Subject: modifying cars

[RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@domain.elided>]

Subject: modifying cars

>I'll go on record as being horrified at the story of the guy who saved
>that free Alfa, and his friend wanting to cut it up into a racer.

I'll go on record as having been horrified, too, and I was the guy who
posted the story! Did I mention the guy wanted to cut holes in the
Pininfarina hardtop so he could get in and out with the doors welded
closed? In f-ing credible....

Well, I talked him out of it, mostly by buying another spider, this time an
'85 (for $50,) and offering him that one instead. The nice, free, silver
'74 is sitting on the trailer in front of my house (at least until the
neighbors complain....) The '85 is a little ratty, and was already modified
(and badly, too) by previous idiots, so everyone can heave a sigh of
relief.

>In automotive engineering, or any design/engineering, its really all about
>compromises and evaluating tradeoffs when making design decisions.

To that I'd like to add that it's also about knowing what the hell you're
doing. I meet so many people who imagine that the Alfa engineering staff of
the 50's, 60's, and 70's were about a half a step down from God-like. It's
like they were all flying around on clouds playing harps or something. Not
so! _Nobody_ in the 50's, 60's, or 70's (when most of the USA cars were
designed) knew anywhere near as much, had anywhere near the understanding
of the technology, or had anywhere near the measurement or computing power
as we have today. And they didn't have the metallurgy or manufacturing
technology to execute the designs as well back then, either.

The late, great Pat Braden (watch your toes, name dropping again) who
worked for the Korean auto manufacturer Hyundai, told me that every new
Hyundai comes with a TEN year, 100,000 mile warranty. Isuzu offers a
similar deal. You simply _don't_ get that sort of durability and
reliability by doing things the same old way. You get it by knowing exactly
what you're doing. And we're not talking about a Honda or BMW, we're
talking about a Korean-made Hyundai!

The Alfa 115 (comprising the majority of the USA cars I'm guessing,) have
issues that would be considered fairly rudimentary by a modern designer.
The earlier cars are even more "quaint", in a charming, bed and breakfast
sort of way, or at least I've never heard of an Alfa restoration shop that
offers a ten year warranty, right?

Back in the old days (OK, like up to two years ago before the big shindig
at Palo Alto last year) the Alfa Romeo Association here in the SF bay area
had a rule for judging of club concours. There were so many Alfas that had
been modified for inhanced performance, that we didn't take any points off
if a modification was non-original, only if it was inappropriate or poorly
executed. It doesn't really bother me all that much if an old production
car has been modified with period-correct speed equipment, or even if a
relatively modern and plentiful car like a late model spider has been
modified for better performance. What really bothers me, and I mean like
fingernails down a chalkboard, is technical ignorance of the modifiers and
/ or poor quality of materials and / or workmanship.

Re modifications, if you're going to do it, do it right, or don't do it at
all. IMHO, if you see a car that's had the whole goddam IAP catalog just
thrown at it, one that's full of brightly colored suspension components,
chrome K&N's, a big, chrome, grapefruit-launcher exhaust tip, and
especially one that's had a bunch of mono-color hardware-store wire and
cheap-o crimp connectors hacked into the wiring harness, it's probably been
_completely_ destroyed.
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