Cromodora Daytonas and Cromodora Daytonas

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Responding to my suggestion of the "the original style Cromodora 'Daytona' 
star" Scott Fisher wrote "De gustibus, etc.  I'd thought Robin Boyar's 
original request was for suggestions that went beyond the ubiquitous, if 
appropriate, Daytona wheels".

I would demur, and say that in my neighborhood at least the original 
Cromodora Daytonas are rare as hen's teeth, while an Alfa production wheel 
that looks similar, at first glance, on a dark night, is indeed ubiquitous. 
The original Cromodora from the early seventies, the 14" x 6" CD 35 for 
Alfas, and CD 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, and 45 for Fiats, Alfasuds, Opels, 
Capris, BMWs, Porsches, VW, & Mercedes with various bolt-circles in 13 x 
5-1/2 as well as 14 x 6 x sizes all had the five spokes extending out to the 
rim, while Alfa in 1982 started using a variant which interposes a deep 
trench between a pre-rim and the real rim. Lord knows why, as is often the 
case with Alfa's unique ways. Suffice it to say that in some eyes the 
difference is vast. The original version (which had a suggested retail price 
of $70 in 1975) was out of production for many years, and is now back in 
production, being sold by Linea Rossa, IAP and undoubtedly many others for 
prices around $225.

I did not mean to insult anyone with my remarks about Minilites and their 
Japanese copies. The Minilite is an exemplary piece of rational design, 
functional, sensible, strong, light, all the other good adjectives, which the 
British can do very well when they do it at all well. My quibble is that the 
Italians transcend such mundane objectivity, sometimes falling on their faces 
with, at best, extremely charming idiosyncrasies, but at other times 
producing a timeless masterpiece. The "Bertone" coupes are in this 
masterpiece class, and to my eyes the CD-35 wheel makes the grade also, and 
they go together very well. There have been scores of copies and derivatives, 
including the '82-up Spider wheel, which don't quite make the cut.

The wheels with round holes with raised lips are the product of a formal 
evolution going back to the 6C2300 in the mid thirties, with depressed lips 
and squared-off outer perimeters. The raised lip on oval holes appeared 
around 1953 on the 1900. There were numerous small variations , triovals and 
squared-off kidney shapes through the Giulietta and early Giulia years, but 
from the mid sixties until the 1978 Alfetta pure round holes with raised lips 
were the standard on steel wheels. It is noteworthy that the early Alfa 
alloys followed the steel-wheel patterns, looking as normal as possible 
rather than as different as possible, which seems to be the target with many 
present-day alloys.

The history of alloys on road cars is out of my realm, but Ferrari was using 
alloys with Alfa-like round holes/raised lips in 1965 and the five star 
Cromodora in 1967 on the (ta-ta!) Daytona. Alfa's first "cosmetic" or styled 
alloy was a Fergat on the 1750 which appears to be identical to the Cromodora 
CD 22; conical at the hub, flat face leading out to a dozen rectangular 
holes, with a dozen slightly raised ribs across the face. With the 2000 (and 
the Montreal) Alfa went to the "Turbina" style, then flirted briefly with a 
dished-face Campagnolo and an odd one-year-only multiribbed wheel on the 
Sport Sedan at the end of the decade and then on to the familiar GTV-6 wheels 
and the trench-rimmed Daytona on the Spider. Just when the CD-35 Daytona 
first became available I can't say, but my impression is that in the early 
seventies it was the wheel-of-choice, while the four-spoke BWA Sportstars 
were popular with those on a tighter budget. It is Robin's choice, anyhow; I 
would go with the CD-35, but it isn't my car.

Cheers, 

John H. 

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