Alfa front suspension, perversions, torsionbars and origins

[t_kramer@domain.elided]

Hi,
After all these questions/remarks the last days about coil-overs and 
other perversions of a perfectly well designed Alfa front suspension,I 
have some questions about the origins and development of Alfa IFS 
with the longtudinal torsionbars.
I have a 1990 75 TS with this suspension, and as I said it works well 
for me, but now I want to know more about it's origins.

When reading the magazine  "Motorklassik" (German )from 11-2001 
I saw an article about a Californian owned Pegaso Z-102 Touring 
(www.classics.com/pgss01.html) designed by Don Alfredo Ricart. It 
has the same front suspension setup as my 75, it even has a 
transaxle with the gearbox at the back and the brake(drums)placed 
adjacent to the gearbox with a De Dion suspension and  longitudinal 
torsionbars at the back. So a kind of a blueprint of the 116 chassis.

Also I remember that the Ricart designed 1940 512 racecar (1490cc 
and  some 335 HP at 8600RPM! in 1940) and the 6C2000 prototype 
(aka Gazelle, by Trevisan) had the same suspension system.

So I would appreciate it very much if someone could point me to 
literature/webmaterial where I can find out more about this subject.
I would also like to know who else used this type of front suspension,
In fact I think it could have been perfectly combined with a real 
double wishbone system(a la Honda); very low unsprung weight.

On another matter; after some 150000 miles my trusty 75 gets rather 
tired, yesterday I went to my Alfa dealer to talk business, I think I'll 
buy a secondhand 156 next year, the new model 156 will arrive in 
february they told me, so there is a lot of choice of used 156's next 
year. A nice one will be about $10-15.000. Sorry guys, couldn't 
resist.

As the TS engine is, in my opinion, by far the best part of the 75 I 
am already looking for a nice 105 Bertone GTV chassis to make a 
rather fast GTV with some 175 HP (give or take few HP).
But that's another story.
Ciao,
Tamme Kramer
Amsterdam Holland

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