Leela Motors
Passion, Control, Speed, Affordability
Building the car
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The donor car
In the early 90’s I had an ’85 Alfa Romeo GTV6. Looks aside it had all the things I was looking for in a car: great handling, a sound that R & T called the best they had ever tested, a nice tan leather interior, sunroof, lowered, with a sport exhaust. Complex enough to satisfy my love of mechanical things, it had a rear transaxle, de Dion suspension, in-board disc brakes at the back, all aluminum motor, and it felt right. This is something the Italians know how to do so well. I added a limited slip differential to it, and made the front camber adjustable. Hats off to the Italians. I think they are the only nation in the world where a government owned company (Alfa) at the time, could produce a 4 door sedan and a GT Veloce with all this running gear at a relatively reasonable price.
Due to the de Dion rear end the track could not be changed. The wheelbase however I set at 93.5 inches. The wheels most suited for the car were 17”x 7.5” from England and 40 series tires.
Laying on it’s side in the back yard carefully placed between the almond and fig tree was a Silver Alfa Milano donor car from which I took parts out as I need them. This gave my wife the opportunity to appreciate the bottom side of Italian mechanical genius for the better part of a year and a half while doing dishes in the kitchen. Some people don’t know how lucky they are! It also gave Jesse Z. the previous owner of the Milano a chance to unload one of his 3 Alfas that my enthusiasm got him to buy. Everybody wins! I hope this Karma gets spread around…