La Recherche du Temps Perdu

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

I tend to go into knee-jerk mode at any anecdote which might seem to support
the shibboleth that Alfas of the fifties and sixties were built by hand with
random variables by colorful creative (ethnic slur deleted)s who threw parts
together while bellowing Neapolitan ditties in stentorian tenor voices between
swigs of Chianti. This sometimes puts me in the position of impugning
memories- like that of a good friend whose 1964 non-Veloce Sprint most
definitely had Quadrifoglio badges on the C-pillars fully two years before the
company started using them, if the documents are to be believed. Memories of
past times can be faulty- as I am convinced mine probably was about the nude
C-pillars of my Giulia Super- but they can also be quite correct.

I will not, in any case, dispute John Justus' "absolute recollection of side
by side height comparison of my 6 month old 1750 GTV unmodified with empty car
and full gas tank and George Hopkins 1967 Sprint GT Veloce, 3 years old,
unmodified with empty car and full gas tank and his front end was just about
an inch lower than mine.  The rear ends were exactly the same height." Alfa
has at times had quality control problems on some parts, and (as do all
manufacturers, from the first Benz to the present) relies heavily on outside
suppliers who may also at times have quality control problems on some parts. I
can conceive of the possibility that in two and a half years George Hopkins'
front springs might have sagged enough to account for a clearly visible
difference. Rear springs sometimes sag, fronts might also sometimes, each
quite independently of the other.

I can also conceive of factory documents sometimes being quite incorrect; data
can be wrong initially, or fiddled with later. What I have a harder time
believing is that the factory fitting of spring spacers (within a
predetermined range) was more random than the fitting of valve shims (within
their predetermined ranges) as might be suggested by John's earlier "some left
the factory without them."

John ended his AD7-154 post with "I also think, that if you look at some of
the factory brochures and magazine road tests, you can discern the raised
front ends, but maybe I was just projecting.?" I pulled out the two Brooklands
road test portfolios and didn't see it, although there are many variables of
camera angles. A better index perhaps is Brizio Pignacca's "Alfa Romeo Giulia
GT" which is full of factory photos including many highly standardized exact
side views on which one can, with a straight-edge, compare bumper heights, the
"disegno di bertone" badges immediately behind the front wheels, and the black
trim rings on the hubcaps (or the nearest reference points on models with
different hubcaps). The original Sprint GT is on p.14 in a small photo; Sprint
GT Veloce larger on p.26 and 30; GT 1300 Junior second series above and third
series below on a two-page spread p.46-47; 1750 GT Veloce p.57; and 2000 GT
Veloce p.60. Some of those are exterior photos which might or might not be
factory photos of zero-miles cars, but the two 1300s, 1750, and 2000 are
obviously studio reference photos, blank background, no break between floor
and wall, and (between the 1300s and 1750) cast shadows such close duplicates
that it could hardly be accidental. Your straight-edge, your magnifying glass,
your judgment. I will leave the whole question at that, only repeating that I
do not question that there was a clearly visible difference between John's 6
month old 1750 GTV and George Hopkins 3 year old 1967 Sprint GT Veloce. 

Pax vobiscum-

John H.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #155
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