Its also a great drive in the Box a little before sunset, top down or course.

Now that we've completely hijacked the thread (sorry) : ( , I see that you've had some Alfas in the past. I had one of the last commemorative edition Spider Veloce's imported to the US (#121 of 190).

Nice. Spiders are definitely going up in price, believe it or not.

The GTV6 is still my favorite of all the cars I've had. A real head turner, mostly because of its rarity. Man did that car handle. I remember flying through the hills above Berkeley, listening to the wondrous growl of the V6. Only 160 hp, but enough to get you in trouble.

Only downside was the bad synchros, which most alfas have. I did get very good at heal and toe double clutching and could downshift in any gear at any rpm.

It had Campagnolo wheels, so I would say to my cycling buddies "Yeah, you have a Campy group on your bike, but I have Campy wheels on my car!"
Alas, I crashed it.

Where in Wisconsin? I live here and ride everywhere. The hills on the ironman course in Madison are steep and often, but Holy Hill area outside Milwaukee is pretty hilly. I also ride mountain bike at Kettle Moraine. Currently I ave 6 bikes and I am just as much a nut about bikes as cars.

I had my Spider for less than a year, and sold it with only 2,200 miles on it . I couldn't take it any more ! The car was evil incarnate ! After the buyer drove away, I painted my house a different color and changed my phone number hoping to never see hide nor hair of it again !!!!!!! LOL !

Alfas were notorious for having tons of problems when new, but the design was really good and after the dealer worked out all of the bugs, the cars were actually pretty reliable.

What a coincidence, I grew up in Whitewater, where Kettle Moraine is located. Never rode the mountain bike trails but I did cross-country ski there.

I went to college in Madison, where I got into bike racing. I rode for the Yellow Jersey bike shop for a couple of years. I wonder if people still do the Paoli ride and New Glarus rides anymore. Fun times.

Going back to the Box's mods, to me it seems to make the most sense to go for a computer retuning, as people seem to get the most benefit and enjoyment for the money spent, from what I've seen on here, better power delivery, a few horses to gain, and also improving the fuel economy (though you're more likely to be putting your foot down more often afterward, so you'll only benefit from that last one when you're driving nicely). Exhausts, depending on what you buy, can do anything from just sound nice to netting you a few horses (with the aforementioned tune ;) ), but they'll also likely save you some weight and turn the rear trunk into less of a furnace (if you didn't know already, don't put anything in the rear trunk that doesn't like heat, it gets toasty in there).

On the intake side of things there's a lot of controversy over the effectiveness of an intake mod. Some say stick with the stock box and only remove the snorkel, others swear by their new intake box. That one's entirely up to you. Now beyond the airbox, the plumbing from there onward to the engine is fair game and worth the time without breaking the bank. It may not gain you gobs of power, but the delivery of the power you do have will be better.

:cheers:

engine swap 3.4 or bigger 10k + - 100+hp gain
Turbo 10k + - 100+ hp gain
Underdrive pulley 150$ - 10 hp gain
IPD Plenum 900$ - 24hp midrange and 5hp on top
Headers and high flow cats 2k - 8-10hp gain
ecu tuning will move your power band around for 1k. if you go this route for a good tune call pedrosgarage.com There the best for boxsters right now.


My .02 :cheers:

I did #8 last year, best mod I ever did...