Swing axles in The Dark Ages (was: Re: Porsche spinn-out (with Alfa content)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

In AD8-0574 Scott Fisher wrote:

"the 300SLR had its engine in front (all 285 bhp of it, good for more than 170
mph in the early 1950s), but it also had swing-axle rear suspension like the
356 Porsche and many prewar racing Alfas -- I wonder in fact whether it might
be possible to make the case that the 300SLR used a swing-axle rear *because*
of the success of the prewar Alfas, but I don't know enough about Mercedes
competition history to know when they introduced their swing-axle racing cars.
The counterpart to John Hertzman for Daimler-Benz history (or prewar Grand
Prix in general) is cordially invited to fill me in; I'd love to know more."

Don't know if there is, or should be, a 'counterpart to John Hertzman' for any
of that, but I'll take a tentative stab, with the caveat that all of my few
Mercedes, Porsche, other German, prewar, and Grand Prix books are stored at
the other house. That said, if half of my recollections from Pommeroy are
half-right, Scott may be risking the historological equivalent of terminal
oversteer.

Dr. Porsche had used a swing axle (and rear engine) on an abortive but serious
Grand Prix car even before Daimler and Benz merged in the early-mid twenties,
and a decade later both Auto Union and Mercedes were usually beating Alfas and
Bugattis with their swing-axle (and ifs) GP cars while the Bugattis and
Ferrari's Alfas were still on semi-elliptic sprung solid axles at both ends.
In 1935 the Type B was modified to fit Bugatti-style quarter elliptics (thus
much less unsprung weight) on the still non-independent rear and Dubonnet ifs
(also used less elegantly by Chevrolet) on the front, and it was with this car
that Nuvolari scored his justly legendary upset of the Germans in the German
GP, with more credit usually attributed to the driver than to the valiant but
obsolete car.

In that same year of 1935 Jano adopted for the road Alfas, the 6C 2300 B, the
rear suspension which was subsequently used on the Type C, 308, 312, and 316
GP cars, the 158 monoposto voiturette, and the 8C 2900 and 6C 2500 cars over
the next decade; Fusi correctly describes this 1935-and-later Alfa rear
suspension as "ponte posteriore di tipo pendolare Porsche", "Porsche-type
swinging-axle". The front suspension on all of these was also what seems to be
a straight lift from Porsche's Auto Union, upper and lower trailing arms on
both sides, but with a complicated walking-beam actuation of the coil springs
to get around Porsche's simple use of simple torsion bars. (Transverse leaf
spring on the 158 but with the same geometry.) Somewhat later (about 1937?)
the Germans, Mercedes certainly and I believe Auto Union also, went to a De
Dion rear axle which Ricart, at Alfa, later used on the rear-engined Tipo 512
of 1940 and which Satta still later used in developing the 158 into the
magnificent 159 in 1951.

The "success of the prewar Alfas" which Scott referred to is certainly a
source of just pride, but probably should be qualified and not overstated.
Alfa's annual mopping-up of the Mille Miglia was typically in races contested
by thirty or so Alfas, fifty or sixty Fiats, two or three Maseratis, a
Bianchi, a mongrel private-entry Lancia, and perhaps one MG. There were two
one-car private entries of a Mercedes, the first an exploratory run and the
following year a first-overall against the 8C 2300s, not too shabby a
performance although often ignored: ARI published a brief Alfa history which
included the year of the Mercedes win as one of the unbroken string of Alfa's
first-overalls, and Scott refers to the 1955 Moss-Jenks Mercedes SLR win as
"the first and (I believe) only time a non-Italian car won that most Italian
of races." It is relatively easy to miss a loss. The Targa Florio was also a
mainly-Italian event with a sprinkling of Bugattis, which often did well, and
few other foreign entries. Le Mans was mainly a French, British, and Alfa
affair, and the 8C 2300 did very well indeed, the 2900 and 2500 considerably
less well. I do not mean to belittle Alfa's marvelous record, but I do feel
that it deserves to stand on its own without exaggeration.

Tomorrow I will go by the stacks and probably read a few refutations of my
selective recollections. Hey, it happens.

Enjoy yours,

John H.

Raleigh, N.C.

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