The Competition Advisory Service

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

Bill Bain, advising Gregory Scott, wrote "the Alfa Competition Manual that was
put together by AROC years ago lays it all out -- you don't have to re-invent
the wheel" and  Mark Battley responded "I've heard mention of this before: is
it still available?"

The manual was put out in the late sixties by Don Black, long of ARI and until
quite recently still an employee of the company that bought Alfa Romeo, and
still a relatively quiet lurker on the digest, and by Dr. Paul Tenney of AROC,
also a silent lurker since he was hooted off as an old fud by some of the
under-fifty contingent who found his attitude - uh - archaic?. I have heard
that Tenney had a shop which somebody- Don? suggested should be named The
Factory, so people could say that their engines had come from The Factory. The
version of the manual I have was the second edition, 1971, $15.00, which was
by then published by AROC and called The Competition Advisory Service. It was
very much a labor of personal dedication of a very few individuals, done long
before there were all the modern conveniences of desktop publishing.

It is an interesting historical document, a marvelous bit of incunabula, with
details like destroking your 1750 by 4mm to get 1698.97 cc displacement to run
in the I.M.S.A. Sedan Series which has a 1700 cc displacement limit for ohc
engines -  the list of parts to convert your gearbox to a five-speed -  a rear
axle breather with burp tank for all models except TZ- . Torque specs,
clearances and timings for your two-liter V8 "33" Daytona (not, Mark, to be
confused with the FWD "33", an entirely different beast.) The parts numbers
for the stuff to convert your SPICA injected car to Lucas fuel injection.
Parts number for the magnesium bell housing to replace the heavier aluminum
part on 1300 cc and 1600 cc cars, heavy shift forks, lightweight gear lever,
where to buy ballistic nylon scattershields - the revs/mile for all the then-
current tire sizes you might use on a GTA or 33. Price lists for Autodelta-
prepared race engines, from $1,300 for a 135 hp single ignition 1300 up to
$6,400 for the 16-valve engines, whether the 195 hp 1500 cc, 210 hp 1600 cc or
225 hp 1900 cc version, plus $600 if you want the dry-sump version. $12,000
for the injected dry-sump V8 in either the 2-liter "Daytona" version or the
2.5 liter "Tasman" version. (Gregory? Piggy-bank?). But figure some inflation
on the dollars.

The two liter Daytona was rated at 257 hp at 9400 rpm, don't find output given
on the big'un.

It is marvelous browsing, my copy is NOT for sale, but I will probably find
more of direct use, for my limited purposes today, in Jim Kartamalakis' book.
(So would Gregory, I expect.) If you find a copy of the CAS in a flea market,
grab it, settle in a comfortable chair, and enjoy- 

John H.

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