Re: Cold engine - hard driving

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-697 Steve with a 164 TS in Cumbria, UK raised the Cold engine - hard 
driving question; in his new work location he is "only a minute or two from a 
dual carriageway that has a hundred or so yards sliproad before you need to 
be at 60-70 mph." From that he says his choices are "to warm the engine up in 
the car park for 10 minutes before setting off, or to redline the engine 2 
minutes later."

Excuse me, but is it that dire? Alfa does say (in the 164 3-liter manual, 
can't say about the TS) "Warm-up idling is a waste of fuel; start the car 
just before you are ready to drive." I would ask: (1) what is the most 
sluggardly car in England which can merge into that dual carriageway without 
getting rammed from behind? and, (2) can Steve's 164 TS match that 
performance without redlining the engine? 

Our Milano spent the first three years of its life as my wife's commuter; she 
started the engine when she got in, and when she finished hooking the seat 
belt she left. Two blocks later she was at a stop sign for a left turn into a 
fairly busy 50 mph rush-hour traffic. (That's lhd traffic, across one busy 
lane going one way and into another busy lane going the other way). I'm sure 
she never came close to redlining the car, and I know she never lugged it. It 
was not a long commute- about three miles- and the engine was hardly warm 
before she parked it. Not an ideal regimen for a car, but that is what that 
car was for- going to work and getting home, and if an Alfa couldn't take it 
we should have bought a different car. The car is twelve years old now, and 
doesn't seem to have been harmed.

Good luck-

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #699
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