Alfa Romeo Brera 3.2V6 Q4

[sharkrider]

Hey all, The Abarth is up for sale (check out the for sale section!) and the replacement has arrived........

 

Alfa Romeo Brera 3.2V6 Q4. just look how beautiful it is........

 

 

 

 

 

car pretty much looks and feels brand new... full service history oil changed less than 10k every time (65,000 miles) , which is vital for these engines to keep the cam chain in good order. New 18" wheels and tyres, not a single blemish. Car drives superb, silky smooth V6 with bags of torque and a lovely noise. effortlessly took me the 200+ miles home with the cruise keeping me legal on the motorway.. got a respectable 29.2 mpg, not bad considering the horror stories of "don't buy the V6 you cand afford to put fuel in it!" .... ffs we only got 30 mpg out of the abarth on the motorway! this is ticking over at 70mph in 6th! Very comfy, yet bags of grip... inteligent 4WD system, rear biased, sits at 72% rear and 28% front normally, but can put 78% to the front if required.... cool traction control system (Years ahead of the RS focus "drift mode" ) , if you turn it off, it will let you tail slide but not spin  

 

 

All looking good so far ... typical Alfa though, the blue & me media system talked to me in Italian when I tried to pair my phone, and the USB socket you use to add files (like language) to the system seems to be missing :( awesome BOSE stereo system fitted.... massive "skydome" roof, glass all the way back......

 

plans so far:

1) fix blue and me, so we can pair phones/stream music etc ..

2) buy a s/s exhaust to add to the noise (the OE exhaust has seen better days, looks pretty done for, even though its not leaking!)

3)upgrade the headlights to HID's (the dipped beam is very poor) 

4) at some point I would like more power... currently 260bhp, which is enough, but the car is hampered by 6 cats!  x2 in the exhaust manifolds, which can apparently be removed and replaced with aftermarket manifold, and it will still pass emissions with the exhaust cats in place....  this also frees up much power  bloody expensive though ... think they are about £1500 :( 

 

cars brakes are huge 4 pots on the front, and look pretty much brand new. 

 

watch this space, I will post more "car porn" pics as they come along! lol...

 

[mdk1]

Glad you got it home safely with no worries.

car looks lovely, bet it won't do 30mpg on the autobahn 

[sharkrider]

lol.... bet it wont  tops out at 150 mph apparently!

[sharkrider]

first mod is here..... the dipped beam is ****e, so here is the upgrade, (on recommendation from the alfa forums!) 

 

[ColinD]

Lovely! I nearly owned one, a diesel, saw the light and avoided it, but this looks like the dogs! Good luck with her.

[Auric Goldfinger]

Looks a rather nice beast Sharky.

 

The car,  not Ash,  Ash does look nice though........... 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 September, 2017 by Auric Goldfinger

[sharkrider]

29 minutes ago, ColinD said:

Lovely! I nearly owned one, a diesel, saw the light and avoided it, but this looks like the dogs! Good luck with her.

Thanks Colin, ill let you know how good it is if it gets us to Germany and back next week ! lol...

6 minutes ago, Auric Goldfinger said:

Looks a rather nice beast Sharky.

 

The car,  not Ash,  Ash does look nice though........... 

 

 

 

 

 

its a beast for sure! lovely noise, and we are going to get a custom exhaust to help

[Auric Goldfinger]

Have you done with Skoda's?

[sharkrider]

still have the octy..... way too much money in that to sell, it will go up in value someday.... running perfectly at the moment, but i still havent managed to cure whatever makes it misfire and brake down on a long journey :( its been effectively retired to just taking me to work and back, even though this year its had AP racing suspension, and upgraded brakes for the ring trip... going in the alfa now, the octy would brake down..... what an odd sentence that is eh?! *sigh...

[sharkrider]

its already being an Alfa..... drivers sun visor has fallen off.....

[chrisw880]

Might even continue and fix the blue and me for you 

[sharkrider]

we have a new specialist "kit" to replace the head unit for something more modern, going in tomorow, I will put up pics and a report

 

[sharkrider]

specialist head unit kit, doesn't work, wrong connectors :( bought a ****ty radio transmitter to play mp3s from for our Germany trip :( 

 

camera is in, but no rear camera fitted yet, needed a power supply..

 

HIDs are in, and wow what a difference!

 

[sharkrider]

been having fun in the awful rain today..... never experienced no wheel-spin before, just huge amounts of grip.... fascinating!

[sharkrider]

Right... the car has successfully taken us to the ring and back! apart from obviously NOT being a track car, it performed perfectly! 1500 miles in all!

 

a stop off in in Belgium at spa!

 

 

My baby daughter wants to drive it.... 

 

 

nice rolling shot, up in the mountains

 

 

The standard "ring shot" (trying to look like its not with the Skodas! lol)

 

 

Now onto the track, the green hell!. Well the grip from the 4wd system is astonishing.... you can just put your foot down in the middle of corners, and it will drag you out! sadly it was shod with uniroyal rainsport 3's, and on a dry track (20C) they melted after about 3 corners.. I was easily keeping ahead of the JCW mini following me though! the car is quite fast, not quite as quick as the octy, but still on it! then the brake fluid overheated, and I lost the pedal (and the clutch went funny too, I beleive they use the same fluid!) so I slowed and let the mini past...

 

 

Took it easy for the rest of the lap..... the karousel shot!

 

 

mixing it with the skodas up at the castle  

 

 

overall it did very well, we cleaned up the rusty brakes on track, and they are now much better, it is a super long distance cruiser, effortless, fast, comfy, direct well weighted steering, oodles of grip, reliable (so far! it didn't set on fire once, and I didn't have to open the bonnet! lol)  it will be retired from any track work now though, i need to fix the octy and take that next year! lol.... I think it needs a brake fluid change though! lol...

 

good times

Edited 23 September, 2017 by sharkrider

[sharkrider]

new sun visor is in..... apart from the road trip damage , car is now spot on... needs nothing, other than maybe some new all season tyres...

 

[mdk1]

Looking good Dave, did you get your new radio sorted?

[sharkrider]

On 08/10/2017 at 16:35, mdk1 said:

Looking good Dave, did you get your new radio sorted?

 

no... not been able to do anything with that yet.... I got a refund from the flea bay liers..... we are currently running one of those cheap "fm transmitters", not found a solution yet... may have to do the old fashioned thing, and rock up at an audio "shop" (even halfords... our local place has a really knowledgeable dude who tried to rewire the one we bought of ebay for free... he got it powered up, but no sound.....) still not sure how to tackle that ... there are other products (That plug in the CD changer socket on the back of the OE head unit)  but those sellers are unwilling to stand by if they will work or not! (Even though they advertise fitting the brera) so not buying a load of crap only to have it not work..... on the forums, others have fitted new head units, and apparently they sound awesome with the BOSE factory set up, but not found any to fit myself.... (at least no seller who will say it deffo will work) .... think halfords is my only option.....

[sharkrider]

got some new boots .... got rid of the rainsports for some nice chunky winters for a go anywhere 4x4! 

 

 

in fat 245/40/18 flavour!

 

 

These were a steal.... just goes to show what you can do if you shop around... new tyres, and £55 each off ebay!  Falken eurowinters!

 

 

 

Edited 28 October, 2017 by sharkrider

[sharkrider]

also found out one of my rear springs is broken sadly :( this is a common problem with these though, so not unexpected... we also need 4 wheel alignment done, some very odd tyre wear on the fronts....

[sharkrider]

Had it 4 wheel aligned today, in an effort to fix the odd front tyre wear... says he "did the best he could" but still a lot of red values to me! says he reached the limit of adjustment on the rear, checked bushes and they seemed ok.... what do you guys think ?!

 

[pip_vrs]

Only front castor thats out.. dunno how to sort it maybe just the way they are?

[sharkrider]

hopefully they will wear even now  was a fooking expensive procedure! :(

 

[sharkrider]

well, it had to happen (and just as i have hot the octy working!) we now appear to have a five cylinder Alfa.....

[mdk1]

Oh dear, hope it's an easy fix.