Blowing away (was: Unsane at any speed?)

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

I was a tad surprised to see Michael Smith writing what he did in AD8-0579,
about Auto Unions and Alfas, including of the "infamous" Auto Unions that "in
1935 these mighty misguided missiles were blown away by an Alfa Romeo P3,
predecessor to the famed Alfetta 158." Predecessor in a sense, as both had the
same badge, as do the new "GTA" and the old GTA, but otherwise little
connection, the P3 (tipo B) having been designed by Jano for Alfa Romeo and
the very different 158 being an all-new car designed by Colombo for the
Scuderia Ferrari.

 "Blown away" is a rather strong interpretation. In 1935, in addition to
Nuvolari's magnificent win in the German GP, Alfa took first overall in the
Marne GP at Reims and in the Coppa Ciano, but Mercedes took Monaco, the Eiffel
Races, Penya Rhin, the French GP, Belgian GP, Swiss GP, and Spanish GP, while
Auto Union took Tunis, the Coppa Acerbo and the Italian GP at Monza. In fact
the Auto Unions took the Italian GP at Monza, Alfa's home turf, in 1935, 1936,
and 1938, while Mercedes took it in 1934 and 1937. Alfa had indeed won it in
1924, 1925, 1931, 1932 and 1933. Blown away?

 Michael also wrote "So, yes, Ferdinand Porsche was a silver tongued devil and
not much of an automobile engineer." One of the cars which Porsche designed
for Mercedes was the SS Mercedes, which in its SSK version was the victor in
the Mille Miglia over the 8C 2300 Alfa.

 Derek Ealy in #581 has already correctly addressed Michael's assertion that
it was a handling fault attributable to the swing axle which caused the death
of Bernd Rosemeyer. The car was the fully enclosed streamliner (not "somewhat
streamlined") running for records on the Frankfurt-Darmstadt autobahn at
around 270 mph; the sidewinds which came up during the runs were made somewhat
gusty by the presence of intermittent wooded patches and crossroads. Low
downforce aerodynamics,the wind, and Rosemeyer's excessive self-confidence,
not the car's design, caused the accident.

 Some corrections to my reply in #580 to Scott Fisher. The early rear-engined,
swing axle GP car I mentioned was not designed by Porsche, it was a 1923
two-liter car built by Benz, while Porsche had been responsible for the
two-liter front engined Mercedes GP cars built by Daimler at the same time,
one of which took the Targa Florio in 1924. (Alfa didn't win the Targa Florio
until 1930; the intervening years had been all-Bugatti.) The Porsche
connection with the rear engined car was that one of the 1923 cars had been
run successfully in hillclimbs in 1924 and 1925 by Adolph Rosenberger; in
1932, while Porsche was still doing race-car development work for Mercedes,
Rosenberger and Dr. Porsche formed an independent company, the Hochleistungs
Fahrzugbau, to develop a rear-engined race car, the P-Wagen, which was later
the basis for the Auto Union. Both Mercedes and Auto Union started with swing
axles, which Alfa adopted for the Type C in 1938; Mercedes adopted the De Dion
in 1937, Auto Union adopted it in 1938, and Alfa followed in 1940.

 I've never owned a Porsche, never wanted one, probably never will, but the
old man, who had been Chief Engineer for Austro-Daimler ten years before Alfa
was founded, does not need our recognition or respect. His record was long,
and stands comparison with the best anywhere.

 John H.

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