"Nords" & "'Suds", more or less

[<JHertzman@xxxxxxx>]

Keith Walker questions the production number figures in the d'Amico-Tabucch
book
for the 33, saying that "Most sources for the total number of 33's built come
to about 980,000, which is a fair number less than you get if you add the
figures from the book together. My guess is that there is some overlap in the
figures".

Far be it from me to vouch for the numbers in the d'Amico-Tabucch book.
Initially I was appalled by the thing, but as time passes it grows on me (not
that having things Grow On One is always a Good Thing!). The authors and
publisher clearly got locked into a production schedule which turned out to be
on a collision course with reality- terminal oversteer, one might say. But it
is in many ways an admirable wreck. One hopes that in a later edition some of
the anomalies will be put right.

"Overlap in the figures" alone cannot account for the discrepancies. Leaving
out all the subclasses and the 1.7s and the turbodiesels (which I had included
in the turbodiesel numbers, of course) d'A-T still gives 458,295 for the
undifferentiated 33 1.3 and 534,271 for the undifferentiated 33 1.5, for a
good bit more than the 980,000 which Keith cites as a consensus total. Perhaps
a decimal got lost, or some digits transposed. Whatever. The numbers are
suspect, and it is good to know that.

Accepting the 980,000 consensus figure for the 33 and adding the Arnas and
Alfasuds from the table one still comes up with 2,059,393 boxers, still a
remarkable number compared to 2,518,731 "Nords" from the first Giulietta
through the 75. Of course there is nothing to say that any (or, if so, which)
of the other numbers in the book are reliable. It remains that for many North
Americans the numbers, however approximate, are far from our usual
understanding of what the company was about. Diesels? Boxers? 1.6 liter
engines in a Milano? Golly.

John

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