Weight penalties (was: Re: daily driver - ironic twist?

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

In AD8-0037 Chris Poore rebuts a pro-DeDion argument by writing:

"The production cost and weight penalty is too great. The good weight balance
is a good idea, but not at the expense of making the over all car heavier.
Give me a nose heavy car that weighs 2300 lbs anyday."

 Later he adds "but the penalties for the rear drive is ,for me, not worth it.
Do you really want to pay an extra $5000 to $8000 extra, add about 300 lbs and
have to worry about rebuilding drive shafts and the like just to say you have
rear wheel drive? I DON'T!

 I wonder about the weights, particularly the 2300 lb nose-heavy car and the
300 lb penalty for having rear wheel drive with the weight penalty of a
DeDion. The lightest of the Fiat-era cars listed in d'Amico & Tabucchi is the
145 1.3, a two-door hatch with the Alfasud-based engine, at 1140 kg, 2,513
pounds, which doesn't make the grade for his 2300 lb nose-heavy car. The only
1.3 liter DeDion comparable in the old AR SpA lineup is the Alfetta-based four
door Nuova Giulietta tipo 116.44, at 1020 kg, 2,248 lb, 265 pounds lighter
than the 145 when it is supposed to be carrying a three-hundred pound
penalty.

 Admittedly some of the differences between weights of apparently comparable
cars listed in d'Amico & Tabucchi must be blamed on things other than
front-drive versus DeDion rear drive. D'Amico & Tabucchi give weights of 1120
kg and 1160 kg for the lightest and heaviest 75 Twin Sparks, 1200 kg and 1250
kg for the lightest and heaviest 164 Twin Sparks, and 1260 kg and 1300 kg for
the lightest and heaviest 155 Twin Sparks, the appreciably larger 164 coming
in at 80 to 90 kg over the 75 and the appreciably smaller 155 coming in at 50
to 60 kg over the 164.

 Finally he writes: "Give me a 147 GTA with 150 to 175 HP, with nothing extra,
(maybe AC). I want manual everything. I want it to weigh no more that 2500
lbs. I want superb brakes, and I want to pay no more than $22,000. That is my
idea of a perfect car."

 Lotsaluck. The weight I have seen, unofficially, for the "Alleggerita" is
3200#, as heavy as the grossly overweight Alfa Sei of the early eighties and
heavier than any other car Alfa Romeo SpA built later than 1953. I may be very
wrong but I doubt it will land here at anything near 2500# or $22,000. Ten
dollars a pound, maybe. Time will tell.

 Good luck,

 John H. (with a 75 and a 164, each nice in its way)

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