Re: dual single-circuit vs. single dual-circuit

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@domain.elided>]

JHertzman@domain.elided wrote:

lots of his usual well-researched and interesting commentary, ending
with:

> Logically the dual boosters do go with the floor-mount pedals and the single
> dual circuit master with the pendant pedals, so one can tell the circuitry
> without popping the hood.

I'd wondered about that -- it certainly made sense.  Thanks.

It also reminded me of one of the slow, wide grins I had not long after
buying the '74 Spider.  I am quite familiar with the floor-mounted pedal
box, having replaced the transmission and clutch cable (separately) on
my 1967 GT Junior and therefore seen quite a bit of it over the years. 
For those who've never seen a floor-cylinder car, the reservoir is
mounted on the firewall, fairly high up, and there's a long steel tube
that connects the bottom of the reservoir to the inlet of the master
cylinder.  So when I was first really inspecting under the hood of my
'74, I noted the difference -- the Spider looks more or less like a
modern car, with the reservoir mounted atop the master cylinder and the
large vacuum behind it.

"And it all connects into the firewall with..." I said to myself, and
looked at a shapely aluminium casting.

And I got that slow, wide grin.  Of course.  Virtually any other
carmaker would have either mounted the master cylinder directly to the
firewall or used a stamped steel box at the top of the footwell.  Just
as any other carmaker would have used a piece of stamped steel for the
oil sump and the differential housing.

Alfa could not have *avoided* putting the whole thing in a shapely
aluminium casting.  It would have violated (at the time the Spider was
constructed) 65 years of tradition, or even more if you consider (as I
do, with tongue not very far in cheek) the Alfa's finned sump to be a
direct lineal descendent, in its own way, of a Cellini saltcellar,
functional and magnificent to behold.  

Sometimes, Emerson's quote to the contrary, consistency can be a
beautiful thing.

- --Scott Fisher

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