Subject: Re: GTV6 ponderings

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

At 05:53 PM 1/11/99 +1100, Nathan Wong wrote:
"-"split" dash, so the instruments are all relatively in view. The styling
hardly changed from year to year until the Grand Prix model came out in
1987(?)"

At 11:23 PM 1/11/99 +1000, Robert Jones wrote:
"The price for a respectable model will depend on the year.Special editions
like the Grand Prix fetch a premium."

At 17:05:38 +0100 1/11/99 Jaap Bouma wrote:
"I'm getting interested here. I'm the proud owner of a GTV6 Grand Prix from
Switzerland. I didn't realize that the Grand Prix was a factory special
edition"

There seems to be a disconnect between the conventional understanding of
Alfettas and GTV6s in the USA and in other parts of the world, both on
chronology and on "Special Editions". On chronology, I had understood that
1986 was the end of the line. On both interiors and exteriors I had understood
that the "second series" changes were across the board, and that the split
dash left the Alfetta with the "second series" at the time that the GTV-6 was
introduced in 1980/81. The RHD market, with its conversion problems, could
have been out of synch with the LHD markets on dashboard design, I suppose.

The USA market had a slew of cosmetic "Special Editions" on various models,
the "Niki Lauda" Spider, "Mario Andretti" (Alfetta? I forget-), "Velocissima"
(Alfetta), "Mille Miglia" (Alfetta),"Balocco" (GTV-6) and probably others
accessorized and tarted-up as marketing tools. I assumed that there might have
been similar tweakings by importers for the tastes of other national markets,
but did not have any impression that the factory did more than offer a range
of options for the various importers to select and label and sometimes add to
on their own.

Fabrizio Ferrari's book on the Alfettas, including the GTV-6, has a chapter
labeled "Tutte le versioni dei coupe Alfetta". At the head there is a listing
of "Modelli" under three sub-headings, with "Di serie" ending with "ALFETTA
GTV 2.0 II SERIE 1980/86" and "GTV.6 2.5 1980/86". Immediately below that
there is a listing of "Speciali":
VERSIONI AMERICA I E II SERIE
(SPRINT VELOCE)
GTV SE (G.B.)
GTV STRADA (G.B.)
ALFETTA GTV TURBODELTA  1979/80
GTV GRAND PRIX   1981
GTV V.6 3.0 (SUDAFRICA)
GTV TURBO (GERMANIA)
III SERIE ZAGATO (MUSEO ALFA)

Trasformate:

GTV TURBOCAR (DOVE HICKS)
GTV BELL E COVILLE (G.B.)
GTV V.6 CALLAWAY TWIN TURBO (U.S.A.)
GTV 2000 AUTOTECNICA (GERMANIA)

Everything I read in this chapter (with my admittedly limited command of
Italian) seems to confirm that the new instrument panel came in with the other
second series changes in 1980. The references in this book to the "Grand Prix"
special edition as a 1981 two-liter are seconded by a lesser book (by David
Owen) which captions one photo with "The factory went too far? this is a 1981
exercise in factory customizing known as the GTV 2.0 Grand Prix. Perhaps it's
only the striping which doesn't work. Believed to have been sold only in
Italy." (The striping is the same as was used on the "Balocco" special edition
GTV-6 in the U.S.A.)

So- I would float the idea that perhaps the Australian "Grand Prix" special
edition referred to by both Robert Jones and Nathan Wong may have been an
Australian-market thing while the Swiss "Grand Prix" special edition owned by
Jaap Bouma may have been a Swiss-market thing, with no connection other than
the obvious panache which the label conveys. If anyone knows more with greater
certainty Jaap, and perhaps others, would be glad to know.

On quite another question, all those good people who have been going ga-ga
over Zender kits for the GTV-6 should have a look at the Zagato one-off now in
the Museum, pictured on p.49 and again on p.80 in the Fabrizio Ferrari book.
Makes Zender look like the epitome of understatement. "Anything you can do I
can do moreso-"

Cordially,

John

------------------------------

End of alfa-digest V7 #380
**************************