[alfa] Acronyms and initials and Russian rust

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Star automobile which George Herbert Skinner bought in France in 1903 (leading to the new SU carburetter) was probably Italian; there may have been other Stars (just as there were other Alfas) but one Star was the Societa Torinese Automobili Rapid, one of the several, mostly acronymed, makes associated with the brothers Ceirano  Spa, the Societa Piemontese Automobili; Scat, the Societa Ceirano Automobili Torino, and of course Fiat. Which is mainly to say that the seriously acronym-averse may be handicapped in the world of automobili Italiani. Alfa was undoubtedly the best known long-lived acronym after Fiat, but its predecessor company Siad shared the 'S' list with the Siac, Sial, Siam (twice; two companies in different decades), Siata, Sic, Sidea, Silva, Sima, Sims, Siva, Sive,, Smig, Smim, Stae, and Sva as well as the previously mentioned Star, Spa, and Scat.
 
FWIW, I am extremely skeptical about the "Russian Steel" story. The worst rust, by far, that I have seen on Italian carbodies dates from the earlier period when the low-production, artisanal industry was fumbling a transition from one-at-a-time handwork, frequently in Aluminum, to assembling pressed steel panels which were punched out at a rate far higher than finished sales, resulting in long storage of unpainted unassembled panels and/or stashes of assembled but unfinished bodies in less than ideal storage conditions. I can't prove the numbers, but the hundred or so Arnolt-MGs which Bertone built over a two year period, (through early 1955) in aluminum, apparently had nothing like the problems which plagued the earliest pressed-steel-paneled Giulietta Sprints which Bertone built starting in 1955  same workers, same management, but an unfamiliar material and processes. A terminally rusted 1956 Sprint which I parted-out still showed unpainted bare steel behind the headliner. Similarly the largely handmade aluminum shell of a 1956 Touring 1900 coupe I had was in relatively good shape compared to the horrendously rusted 1962 2000 Spider I have which was nominally also built by Touring but assembled from steel panels pressed by Ilca. It is easy, and tempting, to scapegoat tools, materials, the government, the unions, or anything but inexperience, ignorance or expedience; Russian steel may not have been the best, but I doubt that Swedish steel, or American, or German, or Korean, would have fared much better in the same places and the same times.
 
Cheers
 
John H.
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