On the good side the GTV has been humming along, touch wood. I need to lean it out a bit but it starts and runs well, even if it gobbles the gas a bit. Not that it costs much to run - it's only done 2,000 km in 2 years. But it needed an oil change, so it got one, bless its little 2litre soul.
What was a little unexpected was the increasingly noisy exhaust. I've been taking it to local bike races (criterium bike in boot) at Wyong, an 80km round trip. It's been sounding a little
too good lately and it all came to an end on the overrun down Kariong hill into West Gosford. You know that hollow pop-pop-pop sound that you get with a rich mixture on overrun? Well I was enjoying that down the hill when it went pop-pop-crack-bang-rattle instead. It proceeded to rattle and rasp with a metallic twang all the way home. Oh well, a baffle has broken, I thought.
Indeed it was the centre offset silencer. Cheap and quick to fix and another adventure for this Alfa owner. Muffla-Fit at West Gosford is a crazy Dante's inferno of showering sparks in a tiny factory unit but Steve did a good job and - gasp - it sounds like new again. Well like a GTV4 with a slightly bigger diameter exhaust, anyway.
