Do they teach 'soul' in Engineering? I think not :-) Even if you wanted to, where would you start?
Beatle Oz -----Original Message----- From: John Brase [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, 17 July 2011 3:19 AM To: Richard C. Wagner Cc: The Baylys; 'Alfa Digest'; [email protected] Subject: Re: [alfa] Re: Is this an Alfa? Well, that is a keeper. Thanks Richard. John Brase Indiana, USA On 7/16/2011 12:02 PM, Richard C. Wagner wrote: > > And I think what I'm saying is that it's the *spirit* and *soul* that > makes a car an Alfa. Alfas have possessed a recognizable soul since > the early days. I don't know if any of us could quantify it or even > fully qualify it, but when presented with a car, we might look at it > and say, "That's an Alfa." We might even look at a car and say, > "That's done just like an Alfa. If I didn't know better, I would have > thought that IS an Alfa." > > I think, surely, the heart of any Alfa is its engine. I've done > engine design for a living. I've developed one of the only software > engine design packages available. And every Alfa engine design I've > seen, including the flat-fours, including the V-6s, is beautiful. The > designs are well thought out, with creative and elegant solutions to > many of the problems that are encountered when designing such a > mechanism. (Ever look at the Alfa V-6? It isn't a V-6. It's a > staggered straight-six. It has balanced dynamics and an even firing > gap. That's why it sounds like a straight-six, and doesn't have that > funny warble that other V-6s have.) By contrast, the Chrysler V-10 is > a clumsy, inelegant design. It's unbalanced in its base state, and > can only be balanced using active balancers that consume power. It has > a massive valve gear that can only work up to a rather low rpm, and so > it can only generate significant power with huge displacement. None > of that is found in Alfa's designs. The V-10 is unworthy of bearing > the Alfa name. > > I think you can find the same kind of soul in Alfa's suspension > designs. Again, you see the smart, elegant solutions that are found in > the engines. Alfa's original rear end designs could easily be > considered pedestrian by many. But their light weight and lateral > fixing made them high performance designs to be sure. Even with a > solid rear axle, nothing handles like and Alfa. When Alfa decided to > make a new suspension design, for the Alfetta, they used a super low > mass torsion bar setup for the front, and a De Dion design for the > rear that combines the best aspects of solid axle and independent > suspension together in one package. There is a definite soul in > Alfa's suspension designs, too. > > You see this same kind of soul in other marques. I worked my way > through high school and college as a Honda motorcycle mechanic. The > Honda engine designs up through about 1984 had a definite soul to > them. All of us who worked on them recognized it. And we all agreed > that it disappeared around 1984, to be replaced by a different style > and different thinking. > > There is an intangible *something* that makes an Alfa an Alfa. And I > would argue that it's neither the badge nor the bodywork. -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
