Yay! New (to us) car......

Wouldn't need to be adjustable if the handling was any good in it's default setup.

You obviously don't know why this one was produced, do you?

Adjustable for when shorter/taller folks are pushing it onto the breakdown truck that'll be then? ;-)

Mark S.

Heh.

In article , snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

What year?

They made it so they could run adjustable aerodynamics in BTCC / ETCC.

so its the narrow body, not so good one then?

With adjustable handling because it was no good in it's default setup, clearly :)

Yeah. It's a bit of a trade-off really.

There's a handful of 8v Widebody cars around - but most are 16v - and we don't want a 16v car.

And this one is the limited edition ;-)

Got any links ? Sounds quite interesting :)

It isn't really.

It's a 1.8TS with some add-on bits, and upgraded interior trim.

The main reason for it was that Alfa wanted to homologate the 1.8 block (because it revs better than the 2lt block) with adjustable aerodynamic aids. At the time BTCC only allowed you to run standard bodywork - so you were stuck with the showroom spec. bodykit. So they made a limited run of cars (badged Silverstone in the UK and Formula in Europe) so they could run with an adjustable front splitter and rear wing.

The interesting bit is that each one is a numbered limited edition - with a plate on the dash. Doesn't make it any better as such than the standard car - but they're pretty rare (only one for sale nationwide on Autotrader) - and hence will become a bit of a collectable with AROC members in the future.

This is the best I can do - there's very little info. out there:

and

Are the rear wing spacers still rattling around in the boot, or have they been fitted ;-)

The 155 Silverstone was I think the first example of a manufacturer homologating a special edition specifically for the then new 2.0 BTCC formula. The wing spacers were supplied but not fitted as standard. But you knew all this anyway.

I have no idea yet. Not even seen the pics. But the details I've been given sound good..... from a fellow alt.autos.alfa-romeo subscriber - and I've had good experience of buying an unseen car from there in the past.

Indeed. It'd be rude not to fit them, if they're not already :-)

It is true that the 'widebody' cars were better. But it was never a particularly bad car.

As I said. 8v 'widebody' cars are few and far between - and certainly not available for the kind of money this one is likely to be offered at......

I thought all the balls ups on the 155 weren't sorted fully till production year 1995, so the only model years worth buying were the

Bob Sherunckle made the world a better place for us by saying..

BMW did it in '72 with the Batmobile 3.0 CSL.

(not for the BTCC, but for Touring Cars nevertheless)

I remember Tarquini rolling one of them about 17 times, and getting out, leaning against the wall and grinning :)

Pah! In the old days, he'd have gotten out, leant against the wall, taken another swig from his hip flask, lit up, then grinned. :)

Hey - I'm nothing if not specific. Did you know that BMW declared the capacity of the batmobile to be 3003cc ? They did this by manipulating the manufacturing tolerances to get the supposed maximum possible displacewment of a standard engine to over 3000cc this allowed them to use up to 3500cc for racing. Group one, right ? As a former 3.0Si E3 owner, i'm a big fan of this era of BMW. With regards to the Alfa, it was this that led to the introduction of standard aero kits from each manufacturer, which led to lots of downforce which led to the huge brakes. In other words, an Alfa 155 silverstone is a hugely important landmark in the evolution of the BTCC in the 1990s. But you knew this anyway ;-)