ALFA Grand Prix

ALFA 40/60 GP or GP (Grand Prix) was a fully working early racing car prototype made by the company now called Alfa Romeo. Only one example was built in 1914, which was later modified in 1921. This was creation of Giuseppe Merosi and was first Alfa Romeo DOHC engine. It had also four valves per cylinder, 90 degree valve angle and twin spark ignition. Usually Alfa Romeo DOHC engines are thought to be Vittorio Jano's creations but the first one was Merosi's GP car. This kind of engine architecture was very new for the time, originating from 1912/1913 Peugeot designed by Swiss engineer Ernest Henry. The history of this engine architecture is unclear, but other cars with dual overhead camshafts in the era were made by Sunbeam, Delage and Humber. This 1914 GP car was intended to take part in French Grand Prix of that year, but for reasons unknown this never happened. In 1921 Giuseppe Campari took part in the Gentlemen G.P. in Brescia with the modified GP car, but was forced to retire due to a leaking radiator.[1]

ALFA 40/60 GP
Overview
ManufacturerALFA
Also calledALFA GP
Production1914 (1921)
AssemblyItaly
DesignerGiuseppe Merosi
Body and chassis
ClassRacing car
Body style2-seater open wheeler
Powertrain
Engine4.5 L straight four twin overhead cam
Dimensions
Curb weight870 kg (1,920 lb)
Baragiana and Giuseppe Merosi in the 1921 version with stronger engine

The GP engine had a displacement of 4.5 litres (4490 cc) and produced 88 bhp (66 kW) at 2950 rpm and after modifications in 1921 102 bhp (76 kW) at 3000 rpm. The top speed of this car was 88-93 mph (140–149 km/h). It was not until the 1920s when these DOHC engines came to Alfa road cars like the Alfa Romeo 6C.

Notes
  1. "The Grand Prix from 1914". alfaromeo.com.au. Archived from the original on 2007-02-19. Retrieved 2007-04-26.
gollark: Now, *arguably* it might not have been entirely tactically optimal to publicly release it so early, but it was a cool idea so I had to share it early.
gollark: https://discord.com/channels/346530916832903169/802678225791746089/819994409528852490
gollark: You could submit my submission.
gollark: Fine, I'll ship a few trillion copies of that file I have which uses -3 bytes of disk space.
gollark: Actually, my code simply strings together certain regions of code in other system libraries which can be combined to decompress then beeize everything.

References
  • VeloceToday.com Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
  • Borgeson, Griffith (1990). The Alfa Romeo Tradition. City: Haynes (Foulis) Publishing Group Ltd. Somerset, UK. ISBN 0-85429-875-4.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.