Re:Alfa Racing History

[Alex Jenner <alexj@domain.elided>]

In alfa-digest V8 #265, Jarmanhome@domain.elided writes......
>      ......Starting in 1993 with the 155GTA, right folks?   And Alfa made 
> serious attempts, if not inroads, into Formula One with the Brabham chassis, 
> something Porsche has NEVER done (except for a feeble one-season attempt in 
> the mid-1960s, as I recall).

Wouldn't like to fuel another Porsche vs. Alfa Romeo war on the digest.... 
didn't we just have one of those, but......

Alfa Romeo has had touring car racing success in virtually every decade they 
have built touring cars. 1960's, 70's, 90's have been covered, but we should 
remember that in 1980's, the GTV6 was a consistent class winner in the ETC 2.5L 
class, at least until the BMW M3 (E30) came along. Due to the way the points 
system worked, this made it the outright winner of the British Touring car 
championship in at least one year (anyone remember which year?). True, these 
were not outright ETC wins, but the GTV6 was certainly a successful touring 
car.

The GTV2.0, GTV6 and Alfasud also found success during the 1980's, in the WRC 
Group A class (this was during the years where group B was the top class), with 
class wins in international tarmac events like Monte Carlo and Tour de Corse.

I'm not sure about the comment about Formula One.... I think it's fair to call 
the TAG Turbo engine (used by McLaren in the 1980's) a Porsche engine, and 
didn't that engine win a world championship?

But in the end, these sort of discussions come down to someone arguing why this 
result counts and that other one doesn't and why ETC is/isn't more important 
than one very famous race that happens to run for 24hrs or racing across the 
deserts of Northern Africa. Not sure of anyones chances of convincing someone 
on the Porsche mailing lists, but good luck anyway :-)

Alex Jenner
Auckland/New Zealand
1 x Alfasud ti
1 x Alfasud Sprint Veloce
0 x Porsche

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