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The Alfasud Story, U.K. Style

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alfasud

Early 1.3 model, note the small rear lights. Nearly all 1.3's have gone from British roads now.

Story and Photos by Hugh Doran

The Alfasud, virtually unknown in the U.S., was very popular in Great Britain and today is considered an up and coming classic. Our thanks to Hugh Doran who originally sent this story to us in 2006.

We here in Great Britain heard a lot about the north-south divide back in the late 1970s and early 80s, only no one ever seemed to state exactly where the border between the two was. You could be forgiven for thinking that the south had all the yuppies and the north of Britain was unemployed. Thus most people in the south considered it to be “grim up north”. Things are different these days.

Italy too, had a north-south divide. The only difference was that it was the north that was industrialized and rich and “Il relativo giù del sud torvo” – it was grim down south. The Italian government wanted to readdress the balance some what and came up with a scheme whereby companies would be given grants to set up in the south. Now, at the time Alfa Romeo, was still partly a state owned company so they were more or less obliged to do something in the south.

It just so happened that the company owned some land at Pomigliano d’Arco on the outskirts of Naples, where they manufactured aero engines. But what the company really wanted to do in Naples was manufacture cars. The matter in question was should they move one of the existing assembly lines south, and if so which one, or should they build a completely new product. The decision was taken to start from scratch with a new car. A car that would be known as the Alfasud – Alfa south.
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Eight Things About the Alfasud I Didn’t Know (or Forgot)

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Once upon a time for a brief and shining moment, the editor owned the only Alfasud in the U.S., as they were illegal aliens here. But while he remembers the car very well, there are a few things he had long forgotten or simply never knew about the Alfa from Naples…

By Pete Vack

1. How to adjust the valves. Since the 1930s, Alfa Romeo has had only a few different ways to adjust the valve lash. The first was Jano’s unique but complex notch type method. The Giulietta featured removable inserts under the cup which came in a variety of thicknesses.
But the Alfasud had a handy way of adjusting the valve clearances. The camshaft had two lobes per valve, and one could insert a special tool between the cam lobes to reach an adjustable cups located on the top of the valve. Not having to remove the cams to adjust the valves was a nice feature.

Valve Adjustment on the Alfasud.


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Our Features This Week, June 13 2012

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We all remember the 1959 Fuller Brush catalog that brought Phil Hill and Ferrari into our homes. Here’s a chance to win an original! Robert F. Pauley wraps up the Savonuzzi memoir, Roberto Motta brings us the Coppa Intereuropa, and we sound off on a degrading issue in F1.

Giovanni Savonuzzi’s Detroit Odyssey Part 3

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Inset of Savonuzzi courtesy Alberta Savonuzzi.

For 25 years Robert Pauley worked as a design engineer for Chrysler’s Research Department and spent many years on the gas turbine program. What follows are some remembrances of the time he spent on the Chrysler turbine program with the Italian engineer and designer Giovanni Savonuzzi.

Part 1 describes meeting Savonuzzi at Chrysler and the circumstances surrounding Savonuzzi’s position and his idea for a gas turbine-powered Indy car.
In
Part 2, Savonuzzi designs the Chrysler Indy car and talks about naming “Gilda”.

In the final episode below Savonuzzi engineers a safety car for Chrysler before returning to Italy and Fiat.

Savonuzzi Safety Car

Around 1963 or thereabouts the work load began to taper off at the Greenfield plant. All fifty of the Ghia cars had been assembled in that plant and were being prepared for the evaluation program and the short production line pit had been covered over. Many of the people who had been involved with that phase of the program had been transferred back to Highland Park and there was not much design work required except for some occasional changes.

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Our Features This Week, June 6th 2012

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A Super Edition of VeloceToday..Graham Gauld with French Champion Bernard Constens, Robert Pauley with Part 2 of Savonuzzi, Eric Davison and family goes to watch Matras at Le Mans, and Hugues Vanhoolandt takes us to Villa d’Este!

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Giovanni Savonuzzi’s Detroit Odyssey Part 2

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By Robert Pauley

For 25 years Robert Pauley worked as a design engineer for Chrysler’s Research Department and spent many years on the gas turbine program. What follows are some remembrances of the time he spent on the Chrysler turbine program with the Italian engineer and designer Giovanni Savonuzzi. Part 1 describes meeting Savonuzzi at Chrysler and the circumstances surrounding Savonuzzi’s position and his idea for a gas turbine-powered Indy car. In the lead image above, Savonuzzi poses with George Huebner along with the Chrysler Turbine Car.

Designing the Chrysler Turbine Powered Indy Car

Savonuzzi had collected some Indy car drawings and an Indianapolis 500 rule book and I began making a large, roll-size layout drawing of the proposed race car. The drawing had no part number but was dated July 31, 1963. That concept drawing, now lost,* showed the car in three views, side, top and front, at one-quarter scale. The cockpit was located slightly forward of the midpoint with two Chrysler A-831 gas turbine engines behind the driver. Large air intake scoops were located on each side of the driver’s headrest feeding air into dual plenums, one for each engine. The internal engine components were to be production parts but the four regenerators were to be eliminated. That change required redesigned “regenerator covers” to separate the compressor air from the exhaust gasses. Four rectangular exhaust ducts passed upwards through the engines’ top cowling with the outlets facing aft. The two engines were mounted side-by-side and aligned fore-and-aft with the output flanges bolted to a transverse housing that incorporated a transmission and the final drive to the rear wheels. The car had a long, pointy nose somewhat similar to that of the Lotus 58 that raced at Indy in 1968. The nose of the Chrysler proposal, however, was broader, flatter and not as long. Savonuzzi said he wanted it shaped that way for aerodynamic reasons. In one corner of my layout I had included a perspective drawing of the proposed race car and as a final touch had drawn a large Chrysler Pentastar logo on the flat surface of the nose. Savonuzzi became quite excited as the design evolved on my drawing board over a period of several weeks. He exuded optimism and appeared confident that with the aid of my drawing he would be able to sell the proposal to Chrysler management.

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Gauld talks to French Champion Bernard Consten

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Consten-Alfa-Jags- Reims 1958

By Graham Gauld

All around the South of France there are former racing drivers tucked away in villages, or otherwise holed up in Monaco trying to preserve their race winnings. As a result one (this author, at any rate) tends to meet up with them from time to time and chew the fat. One of them who has become a good friend is Bernard Consten, best known for his multiple wins on the old original Tour De France event with his Jaguar 3.8 and Alfa Romeo. Bernard managed to combine rally driving with racing.

Consten has all the charm of a Parisian whose father ran a successful Renault dealership that allowed Bernard to follow his passion for motor sport.

He was born in the Courbevois district of Paris in 1932 and almost as soon as he had his driving license he began competing. His first event was the circuit de Bressuire with a little Renault 750 sedan. When competing on rallies he normally took his cousin, Jean Hebert, who was himself to become a successful driver with Alfa Romeo. The Consten/Hebert duo soon began to win a number of events which eventually led to Consten becoming French Rally Champion for the first time in 1958. He also became Champion in 1961 and 1962, on both occasions with a Jaguar 3.8 sedan, and finally in 1967 with an Alfa Romeo GTA.

The Tour de France wins are the ones that remain in the memory.

” In 1951 the Tour de France restarted and when I was a student I dreamed about competing on that event. The following year my mother was keen to buy me a Triumph TR2.


“It was very difficult to buy new cars in France at that time as it was not long after the war. You had to have the right currency as the French importer was only allowed to import about five or six cars a year. When I went to order the car the dealer asked me all the things I wanted. I told him it was to be white with red upholstery with wire wheels – even the heater was an extra. He then asked me how I was going to pay: American dollars, German marks or English pounds. When I told him I wanted to pay in French francs he said it was not possible to have a car.

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Davison’s Le Mans: Privileged in France

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Mary Davison with sons at the start of the 1972 Le Mans 24 Hours.

By Eric Davison
Be sure to listen to the Matra V-12, below!

The month of May is regarded by American racing fans as “Indy” month. In France and in most of Europe June belongs to Le Mans.

In January of 1972 we (me, my wife and two sons) were sent to France where I took up residence in the Paris office of McCann-Erickson Advertising as the resident guru on the General Motors/Opel business. It was a dream assignment. My wife, the lovely Mary, was ecstatic and our two sons ages 14 and 11were anxious to leave Michigan where we had returned after spending a couple of years in Mexico. They were up for another adventure. Plus, beyond all the joys of Paris, there was the sunshine of Saint Tropez, skiing in Chamonix, and to top it all off, there was Le Mans. And we were going!

It was easy to work my way into the good graces of my new GM associates. To most Europeans racing is a very important activity and when they found out that I was a rabid enthusiast, I was welcomed by Jean-Louis Maesen, the Opel Marketing Director and included in their Le Mans activity.

Jean-Louis Maesen and the new (at the time) Opel Commodore in Brittany. The occasion was the press introduction of what was the first competitive Opel.

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