chapter 6
This page is dedicated to the memory of Pat Braden who died on August 25, 2002.
Chapter 7
A Pinnacle
Some seeds, planted deep, take a long time to sprout. The settlement
imposed by the allies on the Germans at the end of the first world war
virtually guaranteed the second. While the winners were reveling in the
roaring '20s, the losers were groping to pull themselves out of a
political, social and economic depression.
Italy was still operating as a collection of city states when Mussolini
began organizing the fascist party at war's end. By 1922, his party was
strong enough to march against King Victor Emmanuel III and demand
that Il Duce be made prime minister. Thereafter, by sheer hooliganism,
Mussolini was able to consolidate his power as the undisputed ruler of
Italy. A year after Mussolini marched on his King, Hitler attempted to
seize the Bavarian government but failed and was jailed, just long
enough, it seems, to write Mein Kampf. The worldwide depression of
1929 was enough to catapult him to the chancellorship in 1933 and
absolute control of the country by 1934, when President Hindenburg
died. In 1933, Alfa Romeo, foundering in the depression, was
nationalized under the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI).
Mussolini and Hitler both used a sense of national second-classness to
rally their constituencies, and both were committed to dispelling it by
racing automobiles. While Germany and Italy were equally committed to
fielding world-championship teams, Germany had first to rebuild its
industry, then supply Hitler's war machine. As a result, the racing
SS-series Mercedes of the early 1930s were old designs and nothing new
was attempted until the last half of the decade. In contrast, Fiat's
success in the grands prix in the early 1920s and Alfa's succession to
championship in 1925 left the Italians with a clear automotive superiority
going into the 1930s. Though Hitler never considered the car to be
anything more than a propaganda medium, it seems that Mussolini was
something of an enthusiast, switching his allegiance from Lancia to Alfa
Romeo as that marque continued to pile up victories.
Luigi Fusi has always disparaged Merosi for not being able to translate
race-car into passenger-car practice. We've already mentioned
Merosi's inability to use design details of the 1914 GP car in the RL
series, and his fumbling attempt to update the design in the ill-fated
GPR. The observation clearly favors Fusi's mentor, Vittorio Jano who,
we can well imagine, was under great pressure from Mussolini to create
a "road-going P2." Indeed, it's comfortable to consider the wonderful
series of 6-cylinder cars which Jano designed after the P2 to be little
more than streetable versions of that great racer. In some gross details,
they were: the engines of both offered twin overhead camshafts and
hemispherical combustion chambers and they ran with virtually identical
chassis. Indeed, the most sporting of the 6-cylinder cars was even
supercharged. While Bugatti was making great success selling
"road-going grand prix cars," Alfa certainly aspired to more comfort and
reliability for its passengers and it provided it in unmatched form with
the 6C1500 series introduced in 1925 at the
Milan auto show.
The first Jano passenger-car engine displaced 1.5 liters. A cast-iron
detachable head and a cast-iron block sat on an aluminum alloy
crankcase. A deep aluminum sump carried a cross shaft, driven by a gear
at the rear of the crankshaft, for the generator, water and oil pumps. The
engine was designed to accommodate several stages of tune, represented
by a single-overhead camshaft unit developing 44 hp, while a twin-cam
head with hemispheric combustion chambers for the 6C1500 Sport gave
54 hp. The supercharged 6C1500 Super Sport also had twin cams and
developed 76 hp. A high-compression engine, essentially the Super Sport
without supercharger, developed 60 hp. All engines shared a bore/stroke
of 62/82 mm and had compression ratios between 5.5 and 6.75 to 1.
These high-speed engines (4200-4500 rpm) were mated to a 4-speed
non-synchromesh gearbox. An enclosed driveshaft featured a single
flexible joint at the end of the gearbox and springing was by
semi-elliptics front and rear. Large-diameter mechanical brakes were
finned radially to promote cooling and 18 in. wire wheels were standard.
These cars were notable for the diminutive size of their engines yet
offered remarkable output and high average speeds. They carried
everything from sedan bodies to 2-seat roadsters, the former most
frequently from Castagna and the latter from Zagato. While the heaviest
of sedans was hardly capable of much over 60 mph, the light
supercharged spiders could exceed 90 and offered superb roadholding.
They were an immediate success and have proved remarkably durable
cars over the years.
In 1928, Jano offered a slightly modified 6C1500 Super Sport intended
for competition use. The engine of this car followed the lead of the P2
in that its head was cast in unit with the cylinder block. These 6C cars
are referred to as testa fissa, or fixed-head models. Though compression
was only 5.25:1, the engines developed 84 hp at 5000 rpm, an
astonishing speed only 500 rpm lower than the P2.
In 1929, the 6C line was enlarged from 1487 to
1752 cc and power went
up to 46 for the single-cam engine, 55 for the twin cam and 85 for the
supercharged model. Again, a non-supercharged high-compression
version was offered at 64 hp and a fixed-head racing version fetched 95
hp, enough to safely exceed 100 mph with a light Zagato body.
It is no understatement to say that these 6-cylinder cars from Jano rank
very near the top of any list of the world's greatest automobiles. They
offered a combination of style and performance which was unmatched
for their day. The casting work on these engines, especially the finned
intake manifold, has to be seen to be believed. In spite of their jewel-like
appearance, the engines were wonderfully reliable. They also proved to
be the ideal mount for Mussolini's nationalistic posturing. Compared to
the heavy Sindelfingen bodywork of Hitler's 540K and 770K Mercedes
carriages, they were grace incarnate.
KTUD Alfa Romeo main page!
Copyright March, 1996
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