Re: [alfa] Alfetta 'Turbina' wheels

[sherwood white <vze2skmv@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

are you looking strickly at the wheel as looks good or would better handling mean
anything at all to you or did you not know that alfa sold alfetta's that handled
better than others due to the wheels they put on?  the turbina wheels certainly
were not the better handling wheel

John Hertzman wrote:

> Arnoil@domain.elided
>
> Alfetta 'Turbina" wheels
>
> Arno Leskinen writes "Keep in mind that there are two designs of the Alfetta
> 'turbina'.  The Cromadora version is labeled 'Campanatura 45'.  The version
> sold by Cosentino is made by Campagnolo.  They differ in detail, such as
> having 3 vs. 5 indentations in the pattern.  Thus, be careful if buying wheels
> from different sources or parts cars, since they may not match and you will
> notice the difference."
>
> The "Turbina" story is a tad more complicated than that. At least among the
> ones I have, both the Cromodora (with an 'o', not an 'a', according to them)
> and Campagnolo Alfetta Turbinas are labeled "Campanatura 45". The "45" is
> useful in distinguishing between the similar-looking 105/115 wheels
> (Campanatura 38) and Alfetta wheels, but not for distinguishing between
> Cromodora wheels and Campagnolo wheels. The distinction between three
> indentations and five (in the central hub ring, between the bolt holes) is
> also not reliable; Cosentino's own catalog shows 105/115 Campagnolos with
> three indentations (on p.96) and with five indentations (on p.99) and on p.100
> a three-indentation Alfetta wheel misidentified as a 105/115 wheel. Cosentino
> also sold Cromodora wheels, listing Alfa as one of the fitments, although his
> catalog does not illustrate the Cromodora in the Turbina pattern with an Alfa
> caption.
>
> The most obvious visual distinction between 105/115 Turbinas and Alfetta
> turbinas, among the ones I have seen, is that regardless of make the Alfetta
> wheels have all of the turbine "blades" separate, while the 105/115 have all
> of the blades in siamesed pairs with the alternate recesses filled in. The
> other most obvious visual distinction between Campagnolo Turbinas and
> Cromodora Turbinas, among the ones I have seen, is that regardless of fitment
> the Campagnolos appear cruder in finish; Campagnolos were apparently
> originally sand-castings, with some perfunctory hand-finishing, and later were
> low-pressure die castings, while Cromodora used high-pressure die-casting from
> the beginning, generating smoother surfaces and sharply defined letters and
> other details, and possibly different mechanical attributes.
>
> "Campanatura" simply means offset (Fred D. taught me that, in no uncertain
> terms.) It derives from campana, bell; the campanatura is the distance to the
> back of the bellmouth from the wheel's centerline. (Campanilismo is
> parochialism, provincialism, chauvinism, being intellectually stuck in the
> shadow of the belltower of the village where one was born.) Campagnolo (with
> the all-important 'g') is similarly derived from the very different word
> campagna, countryside; it means rustic, peasant, countryman, farmer, bumpkin.
>
> There is one more twist to the offset story; while both Campagnolo and
> Cromodora made similar-looking wheels for the aftermarket as well as for the
> OEM market, neither the details nor the offsets were exactly the same; the
> Cromodora Alfetta aftermarket wheels had an offset of 36mm, not 45. Don't know
> about the aftermarket Campagnolo offset.
>
> Last footnote, Campagnolo branched out of its original bicycle-parts business
> into car wheel manufacture when it bought Amadori, a small maker of cast alloy
> wheels (seen on some early Alfa Sprint Zagatos) in 1961, and changed the name
> of its wheel-making division to TecnoMagnesio in 1981; the division was sold
> seven years later, and the name changed with a couple of ownership changes,
> but the TecnoMagnesio trade name was retained. So the current TecnoMagnesio
> 'copies' of TZ and GTA wheels, which differ in some details from the
> originals, are more legitimate descendants of the originals than knock-offs,
> which they are sometimes assumed to be.
>
> One of the culturally interesting aspects of the alloy wheel history is that
> the alloys used by Alfa on the SZ, TZ, Giulia TI Super, and GTA looked very
> much like the standard steel wheels; the point had been to have a competition
> car which looked very much like a standard production car even if the wheels
> were lighter and stronger. At some point in the late sixties the purpose was
> reversed; the point became to have production cars in the showroom which were
> obviously different, thus presumably better, whether they were as good,
> better, or worse, so every alloy became distinctly different. By the late
> seventies we had progressed to "styled steel wheels" (as on the base-level '78
> and '79 Alfettas) which were intended to look more like snazzy alloys to the
> uninitiated. Draw your own conclusions?
>
> Cheers
>
> John H.
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