Since only 410 cars were built, I'm not sure how many of these cars were actually tested. I was told before purchasing my car that these cars had a slower 0-60 time... somewhere in the 8sec range by various "experts" who had never seen one, let alone driven one.


Now that I am an owner, I can honestly say that I can understand why these cars had such accolades, starting with the Urraco. To date, the Jalpa is the best handling car I have ever driven outside of the latest iteration of the ultra-modern Lotus Elise/Exige. I have owned several fine cars including a 911, 944, Ghibli, Bora, Merak, and Testarossa. As far as handling, the Jalpa is superior in every way to these greats and until you've really lived with one, it would be impossible to understand. Bob Wallace and then later Alfieri (who credit's using Wallace's optimized "Urraco" race car) deserve all the credit for optimizing the suspension over the duration of the range.


As far as acceleration, I bought the Brooklands "Performance Portfolio" of past articles. Here is what the actual road tested car articles had to say:

(Urraco P300) Auto International - Aug, 1977: 0-60 mph = 6.4 sec
(Jalpa) Car Nov, 1982: 0-60 mph = tried several acceleration runs, but encountered test set-up difficulty, estimated the 0-60 mph less than 7 sec
(Jalpa) Motor June, 1983: 0-60 mph = 5.8 sec
(Jalpa) Sports Car Monthly - Feb, 1987: 0-60 = 6.1 sec

Only the US publication Road & Track recorded a lousy time. It should be noted however that this car was equipped with all of the usual California mandated emissions bull@#$! In fact, I think almost all of the articles that did not test cars did a "cut and paste" from the Road & Track cited figures of 0-60mph in 7.3sec. Certainly most of the US publications did this because they cite in their articles that they didn't perform a track test.

Finally my favorite post was by Car and Driver author Jim Hall,

"If Magnum ever has to Chase villains fleeing in a Jalpa, he might as well park the Ferrari".

Cheers. -John

The swiss magazine "Automobil Revue" does always it's own test, see the result:

The test was performed with 2 persons and 25kg equipment onboard, 0-100kmh: 6,5s, Top Speed 238kmh
http://www.jalpa.ch/Magazines/AR_CH/index.html

__________________
RaymondQV
Countach QV Ex-Mimran #GLA12997, Urraco P300 #20530, Jalpa #FLA12203 sold in May 2006
www.countach.ch
www.jalpa.ch

When Frank Sinatra got his Miura S in 1970, he said: “If you wanna be someone, buy Ferrari - If you are someone, you own a Lamborghini”.

nice post John...

Its been decades since i've read the R&T article, but I seem to recall they didnt run the motor to redline on the road test. I think the graph shows they didnt rev it pask 7000rpm. top speed was 130ish mph rather than the claimed 250 kph?

If memory serves, a later C&D test shows it running a sub 6 sec 0-60 time. The car had the later round taillamps, exhaust mesh and rubber bumpers. Pretty respectable times for the heavier later P118s.


d

raymondqv

wow what a great link to the mag archives! all those test i mention is right there on that site.... thanks for the great body of resource. I collected various urraco/silh/jalpa ref material over the years. They are all stored away somewhere at my parents attic. Next time I visit them, I may check if there something I can add to your extensive list.

john

as far as handling, from the P250S and P300 that ive driven, I agree that somehow it feels alot more modern than the equivelant 308's of that era. only thing that dates its to that period is the slow steering ratio and higher profile tires which the jalpa arent equiped with.

thanks for the fanatsic link and thread

d