The 1973 road tests of the Milano and the Sport sedan

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

John Heidemann (the one in Brisbane) is the only person so far to have
commented on Steve Ashby (the one in Denver) referring to the Milano as having
been road tested, along with the Alfetta Sport Sedan, in the September 1973
Road & Track in which he found the very complimentary reference to the Spica
injection system.

"Did R&T really publish a road test of this car 15 odd years before Alfa
Romeo gave it to the rest of us?  Was this a typo or what?"

The air is thin in Denver, John, and one can easily be intoxicated by the
beauty of the area. It was in fact a Montreal which was tested (two fewer
doors, two more cylinders, other detail differences-). And the other car which
was tested was not a Sport Sedan (which was the strictly USA name for the
1978-1979 Spica-equipped version of the Alfetta 2000) but a tested-in-Europe
1.8 Alfetta, an engine size which the USA never had after the 1971 1750.

I won't get into the Spica vs Weber argument, (which is complicated by many
other USA requirements), but I will note that the 1.8 Alfetta sedan European
test in 1973 had 8.6 seconds for the 0-60 time, while the same magazine's test
of the 1976 two liter (California version) sedan took 14.4 seconds- with, of
course, a much cleaner exhaust. That carbureted European sedan test was a tad
quicker than the 9.9 second 0-60 time the same magazine got with a 1750 Spica
Spider in 1969. The weights were very similar, the Spider just six pounds
heavier than the Eurosedan.

Cordially, 

John H. (the one in Raleigh)

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