Re: GTV6 ponderings

[Jaap Bouma <j.h.bouma@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:27 PM 1/11/99 -0500, John Hertzman wrote:

>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.

The Grand Prix kit on my GTV is identical to the Serpent kit on the GTV6
owned by Chris Papadopoulos, (see http://people.enternet.com.au/~chrispap/
for pictures) except that my car has red-and-silver striping/decals
extending along the top of the front wings (fenders), below the windows and
up along the top of the vent covers. This striping is different from the
Balocco striping, and consequently also different from the '81 Grand Prix
striping (?). Also, there are (badly faded) aluminium plaques on the lower
front wings with the name Rayton Fissore.
On the GTV6 homepage there is a picture in the 1997 foto gallery
(http://www.gtv6.org/gallery2.htm) of another Swiss car, belonging to Ralph
Goepel. He states:

"This car is a GTV6 Gran Prix - all original & one of the last GTV6's ever
made. (The air-dam, rear spoiler & skirts are also standard Gran Prix issue)"

Note the different spelling: Gran instead of Grand. However, his car seems
absolutely identical to mine (even down to the body colour), with the same
striping below the side windows, and on my car these stripes include the
words "GRAND PRIX" just in front of the door mirrors, so I suspect his car
is a Grand Prix as well.
 
On the subject of GTV6 body kits, George Pond recently wrote:
>Brian Beckham asks about substitutes for the Zender kit for the GTV-6. 
>I believe there may be one.  For model year 1987, Alfa produced a "Grand
>Prix" model GTV-6, with fender flares similar to the Zender.  
>
>Yes, Virginia, there are 1987 GTV-6s, just not here in the USA. 

On the same subject, Marc Jungo (owner of an '85 Grand-Prix GTV6 from
Switzerland) recently wrote:
>Brian,
>
>If you want to replace the (ugly US?) bumpers of your GTV6 by something
>else, I think that the "Grand-Prix" Body kit could be a good solution,
>since it looks nice (better than the Zender body kit to my opinion), and
>it is more "original" (it was an official Alfa upgrade).
> <snip>
>It is now almost impossible to find any "Grand-Prix" part, and they were
>very expensive when Alfa still delivered (3000$ for the bumpers only).
>
>By the way, the "Grand-Prix" kit was originally designed by Rayton
>Fissore.

So, it would appear that the GTV6 Grand Prix version is a special edition
by Alfa for Australia, and either a special edition or an officially
approved aftermarket body kit in Switzerland or a larger part of Europe.
I'm not sure that there is a link between the '81 Grand Prix version of the
2.0 liter car. Perhaps the esteemed Mr Hertzman can do a comparison between
the above-mentioned pictures and the photo in the book by David Owen?
Remains the question when the last GTV6 rolled off the production line.
Guess what: I'm still trying to get Alfa Romeo Italia and Fiat Netherlands
to tell me when my car was built :-(
I will be contacting Ralph and Marc to try and find out more on this.


Best, Jaap Bouma (Netherlands)
    (currently on oxygen after learning the price-when-new of the bumpers
on my car)
'87 (??) GTV6 2.5 Grand Prix

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