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 Callaway TT GTV/6
Callaway TT GTV/6
Auto ise on väga eksootiline aga lisaks Alfa fännidele soovitan järgnevat intervjuud lugeda ka Vette ajaloost huvitatutel. Tuleb välja, et tänu sellele autole eksisteerib Callaway TT Corvette ehk "Sledgehammer".
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An Interview with Reeves Callaway
HMD (H. Martin de’Campo): Reeves I wanted to thank you for your time today and for meeting with us to talk about the legendary Twin Turbo Alfa Romeos you produced in the mid '80s. What are some of the points you hope to achieve here today?
RC (Reeves Callaway): I believe the collector market will treat these cars with the respect they deserve. It’s time to update the Callaway Alfa Project
HMD: I think that the last article, written by Stan Fisher in 1992 (for the Owner), was the very last one on the Callaway Alfa.
RC: I remember looking it over.
HMD: So how did the whole project start? How did Alfa Romeo and Callaway get involved with the whole project?
RC: We had a short list of companies we wanted to work with out of Europe. Back then Callaway was really a small company doing some really creative and cutting-edge engineering designs. Don Black was the chief engineer at ARI and heard of some of the neat projects we had achieved. It was obvious he'd seen and admired the work we’d done with Volkswagen and other cars. Callaway wanted to have a relationship with a high-end European manufacturer.
Don Black assured us that quality in the GTV6, particularly during its later stages of developmental maturity, was much better. The Maserati Biturbo had just arrived on to the scene and Alfa felt this was their territory: after all, they were the ones that had the Italian version of the well-styled, interesting two door sedan! Don called me and said: “We’re looking at the possibility of upgrading the GTV6 by increasing its performance and we understand that you can do the turbo engineering end of things, but can you do the emissions portion as well? Can you certify cars as compliant vehicles, meet all of our durability requirements and get them out the door?"
HMD: So it sounds like they wanted you to do a lot more than just the engineering on a turbo system for the GTV6, is that fair to say?
RC: Exactly! Alfa Romeo Inc. was an importer, and they were not allowed to modify any of its vehicles. They really wanted us to develop, engineer, install, produce, certify and get it out the door and into the public awareness. So, what they really said was, “Yes, we want your turbo system. But by the way, you also need to be good at PR.” They wanted to retake the marketplace from the Maserati Biturbo and to demonstrate that the Alfa GTV6 was better, faster and nicer looking.
HMD: A lot of us thought that the Twin Turbo was created in response to BMW. You're saying that Alfa was actually more concerned about Maserati's threat than BMW's?
RC: Alfa never thought BMW was a threat because they believed their cars were better than BMW. In Alfa Italy's eyes, ARI was confronted with a major marketing challenge. Remember, the industry is market-driven. Almost all our projects for clients are in response to a market that requires an engineering solution. The fact of the matter is, there aren’t many people who know how to increase the vehicle’s performance, and meet the emissions controls at the same time, all on a long-term basis … and do it in an economical manner. It's a very difficult riddle to solve.
HMD: What happened next?
RC: Don called me and he simply said look, “Together we’ll build the prototypes, two or three of them. You can have all the dyno time necessary, and all the necessary spare parts for the prototype backup.” So it was really like three or 4 prototypes, plus or minus, only one of which survived. The rest were used in the dyno testing, durability testing, fittings and what have you. An “acceptable” car was one that met all their complete durability measures.
HMD: Who set the durability measures, you or Alfa?
RC: Alfa Italy, the manufacturer. This was a project sanctioned by the factory so we had to use their measures. They can save you lots of time and help you avoid many pitfalls when engineering a system such as this. If they have better stuff, better parts, they need to tell you. If there are any benchmarks that can make our job easier, they need to be communicated.
Don Black said just the right things to satisfy any concerns that Alfa Italy may have had. We began to trust that we were in good hands despite the potential for NIH. Don Black is a good engineer, and you know how it is, engineers speak the same language. After a few months we began to have a good personal relationship: you sort of test and prod one another and together learn that things are fine. And so the project began to evolve.
The things we could not change were emissions, catalyst loading, and the engine management system. Remember how difficult we thought the Federal emission laws were in those days. They're 200 times more difficult today, and make that stuff look like kindergarten.
HMD: But you guys also “CARBed” (California Air Resources Board – a more restrictive standard) the Alfa product as well, right?
RC: By demonstrating California compliance we showed that we were going further than anyone. Emissions controls were getting so difficult, it was a trial-and-error process. The project was quite an undertaking. We had to satisfy the factory, convert the car competently from an engineering standpoint and do it at a reasonable cost.
HMD: In his article, Stan Fisher suggested that this Alfa contract was one that went up for bid. Is that true? Was there a competition?
RC: I don’t remember that. However, we weren’t really privy to that. Don Black needed to find someone he could trust and work with. So, overall no one else had the experience we had with emissions, testing, certifying…things like that.
However, I was still not convinced of the engine’s durability. So, Don said, “Ok, let’s do this: conduct two of the durability tests that Alfa runs for itself and see if you’re not convinced of the GTV6’s durability.” One test was called the “Autostrada del Sol and the other was the Mille Miglia….quite difficult durability tests as we would learn…” .
HMD: I had no idea that Alfa Romeo had names for their tests?
RC: Yes. These tests were very well defined and very difficult. Basically, when Alfa signed off on any engine, it had to pass many durability tests.
Let me just give you an example of what this test involved.
1. Start up, and stabilize the temperature by running 70% throttle for 30 minutes
2. Shut down, heat soak, and 15 seconds later started up, hold at 85% of red line for 2 minutes
3. Do it again, hold throttle again for 85% of red line for 2 minutes
4. Shut down, drain the coolant, fill the motor up with cold water, hold throttle up to 95% of red line for 20 minutes.
So the motor would be put into a major shock and a power output in environments that you would never see in real life. But, this was one of the many “hoops” you had to jump through to satisfy Alfa. This is what the standard V6 went through in testing in 1984. No one would ever run a car at 90% of power output, you’re just never gonna do it. It was a very rigorous testing procedure.
HMD: The 2.5 liter put out somewhere around 160 hp.
RC: I recall the engine dynoing out at 130 hp to the flywheel. Also, I remember because once we completed the project we were all quite fired up to know we’d added another 100 hp, to the Alfa’s power output capability. The leap from 130 hp to 230-240 hp, is significant.
HMD: Stan Fisher wrote that Bob Bornaschella commented on how the Alfa V6 was one of the toughest motors he’d ever seen. He was impressed with the drive train’s durability.
RC: Well, we were all impressed! And this is what it took to prove to us that the engine was viable. Our next job always depends on doing a good job with the job at hand. If the car’s motor falters, and we’re associated with that, then we don’t get the next job. We were all surprised at what we’d learned regarding the motor’s durability.
So now the question was, how many are you going to build? We were just an engineering firm at that point, just taking orders. We hadn’t yet had anything to do with marketing or distribution. After the initial “thrust,” I think the first article was in Road & Track as a driving test review.
HMD: Right, Csaba Csere.
RC: He was impressed with the project, especially because it had been done in the aftermarket but to an Original Equipment standard and level of compliance.. That carried the car for about one year.
HMD: Right, I remember he was fired up about the car. Alfa must have also been fired up?
RC: Yes, Alfa was also fired up. Alfa said, “Ok, we’ve accomplished the mission here, which was to better the Biturbo and give our dealers something to sell.” But the option was fairly expensive, it took nearly $30k or more to get one fully optioned out.
HMD: The advertised price was between $27k to $29k.
RC: Yes, those were starting prices. We sold the cars to the dealers for like $16k or $17k. That was their opportunity to make about $10 grand.
HMD: So, simple question: did you make money?
RC: It certainly wasn’t the most lucrative engineering project. Producing the cars in our shops wasn’t that expensive. You know, there’s probably about 200 man-hours in each Callaway Alfa. We’d take a new car in and test it, make sure that there was nothing wrong, then take it all apart, take the engine apart, cut the pistons, put them back in the same block and order, set them up with a better head-gasket… I don’t remember if they were all dynoed or not… I think they were, I think they all went on to the dyno and there they were all checked for leaks… not so much for power output, we just didn’t want the thing to self destruct. We were very concerned about putting the car back together without any leaks. It took almost a full day, to test.
HMD: You guys had your own dynos, obviously.
RC: We had several!
HMD: Wow! Quite a little production line there.
RC: It had to be.
HMD: Tell me, why IHI turbos?
RC: It was the newest high-technology turbo. They could spool up quick… really very high quality build. I remember they had Ni-Resist turbine housings, and “Inconel” turbines, very impressive, higher flow compressors than anyone else… fewer failure rates….
HMD: The fact that they were smaller I’m sure helped too.
RC: Right. That allowed them to spool up quickly
HMD: Who was the architect behind the project? Was it you? Someone else?… it would be great to put a name on this guy you know?
RC: Well, the system was the design of a very fine young fellow – the Chief Engineer –Tim Good. If you’ve ever seen the Callaway SledgeHammer videotape, he stars there.
HMD: The project “SledgeHammer” was that Corvette Twin Turbo, am I right?
RC: Right, right that's it… Tim Good was the director of the department, the chief engineer. We never had an individual that was just a turbo systems architect. The design for the Alfa system was one that reflected our past racing experiences. My contribution, typically, is from a schematic-design point of view. On this project, I suggested packaging the intercooler on top of the engine and as part of the intake manifold: It was an aircraft trick from the Thirties. But the design was a collective effort between engineering , fabrication , Alfa, and to some extent what looked good..
One of the debates we were having was over placing the intercooler at the front of the car. Normally you put the turbochargers low in the engine compartment, it’s more accepted engineering. You almost never put turbos high up in the engine, but putting them up high does make a powerful visual statement. Typically the exhausts are low, and for the exhaust to run out towards the rear of the car, the turbo wants to be low, in that line, between the exhaust ports and the catalysts.
On the other hand, an intercooler needs to be exposed to air for it to continue cooling. And, so the two ideals were at odds with each other. If we were to put the intercooler at the front of the car, the turbos would have more volume to compress and more turbo lag.
If we packaged the intercooler close up, we could still expose the intercooler to the wind and also decrease charge air volume. That’s why we replaced the GTV6’s plenum with an intercooler. I believe the design was not only quite attractive, but it resolved the issues nicely. I think the biggest problem we had with this project was the hood scoop! Being made of fiberglass by some barely qualified vendor
HMD: The hood scoop is surprisingly heavy. It’s not just fiberglass is it? It’s got to have some metal in it.
RC: No. Its only fiberglass
HMD: Help me understand something with the design. Did it concentrate on turbo spooling, overall performance, or was cost also an issue?
RC: Cost was always an issue, but it was not the first issue. Performance was still the criterion, but more than anything else it had to work, it had to be exciting to drive. Second to that, it had to look great! When you opened up the hood, you had to say WOW!
HMD: What were the exhaust headers fabricated out of?
RC: 304 Stainless steel, the best at the time, hand fabricated and hand welded. Done today, it would be 321 Stainless.
HMD: How did the program end?
RC: Alfa gave us an option that, after a year of production, we would review the status of the project; to determine exactly how we would proceed with the program… if in fact we were going to proceed at all. Alfa was struggling. None of their models were selling well, and they hadn’t met their projections. We knew the Milano was coming, but we had no idea if that could save them. It was a very tricky thing.
The distributor came to us and said, “Why don’t you build and continue to sell the Twin Turbo on your own? We’ll service and continue to sell you the cars… no problem. Keep the project going. So that’s what the deal was. Instead of selling the Callaway Alfas to the distributor or the dealerships, we’d be selling direct to the dealers.
Discussions continued about the possibility of Callaway warranting the whole vehicle. When you warranty all of those things you have lots of potential issues like wiring and other problems. I think the ARI warranty was something like 36 months for the entire car. That was fine, but 36 months of warranty from us was not practical. So, at that point we knew there would be no way for us to administer that warranty, and we declined. We had enough inventory to build 5 to 6 more Twin Turbos, so I said, “let’s build ‘em out, and stop.”
HMD: So, is that when the two or three Milanos were made?
RC: We made two or three Milanos, I think to see if we could extend the ‘life’ of the current pieces we had already designed. We then saw that this was going to take a redesign, and we opted out. If the standard GTV6 pieces were going to fit, then we would have considered making a Twin Turbo for the new Milano. But c’est la vie.
HMD: Obviously, at the point of making two or three, you guys decided not to move forward?…
RC: Well, it wasn’t that simple. I think what really happened was a matter of timing. One of the Alfas wound up going to the GM Corvette proving grounds.
HMD: They maintain that the GTV6 Turbo blew the doors off the Corvette on the track, that they were quite impressed…
RC: No. I’m sure that the Callaway Alfa was perhaps just the equal of the 1985 Corvette. Chevrolet’s job was to investigate competitive cars, at comparable prices to the Corvette. These people would buy vehicles that are of competitive value, and keep them there at their proving grounds for market comparisons and evaluations. It was typical War Room Strategy
So, here was the Callaway Twin Turbo Alfa, that somebody at GM had enough foresight to, I guess by reading the articles and specs, to say, “Here’s our Corvette being outperformed by a ‘sports sedan’. So, they bought a Callaway GTV6. They brought it to the proving grounds, they tested it. They verified the performance numbers, then they said, “Yep, it sure does go.”
Here was an in-house product evaluation team operating within Chevrolet to evaluate other competitor cars, independent from us. At that point, we’d had about 16 Alfa Callaways already built and sold. Chevrolet then said, “Hey, Callaway’s’ program with Alfa has been successful. We could build a Twin Turbo Corvette as well as the four cam LT5 .”
HMD: Who said that?
RC: It was Dave McClellan. He was one of the best engineers that Detroit ever produced. He was the guy that replaced Zora Arkus Duntov Corvette’s first great engineer. And then GM called us, sometime later, I think it was towards the end of 1985 and said, “We have an Alfa that you guys made here, and it performed very well, would you like to talk about a Twin Turbo Corvette?”
HMD: That’s AWESOME!! So, it was truly the Alfa that made GM land on your lap.
RC: It shows that the basic thinking was correct in the first place, which was, you simply won’t get the next job unless the last job is excellent. So, we’ll be forever grateful to Don Black and ARI, who were all ‘making’ us do the Alfa project, and McClellan, which got us the Twin Turbo Corvette program.
HMD: Stan Fisher’s article indicated that there were about 35 Twin Turbos made… is that true?
RC: Nobody was keeping track of how many we were making or how many we were going to make. I mean, Alfa didn’t care, they were occupied with running their business. Every month we’d get a call from ARI, and they’d say, “We need 2 this month, maybe 3 next month, whatever.” It was hit-or-miss, at anytime they could say, “2 or 3 this month.”
HMD: What was the figure based on?
RC: Dealer requests. Some dealers wanted all we could make. Others, only wanted what they sold first, others didn’t want any. You’ve got to remember that most of these guys were multi-brand stores, so depending on whether or not the dealership or the sales manager was involved with the Alfa “thing,” we’d either get multiple or single orders.
HMD: How about car colors? According to Stan Fisher, there was only one silver car.
RC: Hmmm, I don’t think so.
HMD: Stan also thought that all the production cars were red and black.
RC: That can’t be true either. There was a champagne one
HMD: Wasn’t that one converted by a dealership?
RC: No, no cars were ever built by dealers. If a dealership had a car to convert, we’d send somebody there to do the installation. Typically it was Bob Bornaschella.
HMD: I have the last complete Callaway-Alfa Registry, dated 1993, which had been handled by Stan. It shows one silver Callaway Alfa, the champagne one and a white one. The rest were all either red or black
RC: I cannot say for sure that we didn't build other silver Alfas… seems like such a popular color. Our registry doesn’t indicate that info at all….
HMD: Oh, you have a registry too? How many cars on your registry?
RC: We have a registry for all Callaway cars, and occasionally someone sends us info on their vehicle. That’s how we got the records on the 6 or 7 Alfas in our archives now. So, if you say you’ve got all the Alfas in one registry, I’d be really happy to put all those into our registry. |
| 23.06.2004 at 23:52 |
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