There are some Alfasuds left in Switzerland! This is Gaudi's 1976 Alfasud
L. He bought it in 1999. The body was restored and painted by a professional
and only had very few rust holes. The mechanics were modified by Gaudi
himself. He never wanted to build an overtuned boy-racer out of his Alfasud
but Gaudi wanted to do "a little improvement on the optical appearance".
Besides the mirror, the lowered suspension and the alloy wheels, everything
is in original condition. Gaudi had already ordered the B&G sport suspension
before he had bought a matching car. The serial shock aborbers stayed in
the car. Gaudi: "Dear tuning friends, please believe me, the Alfasud is even with the serial shock aborbers a very rigid car!" The camber inclination
remained the same (-1,5°) altough the car has been lowered. The rest
stayed in original condition. The car stands on swissmade 6x14 wheels made
by Bachtel with ET 28 mm und 185/60 tyres. This size is the largest
width which fits under the serial wheelarches. By the way, the track is enlarged
by 2%. Gaudi likes the wheels very much. The seats received new velour and skai fabrics (original Alfa products). They
are very elegant and give good support Gaudi says. The speedometre and
rev-counter were taken out of a 1978 Alfasud ti and the clutch of this
Alfasud L came out of an Alfa 33. The mass of the fly wheel was reduced
in order to let the engine rev more easily.
The gearbox was taken out of
an early Alfasud ti. This type of gearbox has shorter ratios and allows
to accelerate more quickly in all of the five speeds. The reduced top-speed
is not that important in Switzerland where you can only drive 120 kph on
motorways. A very important change at this Alfasud L is the ignition system
of the series III which saves fuel, improves the power output and lets the engine run smoother.
The heads and the compression
ratio stayed unchanged, a K&N air filter assures a better breathing
of the Boxer. The most important change were the new camshafts made by
Colombo & Bariani. This specialist from Milan, Italy offers three different
versions of camshafts for the Alfasud. The one Gaudi uses is called "Stradale" (street) and has a stroke of
11,2 mm. It is the smoothest of the three. This camshaft fits to the engine
without any other changes. Its main characteristics are the very good idling
and the good pull from 500 up to 7500 rpm and more. The exaust system is
the original one. Gaudi hat first used a Supersprint version which gave
a few bhp more but made the car very loud. In additon to that it could
not offer the typical crisp sound the Alfasuds usually have. The engine
develops 80 % of its torque already at 2500 rpm. 146 Nm at 4500 rpm are
the maximum. At 6400 rpm the engine develops 108 bhp (measured at the front
wheels).
Last Update: May, 27th 2004 Created: April, 1st 2001
© Layout and text by Tim Rauen. Photos by Gaudi.