THE RISING of the SUD
During my years with Don at Cambridge place our� visits� to� the motor� show were always rounded of� by us all meeting up at the Alfa�Romeo Stand, the purity of thought� that these crafted� cars� represented  evrything that Don  �had held dear,� engineering masterpieces� that held� a magic of their own, although� not always� an adequate� apreciation in those� days of� the� needs of the car to� withstand� the rigours� of a British winter.
Arthur Taylor came to see me one� day at� the Tonge� Moor� workshop in Bolton he had found� an� article� with sneak previews� of the new small� car� from Alfa.taken through a hole in a fence ?� as the petrol head ?paparatsi do.The� car was heavily� disguised but is general size and shape was very close� to the eventual product,
It� was� his� opinion� that� this car should� sell well� in the UK and if the expertise that Alfa Romeo  obviously possessed� was focused on this project it should be� a roaring success.Time� passed and as such� the current workshop was� not� suitable if� sales� were to be seriously contemplated .
  Arthur  proposed  that he  would  Like� to fund� the relocation to a purpose-built operation.� He� would� run �this as MD using the expertise and knowledge of the rest of the ?Westune team� for� support�.
The wheels� were set in motion and negotiations commenced with Alfa GB� as it was then at Staples Corner,London.� A� location selected and designs discussed and finalised . from the taking of the decision the whole thing was up and running in app� 12 months.
The State of the Art factory that Alfa built on land they owned  from their aircraft days . Pomigliano D-Arco. just out side of Naples in southern Italy.   Many computer  controlled  multilevelled feeder systsems via over head rails  delivering compenent assemblies in the correct order for assembly. This sophistication  was intended to enable employment workers that  were of  non engineering backgrounds  in  the south of Italy to help  with the development of this prevously predominantly agricultiral area.
Traditionally� we always� got new models app 12 months after the Italian launch� several reasons� were put� forward� I� think It was the� relative annoyance that the RHD� cars presented� to the factory that caused� this delay.The� alteration of all� production�� systems�� for the physical� production of cars that had a potential of being such a small� proportion of the total� numbers produced.was� rather an� annoyance to� the factory
The  first  UK poduction RHD cars were on their way from Pomigliano in the shadow of  Veuvius  just outside Naples. They were shipped prepared and transported to the launch Venu The Alveston Manor Hotel  near Stratford on Avon .The  demonstrators were paid for and the dealers were to go down for an official presentation and launch of this new  car on which so much was relying
This is the unit  built  by Artur  Taylor for the sole purpose of selling and servicing Alfa  cars in the North Manchester  area.
The  trip  home from the launch I remember well , first inpressions were as  we expected , a  few observations made  about the little  car  (not  realy so little  by todays  standards ) could realy be summed up best by saying just like  a Mini  with all the Mini faults put right. Quiet  and  easy to drive. When fully warm we noted a distinct clanking from the transmission.?? at  idle,   no fault with it  when driving.  This  anoyance was  reported by us imediatly to ARGB .  they had  no  sugestions We did  a series of tests on the problem and decided that the noise  was in act a magnification of he normal noise made by the transmission, when the Synchro mechanisms  were free to foat at  idle in neutal he audio level incresed by the special to the uk  specific  steel rear gear lever support extension
This  was and elongated steel  box the front end of which attached  direct to the rear cover of the gearbox,. The  rear end of the extension carried the gear lever  assy,the  "sound box " was filled with sound deadening material and the noise nuisence was gone round   one to Westune.The alteration to the original  design had been insisted on after an  impact test  snapped the original cast aluminium item , the jagged edge penetrating the floor. The  initial  dealer launch  went well and  we  had Dickie Davies as our  promotional  Celeb the demonstrations  booked and sales began to build . The only  real  headache  was the ominous  signs of  emergence of the one shortcoming that this little  gem had was, its  inadequate  corrosion  reistance. 
The  Alfa  Sud from the veryfirst day it arrived  was seen  as  a car  that would be   upgraded  by the many keen alfa  people for the purpose of competition it  was not concievable that Alfa  would make a car that was of  no use in this field.  To this end the new cars that were supplied to the UK were initialy only  1186cc  with single  choke  weber or solex or delorto carb  the Ti  versions  came with  single  twinchoke webers ,on suitably diferent manifolding.   The four  speed  transmission was replaced by a 5 speed unit to give  the car  longer legs as  the HP  rose. 
As the popularity of the little car grew it was not long before the call  for more Torque  and power was listend  to and ugrades came as the factory decided to supply, Capacities increased through 1300 and 1350 and 1500 finishing up at 1700 cc  in quad cam  16valve form . 
             IN         PROGRESS
The  sud as a competition car
The  marketing of the  Sud  was a  more normal  undertaking initially as its  original market segment  was intended to be the 4/5seat  family car, However the call for more performance was understood   loud and clear by the factory,the  competition potential  in the UK was to some degree limited unlike the Italian Go-faster market  by the fact that at the time our national; saloon car chamionship was run under FIA Rules,the Italians soon had a range of goodies in production for the Alfa Sud  turning it into  a very good  competition car raced in Itally under the  name of the Tropheo Alfa Sud.with its own series of events   in  Italy  and the near  continent,  we  in the uk  however had our own  motor manufacuring  enities to support at  that  time . To  this end   our  national championship was a  multiclass structure  run under FIA the regulations prevailing  at the time . This made it a truly international  entity, producing good racing in many classes throughout the quite large fields
THE  FIA
  Breifly  this is an  organisation that has been based in Paris for many years that is the central concern that oversees all  major  championship  in all sorts of racing fields  from F1  to saloon  car racing.The FIA has areas of influence in many aspects of motoring  from car design to race circuit design, etc it liases with the manufacturers  on many areas of motoring  suitability..
For  a car to be deemed to be eligable its  maufacturer has to staisfy the FIA  that the car being submitted for registration  is in fact consistent with the product coming from the factory to this end it specification papers have to be cleared By the FIA as genuine and correct in  evry smallest detail for  component weights to  consruction materials and design This  document lodged with  the FIA is the Form of Recognition for obvious reasons. regulations for all  forms of motor sport  are controlled  by the FIA who  hold a powerful  watching brief  over the sport to act  quickly as  the need  arrises  to  make effective changes  to preparation regulations  Etc to maximise  on the  risk reducing aspects of what is realy a dangerous  Sport..
It wa sdiscussed  and decided  that the heritage of the marque  was best served  by a presence  in the competition  field to this  end ou  first alocated   1500cc  Alfa  Sud Ti   JEN 99P was delivered  some  rapid  early miles put on it   and  preparation went  ahead a pace  for the Tourist Trophy  at Silverstone the heads  were  worked  and we fitted one of our own  twincarb kits  using a pair of synchronous  downdraught  Weber   carbs , the  factory   were in the prosess of producing  an  uprated 1500  with their own setup which was adopted as the norm  later  as the improved breathing alowed the little engine to breath and  real  strides  were made on the  way to making the car a real  competition car.  This  was only possible as the  TT was run under a  more  liberal set of regulations to our UK  touring car  championship where  we could  only  using the HOMOLOGATED items  as registered   with the FIA .          


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