Alfa Romeo GTV: 4 ways to make it faster

By J.A. Ackley

“I love the car,” Vince Vaccaro says of his 1972 Alfa Romeo GTV. “It’s probably faster than I could drive it at my stage of my career. And with the last name of Vaccaro, I have to have an Italian car.”

Even if your last name isn’t Vaccaro, his Alfa Romeo GTV offers a lot of fun, with a power-to-weight ratio of close to 200 horsepower and just 1980 pounds.

Vince topped the charts throughout the Historics at Pittsburgh International Race Complex during the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. What were his keys to success? These four items.


Photo by J.A. Ackley.

1. All About the Bars

Photo by J.A. Ackley.

The Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV came with the front anti-roll bar in front of the wheels. Vince uses a custom anti-roll bar from Roman Auto Prep that goes behind the wheels, which he says stiffens up the front end substantially. In the rear, Vince sticks with a stock anti-roll bar but added a Panhard bar to “stiffen the rear and keep the center of gravity level,” he says.

2. Let’s Get More Power

Photo by J.A. Ackley.

Stock, the GTV produced 130 horses. Vince felt it could use some more oomph and had Jim Burns of Ayer, Massachusetts, do the engine work. Rules permit him to go 40 over on bore size, so he did, which allowed him to go from 84mm pistons to 85mm ones. Bigger carburetors help, too, as the Weber 48mm carbs were installed in place of the stock 45mm pieces. To deliver that power, Vince went with a close-ratio gearbox and a 4.77:1 rear end rather than the stock 4.56:1 setup. That rear end is the same one used when the GTVs ran the Trans Am Series. “It gives you so much pull power out of sharp turns,” Vince says of his setup.

 

3. Data Acquisition

Photo by J.A. Ackley.

This may be a 50-plus-year-old car, but that doesn’t mean a driver cannot benefit from modern-day data acquisition. Vince uses a relatively basic system from Traqmate. When he plugs it into his computer, it shows him three colors: green for accelerating, red for decelerating and black for coasting. Ideally, you’d like to minimize those black coasting sections, as that’s the ticket to better lap times.

4. Bringing the Shifter Toward the Driver

Photo by J.A. Ackley.

European Car Company in Wichita, Kansas, improves ergonomics by bringing the shifter toward the driver. “With the typical Alfa shifter, when you go into third or fifth, you’re almost hitting the dash,” Vince says. “When you’re sitting in the car with your hands on the steering wheel, the shifter is now right there by your hands.”