re: 105 engine rationalization

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

In AD8-0242 Dana Loomis asks about 105 (and implicitly 115/116) engine
rationalization, whether (as opposed to in the USA) in the rest of the world
where these engines continued side by side for another decade or two, the
designs were rationalized so they were identical except for the displacement?
He suspects the answer is yes - - and I suspect he is right.

 There is (or was) a multi-model 'Catalogo Rapido' for a wide range of the 105
cars (Euro only, no Spica) of which I am happy to have a photocopy, and there
is a similar Catalogo Rapido for the USA Alfettas (which I also have) and I
expect there was a Catalogo Rapido for the Euro 116 cars - some of them,
anyway. The 105 Catalogo Rapido suggests that the answer to his question is a
fairly flat 'yes', but also gives weight to the differences in car model names
which an American might otherwise ignore. E.g. on the oil filter question
which he used as an example, the old-style canister was used on the Giulia
T.I, Giulia Super, GT Junior, Spider Junior, 1300 Giulia Super, and the 1750,
but the spin-on filter was used on the Giulia Super 1.3, Giulia Super 1.6, GT
Junior 1.3 and 1.6, and Spider 1.3 and 1.6 as well as the 2000. If there had
been a GT Junior 1.8 it clearly would have followed the Junior 1.3 and 1.6 and
Giulia Super 1.6 and 1.3 rather than the earlier Giulia Super and its
contemporaries. The variant-deprived American can go back to d'Amico &
Tabucchi to learn that the Giulia Super 1.6 (as distinct from the 1600 cc
Giulia Super) was introduced in 1972, as was the 1600 cc version of the GT
Junior and the Spider 1600 Junior and, of course, the 2000.

 There were undoubtedly some short-lived anachronisms (as there apparently was
on the briefly prolonged life of the stepnose coupe as a Junior); the GT 1300
Junior (as distinct from the Giulia 1300 GT) came out in 1974 rather than
1972, but generally rationalization, where possible, seemed to be the norm.
Surely it was manufacturing rationalization, rather than a love for seriously
oversquare proportions, that accounted for the "1300" switching from the
original 1290 cc 74 x 75 mm proportion to the 1357 cc 80 x 67.5 mm proportion
used on the 116 Giuliettas, sharing its bore and probably parts and tooling
with the 1.8.

 A clear precedent in rationalization at Alfa was the 'cambio unificato'
introduced in 1958 in both four and five speed versions for the 101 Giulietta
and the 102 ironblock two-liter. Also when the alloy-block twin cam engine was
introduced, used first on the Romeo trucks before any Giulietta was built, an
account which I read in 'The Autocar' spoke of the company developing, for
production economy, a single engine which could be used in trucks, economy
sedans, and more performance-oriented sports cars.

 John H.

Raleigh, N.C.

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