I was 14yrs old when we got the car and raced it around the midwest US. My dad was a designer with AMC so we were connected with Renault Racing which had put their US shop in Belleville MI - about 35min from home. I saw many R5 Turbos including the IMSA GT car and was hooked. When I tuned 18 this Cup car was my car to drive to work and to the University. I was in tears when I had to trade the car for more reliable transportation. My wife and I have very fond memories of that car. It was my goal to get a R5 Turbo but they were out of reach. In 2000 I was feet away from a black R5T with my hand on my wallet but did not purchase it because I needed to fix a sick Audi A4. The next day I called on the car only to find it was sold to a guy in Greece. I was depressed, Fast forward to last year. My wife pointed out a couple years back it was about time I looked at getting a car to drive and have fun with. I got rid of my Cadillac and bought a Focus. I looked and looked for a R5 T but they jumped from $15k US to $43kUS overnight and out of my budget. In my investigation an Alpine popped up on Ebay. It was rough but probably good for me. The car did not sell but I contacted the seller and flew from MI to SC. It was a huge disappointment, the car was imported to Canada and driven through the winter and had many fixes by "European" mechanics. The car was in terrible shape, it would have required a body off restoration. The car had a totally cool R5T1 type of blue interior but it was too much for me at the time. I got a good idea of what was good and bad because the seller also had a car he had imported from Belgium 5mo earlier behind the project car. I could not take on another project car ( I have a Fiat Track car too) so I left for home empty handed and very disappointed.
A week later I get a call from the seller reluctantly telling me he would sell the Belgian car if I wanted it. I jumped at it, this was September 2011. I had seen only three Alpines, the first was a 110 I had seen at Mosport in Canada in 1984 or 1985, the second was a GTA in 1989 that AMC had sent to the company I worked for, I got to drive it for a very short distance, and the third was an A310 that I saw on the 401 near London Ontario on my way back from Montreal after the Canadian Grandprix in 1993. When my Alpine arrived it was a major milestone for me. It arrived on a rainy day but I got it fired up and put in the garage for the major inspection. This is what it looked like:
The next day I got a good look at what I got. The car idled fine and ran great at Wide Open Throttle but had no mid range. I got a carb rebuild kit and manuals from Simon. I rebuilt the carbs but still could not fix the mid range problem. I was searching the internet on information on the car and started to realize the seller had removed several parts before shipping the car. An unfortunate education for me. I bought the car thinking I could drive it with a bit of work while I was working on a major update for my track car. I did not expect it to require the attention it did. So I searched the internet for information and contacts and finally got connected with the US Alpine club.
I have not figured the US Alpine club out yet. I got a connected with a couple of guys but it seems to really be underground. The guys I contacted did seem to be interested in corresponding - very strange. I studied the dual carb set up on the 2.7ltr and could think of every problem it would create with the dual idle adjustment screws - I am still baffled at this. Anyway I contacted the president of the club and he recommended a mechanic in SC - like 15minutes from where I purchased the car, something is very odd at this point. Anyway I contacted the mechanic and struck a deal where I would send him my carbs and he would tune them to his car, I also sent my distributor too, incase the midrange advance was no good. To make a bad story short this "mechanic" did not do what we agreed and in the end I had to fork over $1400usf to get my carbs and distributor back. I never, never , ever have people do work for me but this was a case where I had another engine I was working on and just wanted to drive the Alpine. I am done with the US Alpine club.
So I got the car running and put about 50miles on it but the #5cylinder keeps fouling out with oil. I presume the gaskets have just given up but I still need to remove the engine to see how good is good. So I am now looking and PRV rebuild options. I also need to rebuild the trans, some issues there too, and need to restore the interior - just need fabric.
I look forward to colaborating with other a310 folks so look for additional posts by me.
By the way this is a different car but will give you an idea of my capabilities:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dallarax19/videos
Cheers!
Brian
