1921 Tipo G1 at AR Museum
1923 Tipo RL
The first examples of the RL series appeared in 1921. This was the first
true Alfa sportscar, after the first WW.
1921 Tipo RLS
1923 P1 GP racer
1924 P2 GP racer
P2 at Laguna Seca, August 1985
its engine
In 1923 Vittorio Jano entered to Alfa Romeo. He had Hungarian roots,
but he was a true Italian, previously working for Fiat.
Fiat was the one to beat in GP racing and Jano was stolen from Fiat to
do the action. He redesinged the Fiat 805 engine: more compact
supercharger, higher rotational speed, more reliable construction.
P2 started as a dark horse at the 1924 GP de l'ACF and won the race easily.
Everyone was shocked.
1925 RLSS Tourer - view from
above
Same car - view from below, front
The RLSS was launched in 1925, and was in production 'til 1927.
The car in picture, a Castagna-bodied polished, aluminium bodied tourer is
in the Alfa Romeo museum.
The RLSS emerged from the RLN and RLS series and featured a 6-cylinder
3-liter
engine, with a power of 83-90 HP (depends on the version) and a max. speed
of 140 km/h.
It was a typical Targa Florio-type racer, but a road-going wersion
also existed.
Rodney Felton's 1924 RL Targa Florio racer
Many rich and famous people once owned RLSS, among them Benito Mussolini is
the most "famous".
The RLS and SS, only about 100 pounds lighter, nevertheless did wonderfully
as cmapaigned by the factory racing team of Ascari, Campari, Ferrari and
Sivocci, to the greater glory of the marque. The RL series lasted 'til the
end of 1926, early 1927.
1926 6C 1500
cockpit
These road cars replaced the Merosi line. Jano designed them all.
A prototype chassis was introduced at the Salone di Milano in April 1925 and
then at the Paris and London shows. Five experimental long chassis and one
short one were built in 1926, with production, sales and racing all beginning the
following year.
The car as You can guess from the name was powered by a 6-cyl. 1500 cc engine.
This unit was a five plain-main-bearing six, with light alloy crankcase and
deeply finned wet sump; the block and detachable head were of cast iron. The
valves formed a single file down the center line of the head and were operated
by an overhead camshaft with a four-blade cast aluminium fan at its front and
shaft and bevel drive at its rear.
The most original feature here was cam-follower design, which Jano frankly
acknowledged having derived from Hispano-Suiza practice.
The racing wersions were the RN and RS from 1928 when the 2nd series of the
6C 1500 began.
When production ceased in 1929, only 1058 6C's of all sorts had been built,
each one a collection piece.
And then came the 6C 1750...
Copyright and Copy, December, 1995:
Paul Negyesi and the Okapi Publishing Ltd npaul@hu.inter.net