Celica Gt-four
BUILT TO WIN
In fact, the car now rolls much less than it did. Stephen has carried out some suspension mods. The front sits a bit lower. As standard, they do look to be sitting absurdly high, offering generous clearance between the wheel arch and the 70-series tyres on their modest-butstylish 14-inch diameter turbine-style wheels. It now has Bilstein shocks, the stiffer anti-roll bar from the GTV6, and stiffer torsion bars, increasing in girth from something like 19 to 24mm. However, Stephen has noticed a slight trade-off in that the ride is a tad less cosseting. As we manoeuvre out of a car park, I notice the steering also feels a bit heavy and wonder if that’s another consequence of the changes, until I remember that this is how it was in most cars of this vintage, before power steering became standard on everything.
Once past parking-lot speeds, the bumps and thumps disappear and I find the ride to be nicely supple, not at all harsh. As the revs rise and the engine rasp bounces off the walls and climbs into the cabin for company, we wind around a couple of Stephen’s favourite corners and the uncanny handling becomes apparent. It feels like the tyres ought to be protesting but it’s obvious they are massively unconcerned, just tracking where you point them.
As soon as he bought it, Stephen realized that this car would not be burning rubber out of corners. It just sticks too well. It’s a satisfying feeling and, like Stephen, I’d find it impossible to resist on a series of bends such as he described in Martinborough. It’s a proper Alfa.
We stop briefly at one of Stephen’s favourite car photo locations and a runner jogs over. He lives down country now but was back in town on a visit. He also owns an Alfetta GTV. The pair agree to catch up later. These GTVS are thin on the ground now, given Alfas’ affinity with rust but, curiously enough, Stephen says there are four of them in his small Auckland suburb.
That’s one of the other great benefits of Alfa ownership in New Zealand. The Alfa Romeo Owners Club is one of the more vigorous car clubs and has actually enjoyed a resurgence as younger owners with younger Alfas have joined. Jeremy Clarkson of
Top Gear fame says you can’t really call yourself a car enthusiast if you haven’t owned an Alfa so, almost by definition, a sufficient number of Alfa owners are the right type to be enthusiastic about car club events.
Stephen lived in Canada for
20 years and was a member of the Alfa Romeo Club in Toronto through a friend with a GT Junior, although he had a Golf GTI at the time. His first car in Canada was a Fiat 124 Spider.
He has owned this car for a couple of years, having previously owned a 105 1750 Berlina on which he carried out a full engine and body restoration. He plans to bring the GTV up to scratch too, but he has other projects on the go and isn’t in any particular rush. Sometimes good things take time.