thealfaconnection

The Alfa Connection

The Alfa sud was an obvious target for the R&D departments globally to find out what made the little car tick. The design was from the outset intended to put the engineering aspect of its ability foremost, The aspirations of many designers have to make moves to ward a certain goal , With the Sud those goals were the starting point not the finishing point. Examples The adoption of indoard brakes , to reduce unsprung weight normally a race car design feature. Siteing of the main mechanical units very low down to lower centre of gravity the flat 4 having no moment high up in car.The front suspension struts having the outer diameter of the damper unit as a sliding member spreading the side load and improving resistance to bending.The adoption of an 1186 cc powerunit giving minimal torque reaction which in turn reduced the amout that the road holding was upset by CV joint wind up this became very aparent later on when power out put climbed as did torque in thecompetition aplications eventually resorting to solid mounts for the engine.The   design of both the engine and transmission gave easy access to all the contents of the gearbox and engine bottom end for inspection by simple removal   of sump pans.from below. The compromise of the adoption of many rubber bushes to reduce the trasmission of road noise etc was a plus point but there were some negative aspects of this degree of compliance in the retention of the ideal geometry for road holding especially when taken to the extreemes in competition.
All the technical aspects of this car were in a way to show the traditional Alfa Plant outside MILAN   that the   government decision to take employment to the south of Italy could be a big social advantage to the area south of Rome, was in fact a sound one , The advanced design and the many excelent oportunities for the natural flair for engineering that the Italians have to manifest itself would surely produce something special and in fact they did . The establishment of a plant this size staffed by fresh ex agricultiral labour was bound to take time to settle down , and get the corect degree od inspection and quality control inplace

THE ALFA SUD

UNDER
CONSRUCTION

Estate (gardinetta) series1multi -link to history of all sorts of motors

Link to sud seccessors

Rudi Hurska sud designer

The sud factory outside naples
with own test track on site

Portello factory circa 1958 after wartime reconstruction

The Arese production centre and museum at present

The initial dealer launch went well and we had Dickie Davies as our promotional Celeb to present the award to anALFA run "win a car" competition 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 metal moth was in some cases quite severe , This led Alfa to carry out far reaching tests and develop production treatments that compleatly negated the threat from this most formidable enemies. Many rumours arose but to anyone that knew the normal reaction of UK steel to UK weather the finger had to point to the actual structure of the steel itself for it to disintegrate in such a manner was something we in the UK had never seen previously.Alfa put into place a damage limitation exersice with remedial work under extended warranties , whilst carrying out urgent upgrades on the whole steel husbandry whilst it was in the process of becoming a car.
Two door cars were intoduced as Sud TI , Benifiting from the weight saving the the lack of two doors gave. Various engine size
options came along as time went on , including a sprint (GT type Shape) and an estate car the Gardinetta.

Tv personality Dickie Davies came to present a new Alfa to a cutomer that had won one in an Alfa competition