Re: quote without comment

[Alan Lambert <lechefgerard@domain.elided>]

I thought I'd read this before spouting my own version--George said it
all--maybe someone should send the post to the New York Times????


--- George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided> wrote:
> on 7/14/02 11:08 AM, alfa-digest at owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided
> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 10:00:44 -0400
> > From: "John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>
> > Subject: quote without comment
> > 
> > The New York Times has a "Sunday Styles" section which fills a slot
> similar to
> > that of the funny pages of the lesser journals of the hinterlands.
> There,
> > today, on page six, under the headline "Cherry Red and Worry-Free",
> was a
> > three-column photo of a Spider, complete with BWA wheels. The
> article is about
> > it and its owner, an upscale mechanic to the vintage cars of
> show-business
> > glitterati like Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Simon; "he also owns his
> share of
> > them, including a couple of Ferraris, a couple of Audis, and a '57
> Chevy. But
> > when it comes to naming his favorite, Mr. Pilla picks the car he
> drives most
> > often: his little Alfa Romeo convertible."
> > 
> > "The Alfa Romeo is, more precisely, a 1986 Quadrifoglio Graduate
> Spider, in
> > cherry red. Quadrifoglio refers to the car's four-cylinder,
> four-valve engine;
> > Graduate, means it is a step up from the previous model; and Spider
> denotes a
> > convertible. The year is also important, because 1986 is when the
> carburetor
> > was replaced by fuel-injection."
> > 
> > There is a lot more- "for a 36-year-old design, it looks are almost
> as au
> > courant as the new Ford Thunderbird" - but the final paragraph is
> something of
> > a letdown. "Mr Pilla's little Alfa, as pristine as it is, appeals
> to him in
> > part because of its modest status. 'Sure, I love driving the Audi',
> he says,
> > 'but lets face it, one person opens his car door on it and your
> nice drive is
> > over. With the Alfa, I don't have to worry.'"
> > 
> > YMMV - -
> 
> I wonder how much of the NY Times (and other news media, for that
> matter)
> content is as error-filled as is this one article? If this level of
> journalism is the norm, one couldn't believe anything one reads in
> the
> newspaper at all!
> 
> First of all, Quadrifoglio means 4-leaf clover -a longtime Alfa Romeo
> icon-
> not 4 cylinder and to my knowledge, no "Guilia" engined (1600, 1750,
> 2000cc)
> consumer model ever had 4 valves/cylinder. The 2-liter "Twin Spark" 4
> cylinder engine of the late eighties and early nineties DID HAVE
> 4-valves/cylinder, but that engine was never in a Graduate model and
> in
> fact, was never imported officially into the USA. The name "Graduate"
> is a
> belated marketing "homage" to the 1967 Dustin Hoffman film of the
> same name
> in which his character drives a red Alfa Duetto Spider. The
> "Graduate" model
> was only sold in North America, and was basically a stripped-down
> spider
> with manual wind-up windows instead of power windows, cheaper
> interior trim,
> no AC, no leather, etc. It is not a step-up from anything. And
> finally, 1986
> is NOT the year when carburetors were replaced by fuel-injection,
> that
> occurred in 1969 in North America when the Webber carburetors were
> replaced
> by SPICA mechanical fuel-injection. The rest of the world continued
> with
> Webber carburetors until 1982, when, in the North American market,
> the SPICA
> mechanical setup was replaced by Bosch electronic fuel-injection and
> in
> other Alfa markets, the Webbers were replaced by the same Bosch
> L-Jetronic
> system that same year.
> 
> How many kinds of wrong can an article be?
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=====
Best Regards,

Alan Lambert
Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes
http://autos.yahoo.com
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