vr okt 14, 2005 09:17
Laat hen toch lekker de rimbam krijgen....dit schreef iemand op AlfaBB en ik kan hetzelf niet beter verwoorden.
GTV2000
I understand that smart guys rate us, old-fashioned Alfists, as quite pedantic, if not narrow minded, nostalgic, lost in the past, name it yourself, when we are upset by the GM origin of the new 159.
A current Alfa engineer even added that what counts is the cylinder head, that an engine cranckcase is nothing more that a piece of inert metal, etc. BTW, they must be upset and trying to convince themselves to publicly say such b*llsh*t. I would be new to me that, for instance, oil and cooling systems are irrelevant in a high-performance engine as is the crankshaft design, etc.
Now, I accept the challenge to refrain from shouting and crying about that since we already had to accept that for the last 10 years, the good ol' 4-cyl Twinspark was indeed on a cast iron, Fiat base. We closed an eye, and went on defending Alfas.
So, the 159 is now available for newspapers tests, and it seems that the result is far from convincing. That the power output of the latest generations of engines didn't seem to be up to the nominal figures was already obvious with the JTS engines: when Fiat-based Alfa engines were converted from Twin Spark 16V to JTS (i.e. 16V, single ignition, and direct injection), the 2.0 litre earned some 10% of extra power: from 150 to 165 HP. Trouble is that the acceleration, speed and elasticity figures of the cars didn't show any improvement on the older versions.
That the new GM sourced engines don't do better is thus not directly caused by structural flaws (wel'll end with knowing that in the future if there are any), but by the car excessive weight: not only the engines are not that exceptional, but the problem is that they have to move an utterly overweight car. And for that, more than for the engines, GM is to be blamed, as the entire car body was designed under Fiat-GM joint team. Remember, the same platform had to be shared with Oldsmobiles and Saabs...
The result is that while journalists praise the 159 confort and handling, they also note that the growth in size doesn't allow so much extra space inside, but that the engines, for sweet they feel, are just not up to the task of moving swifltly a car weighing from 1400 kg for the lower end versions up to 1740kg for the AWD V6 3.2 So, if the old Alfa V6 was such an outdated piece of maghinerty, how will one explain that the new, modern unit, with double variable timing on the camshafts and direct injection gives only 10 extra HP over the Alfa 3.2 GTA, which are more than cancelled by the extra weight.
So, we are sorry to read, in the European automotive press currnetly on slae, that a 159 1.9 JTDm (diesel, 150 Hp - the Fiat diesels should be the most modern engines of that kind ) severely outpaced by its 3-series BMW rival by over 15 km/h top speed and over 1 sec. on the standing 1000m acceleration. And one tester even tells that one the German Autobahn, he tried as hard as he could his test 159 3.2 V6 to catch a Mercedes 220 CDI (diesel 2.2...)
To sum up, today's good news is that Alfa is allowed by its management to enter the 159 in the 2006 World Touring cars Championship. Kalbfell had vetoed such an involvement because he thought it would be an error to market the 159 as a racing car, since it had too much a 'prestigious image'. This reflects what kind of product the 159 is. Certainly not a car aimed at the old-fashioned Alfisti.
Amen.
Waarom moet de krachtig-elegante lijn van de Brera zo om zeep worden geholpen 
Omdat 'de markt' het wil?
