Re: alfa-digest V8 #476 1970's hp

["Anne O" <marinefuel@domain.elided>]

So much catching up to do, New York is not having a winter this 
year. With temperatures in the 50's F it is more compelling to
drive the Alfa rather than read about Alfas.

I have a published horsepower claim for a 70's Alfa- the owners
manual for my former 1973 lists 129 SAE net for the Berlina,GTV
and Spider, with the caution "This is a new horsepower rating
measured with a new procedure which should not be compared with
previous power ratings.". This mandatory new "SAE net" rating
was for as it would be installed, with all accessories.


Until 1973,horsepower ratings in the US were very creative-SAE
horsepwer was measured without any accessories-alternators,water
pumps, etc. giving very optimistic numbers not related to real
world use. European cars listed horsepower in both DIN which was
with all accessories as the engine would be used and as SAE to
make their horsepower look more impressive.You can't use a
percentage formula to compare pre 1973 SAE hp to any other
standard.The best comparison is pre 1973 DIN to post 1973 SAE
net.

KW is killowatts, a standard onto itself. KW x 1.341= HP. KW net
horsepower is with all accessories.

Happy comparing.

Anne O
>
> I have not yet been able to locate a published
> horsepower claim for the U.S.-market Spica/105.20 cars
> (prior to 1977), which is itself interesting;
> unattributed oral tradition claims that the stated
> horsepower for 1972-74 2L Alfa engines in U.S. trim
> was "about 125."  My question, and it was (or was
> meant to be) a question rather than an assertion,
> centered around the net/gross differences which have
> caused enthusiasts so much confusion over the past 30
> years; the details of these differences are also not
> widely documented.  In the absence of definitive
> statements (should such statements be found, and found
> to be trustworthy, which would appear to be two
> distict tasks, probably of comparable magnitude), I
> located published data which indicate that net power
> (expressed in KW -- 112KW gross and 95KW net) is
> approximately 84% that of gross power.  That, of
> course, is net and gross by an unstated standard
> (DIN?).

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