enough already -

[<JHertzman@xxxxxxx>]

Graham Hilder had recently (7:002)written "Talk about handling, and talk about
willingness to rev...!!!  So this is what Alfa Nord people have been raving
about all these years, when we oursleves had only experienced these joys with
the Alfa Sud".  Somewhat later Les Singh, also from N.Z., wrote "Worse still
in my book is to call them "Nords" ... yuk! .. a designation not found
anywhere but perpetrated I believe by ignorami. (Heh, heh! this will start
something.)" I, citing something I thought Pat Braden had written, replied
"Following that logic, with which I largely agree, all the 750/101 cars are
members of the Giulietta family, even when they have the 1600 engine and the
Giulia name, all deDion cars are Alfettas, all boxers are 'Suds, and all non-
boxer fwd cars are- well, lets not open that bag of worms."

It did indeed start the off-digest discussion I had with the old-line Alfa
Romeo
traditionalist I had referred to who fulminates about people who improperly
refer to Alfa Romeos as 'Alfas', which led to the quick nose-count which Hans
de Kok found curious. He (the traditionalist, not de Kok) has now buried me
with documents bolstering his case that Alfasuds are Alfasuds, and are not
either "Suds" or "Alfas", and that the things I had been calling 'Alfas' are
neither 'Alfas' nor 'Nords' but Alfa Romeos, period, end of discussion. The
most interesting part of his documentation, to me, is that while Alfa Romeo
marketed the product the company in Pomiglano d'Arco which manufactured
Alfasuds was not Alfa Romeo, but was instead I.N.C.A., which stands for
Industria Napoletana Construzione Autoveicoli, a separate company which was
disolved by the Government after Alfa Lancia Industriale S.p.A. was formed
with the purchase of various assets by another company. He also pointed out
that while the dataplates read Alfa Romeo the VIN numbers, which start ZAR on
Alfa Romeos, started with ZAS on the Alfasuds. 

There certainly may be room for differing viewpoints. I mentioned to him that
Fusi says things like "Alfasud, first front-wheel drive Alfa Romeo car", to
which he replied "Fusi made a lot of errors, but he was so likeable, nobody
cared." The argument may go on, but without me; I respect his knowledge and
will call mine 'Alfa Romeos', with the possible exception of my wife's 164,
which was made by Alfa Lancia Indutriale and not by Alfa Romeo, no matter what
the badge says.

Now, back to things that matter.

John

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