Anger management
THE GUY WAS standing in the middle of the parking lot with his back to the car, wearing goofy red gym shorts and a puffy green jacket. To get his attention, I did what any gearhead would do with unfiltered dual Webers and a straight-through exhaust: I blipped the throttle. He spun around with a startled look and we locked eyes – it was actor Adam Sandler. He looked down at the Giulia and a huge smile spread across his face as he pointed at the car. I blipped again and smiled back.
That’s the thing about classic cars: you can’t get mad at them. And it’s why I love the random nature of Los Angeles. Sure, I could have jumped out of the car and chatted to him, but no, a smile would do.
The Giulia has had a busy month, trying to keep up with exotic cars in La Jolla at the concours show, and getting some new parts. I’d fitted a set of sport cams from Alfa guru Richard Jemison, then noticed one carb was having problems. No matter what we did, the air/ fuel mixture screws weren’t responding. We cleaned it and tried again, but still no go. Hmm. A rebuild? All the labour and parts would cost the same as a new carb, so, executive decision: new carbs. Done.
And the car fired at first try. Once it had warmed up, the difference was Jekyll and Hyde; this thing was a little monster now, although I noticed a slight hesitation on initial throttle. Time to check out the distributor, Marelli Plex electronic ignition, and idle jets.
I compared my car’s distributor with another, on which the weights swing further out and the springs are smaller, giving more advance. And so we swapped the parts, checked the timing, and decided to go down a size in jets.
Time for another trip around the block. Yes, it’s still fast but this time there’s no hesitation on take-off, and it pulls to the redline and then some without fuss. It is everything it should be. And I’ve now got my hands on a European airbox too, which will complete the look under the bonnet.
As for the old carbs, once they were off, we saw that gas had been blowing against the back of the butterflies and not into the chamber. Easy fix, maybe. But the Alfa runs great and that’s the goal: more time driving, less time fixing.
Above and below New cams, new carbs, and an ignition rebuild. The result? Hotter performance for this LA daily driver.