Article: The Ian Algie Alfetta

[Steve Holmes]

The Alfetta, as purchased, was left hand drive. With its driver sitting at the rear of the car, clipping the apex through right hand corners would be challenging, or at the very least, would take some practice. In 1979, there were three main North Island racing tracks in Pukekohe, Bay Park, and Manfield, and only Bay Park was anti-clockwise. But converting the car to right hand drive was never an option, as Ian’s right foot was already too close to the rear cylinder bank, and with a small block Chevy having the right cylinder bank positioned slightly further rearward, would bring the hot engine even closer to his foot.

Other driving challenges would come from the Perspex shroud positioned over the top of the fuel-injection trumpets, which further minimised forward visibility.

Ian retained the factory Alfetta trans-axle, which incorporated the gearbox, clutch, differential, and inboard rear brakes. When purchased, Alfa Romeo only offered a 4-cylinder version of the Alfetta, for which the trans-axle was designed. It wasn’t until 1980 the company released the GTV6, with its V6 engine which required a stronger trans-axle. But the Algie Alfetta was already built and racing by then, and Ian had already found ways to make his 4-cylinder trans-axle live with 500 horsepower being transmitted through it. His first inspection saw it stripped, thoroughly inspected, and then modified by drilling through it in various places and set up an oil system run by a pump driven off the input shaft. Initially, he tried using an electric pump, but this wasn’t a success, so he switched to the mechanical unit, which pumped oil through a cooler and a filter, and back into the box. Early in the cars racing life, the input shaft broke, and damaged the front of the box quite badly. Ian went to a local Alfa Romeo dealer, who informed him he was using an older style shaft, and told him Alfa Romeo had since produced an upgraded item with larger radius and bearing. These were included for the rebuild.

Ian also installed a metalastic joint at the rear of the engine to try and reduce the shock being transmitted to the trans-axle by eliminating metal to metal contact. But it failed early on, so he replaced it with a CV joint. It also suffered half-shaft CV joint failures, until Ian was able to install V6 CV joints when Alfa Romeo released the GTV6.

The engine set-back was such that the driveshaft linking the engine to the trans-axle was only 400mm long. The radiator was positioned lying flat in the boot, with a large duct exiting beneath the car at the rear. An attempt to feed cool air to the radiator came in the form of large scoops, which were positioned at the tail end of the rear side windows. Sometimes there was a scoop either side, sometimes there was just a single scoop on the drivers side. However, as Ian was to learn, air flow around the side windows is essentially dead air when moving at almost any speed, and the scoops never performed as expected.

The Alfetta had its wheel arches radiused to clear the wide Minilite wheels and slick racing tyres. A set of fibreglass flares were made, modelled off those of Autodelta. Lexan windows were made and installed, with a round ventilation hole cut into the drivers side rear, to provide Ian some cool air, as he sat just behind the small block V8. Or, at the very least, it allowed hot air to exit the cockpit.

By 1979, Ian was working in the United States. Fellow Kiwi Jim Stone arranged a job for him working in the racing industry, where he continues to work to this day. Initially, he worked for Tony Cicale, who raced a Ralt RT1-based sports car in the reinvented SCCA Can-Am series. The Sports Car Club of America established the hugely successful Can-Am series for Group 7 sports cars in 1966. By the early 1970s, they’d introduced various regulations to stifle progress, initially focusing on aerodynamics and downforce, and later when the combined might of Porsche and Team Penske entered the series in 1972 with their incredible turbocharged 917/10, they started introducing methods for limiting horsepower. McLaren withdrew at the end of 1972, and the series began towards an eventual demise. Penske’s brilliant driver/developer/engineer Mark Donohue, sought to build on the 917/10s 1972 successes, and produced a superior model called the 917/30, which destroyed even the numerous 917/10s in 1973. The Can-Am series survived just one more season, in 1974, and was dominated by Jackie Oliver’s Shadow team, which easily saw-off a dwindling field of older McLarens and Lolas after Penske and Porsche withdrew.

The SCCA also ran the successful Formula A series, which expanded into other countries as Formula 5000. The category enjoyed worldwide success by the early 1970s. However, following the 1976 season, an attempt was made by the SCCA to rekindle the old Can-Am magic, but using Formula A/5000 single seat chassis’ and 5 litre engines with a full-clothed body draped over the top. And thus in 1977 began the second coming of the Can-Am series.

Ian Algie’s time with Tony Cicale was relatively brief. He found himself overworked and frustrated, burning the midnight oil with little support. And so he quit. Cicale shared a workshop with the great Racing Team VDS, owned by Count Rudy Van der Straten, whose family established the Stella Artois brewing company in Belgium. The VDS cars traditionally wore a striking red with white and blue stripes colour scheme, and had contested everything from endurance sports car racing, Formula 5000, Interseries, and the second-coming Can-Am. Cicale, as well as building and racing his own cars, was the aerodynamicist for Racing Team VDS. As Ian was walking out the door, members from VDS stopped him, and he was offered a job building and preparing their Can-Am cars.