T.I. Supers and "thinner steel" bodywork

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

In AD7-284 Andrew Watry asks: 

>>Anyone know of an available Alfa book (or magazine article) that 
covers Giulia TI Supers well?  I have most of the usual suspects, 
including Fusi, the Illustrated Buyers Guide, Pat Braden's Giulia 
book, and the Brookland Giulia sedan article compilation.  Lots on 
TIs, lots on Supers, and the other street variations, but there's very 
little on TI Supers.  Was it ever tested or previewed in R&T or C/D?<<

Not in R & T for sure, and C & D is probably equally sure; my clippings files
(from cutting-up C & D's predecessors and other such) have every snippet on
the "BMW"-disguised Giulia prototype, Colli Promiscua and the original open
Tubolare Zagato, and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have missed the T.I. Super in
an American newsstand publication. The Brooklands Giulia Berlina compilation
probably has everything that had been published IN ENGLISH, but that is the
rub. There was bound to have been a thorough coverage in Quattroruote, and
there is bound to have been some great material in retrospective articles in
either (or both) Ruoteclassiche or La Manovella e Ruote a Raggi. Inquiries to
the publishers (Editoriale Domus for the first two, I think Nada for the last)
might produce a  reference. Or a large-hearted Italian enthusiast on the list
might help? Please?

In AD7-287 Steve Schaeffer furnished some interesting material from Tony
Adriaensens book "Allegeritta", which I don't have, and he is right, one
should. One point mentioned was that thinner steel was used for the bodywork,
a ploy which I am familiar with from the various touring-car championships of
the nineties and also from some USA factory-supported drag racing in which
"chemical milling" was used for controlled selective thinning of panels, a
more exotic concept than just punching-out a thinner sheet.

D'Amico-Tabucchi's remarks about the Giulia T.I. and the G.T.A. do not support
the "thinner steel" concept, but they are not infallible. One other authority
is Alfa's own Spare Parts Catalog. The edition I got in 1967 when I bought my
Super consists of a basic Giulia T.I. Parts Catalog, a Supplement covering
parts used on the Giulia T.I.Super which differed from those in the T.I., and
a further Supplement covering parts used on the Giulia Super which differed
from those in the T.I. It is not always possible to tell "how" different-
often one hole punched in a deck-lid for a different piece of trim, or in an
engine-bay sidewall to mount a different junction block, generates a different
part number. It is, however, possible to tell when there is absolutely no
difference whatsoever. There are many fascinating details. Page one in the
body section, for instance, has the complete T.I. Super body shell, painted
and trimmed, with two parts numbers, one for the 'touring model' and the other
for the 'racing model', but it also has a single number for the 'body,
unpainted'. Moving on into the body structural parts there is a steering
column support for disk-braked cars, suggesting that some T.I. Supers were
still drum-braked. There is also one other flooring part for disk-braked
T.I.Supers.

There are different parts numbers for the hood, the trunk lid, the rear doors,
and for thirteen or so structural panels- floors, inner side-rail fillers and
the like- but there are none for the roof, front doors, front fenders, rear
quarter panels, or front or rear fixed panels, indicating that these parts did
not differ from the corresponding parts on the base T.I. This, to me, casts
doubt on the "thinner steel" concept. It would also seem to me that if going
to that length to save the weight it would have been easy enough to leave the
basic stressed hull standard and punch-out all the unstressed hinged panels -
four doors, deck, and hood- in aluminum, as Rover (and undoubtedly others) had
done a decade earlier, and as I believe Alfa did on the steel-bodied Junior
Zagato.

The rest of the parts book comparisons offer a multitude of fascinating
inferences, for those so inclined.

John H. 

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End of alfa-digest V7 #291
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