Bert has meanwhile changed many parts of his Alfasud. Everything started when he could buy a set of 7,5 x 16" AZEV A light alloy wheels in the end of the year 2009. These rims allowed it to think about the possbility of a brake system upgrade. In addition Bert always wanted to build a "wide-body" Alfasud with large wheelarch extensions. So he started to build wheel arch extension made out of a flat sheet metal. He also built a matching front spoiler which would fit to the raised width of the the new wheelarch extensions. Due to the intensive modifications to the flanks of the body, large parts of the Alfasud's body had to be resprayed. Bert never really liked the bright blue colour he had sprayed on the Alfasud some years ago as it appeard to be much brighter on the car than it had looked on the little colour sample he had used to choose a colour. So this time he chosed a darker blue.  It is RAL 5003 which is one step darker than the old colour he had used before.
The AZEV A rims were mounted with 195/45 R 16 tyres to the front axle and with 215/40 R16 to the rear axle. The new wheels fit very well to the wheelarch extensions Bert had designed.

But the wheelarch extensions and the respray of the body were two of the "minor" improvements Bert realised since the year 2007.

As already mentioned, the larger rims now made it possible to install a large and powerful brake system with larger (outboardly mounted) brake discs. Bert removed the old Alfasud system with inboard front brakes and installed the Alfa 33 system with the conventional layout. Of course he did not keep the standard 33 brake calipers and brake discs. He chosed brake discs of 305 mm in diametre which were actually the works-equipment of a Fiat Coupé 20V Turbo. Bert installed them with matching Brembo 4-piston brake calipers which were usually installed in a Alfa 166 V6. At first he also installed the rear brake calipers and brake discs of an Alfa 166. In order to be able to mount the 166's rear brake discs to the Alfasud's rear supports he had to built a set of special adaptors. In the end he was not really convinced by his modification and decided to make a much more complex modification to the rear suspension of his Alfasud. He built a complete new rear axle out of different steel profiles. He took the rear supports of a VW Golf (which also donated the Jamex coilover suspension for the rear axle of this Alfasud). Bert now installed Wilwood Powerlite calipers with integrated handbrake instead of the Alfa 166's Lucas-Girling brake calipers. The 166's brake discs were exchanged against universal parts he found on compbrake.co.uk.

The front suspension was modified by Bert, too. He built a coilover suspension on the base of a set of last-generation Alfa 33 struts (the version were the Mc Pherson strut is only mounted with three instead of four bolts to the body). To achieve a longer spring travel Bert also modified the strut supports of the body. Now they are sligthly raised.

You can find further photos and information about this very unconventional Alfasud on Bert's own website at
http://www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk/bert/.

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Last Update: May, 19th 2011      Created: May, 19th 2011

© Layout and Text by Tim Rauen. Photos by Bert Kanters.