safety.
Last Update: December, 14th 2003 Created: March, 14th 2001
© Layout and text by Tim Rauen. Photos by John Russell.