inventing the Sport Sedan

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

In AD7-407 Bob Brady commented on R & T crediting BMW with inventing the Sport
Sedan- earlier in the morning he hit me for numbers he might use in a message
he planned to send the editor, and I churned up a few from the earlier (and
generally better) days of that mag, when it was an enthusiasts' publication
rather than a cash cow. But Bob's post to the digest says:

"Perhaps we can all set the facts straight by mentioning to them that Alfa
Romeo introduced the original sports sedan in 1962 with the introduction of
the Giulia TI.  I suppose one could challenge that claim by noting that the TI
was somewhat limited in production.  The rebuttal to that, of course, is the
introduction of the Super in 1965, arguably the quintessential sports sedan."

On the question of "somewhat limited in production", Bob is shorting his own
argument; there were 71,148 Giulia T.I.s, hardly low production if you compare
it with the total 17,096 Giulietta Spiders built, or with the grand total of
47,949 Giulietta, Giulia, Duetto and 1750 Spiders built. If you add the 2000s
from 1970 through 1995 you would probably get as many Spiders, total, as
Giulia T.I.s, but not all that many more. A reminder, again, if one is needed
that Spider production was incidental rather than fundamental to Alfa.

On the question of "Alfa Romeo introduced the original sports sedan in 1962",
part of the raw data I bounced back to Bob was quotes from the two page report
Road and Track (pre-ampersand) did a decade earlier in March 1952 on the Alfa
1900 Berlina- "startling performance-" - -" the little Alfa handles like a
sports car and is difficult to confuse, even on the sharpest corners - -" -
- -"Handling is exactly suitable to the sports car lover, and it occurs to Road
and Track that here would be an ideal car for the man who loves sports
motoring but whose way of life (wife, children, shopping etc) prevents him
from going all out for a true sports car." It is true that Alfa, in its first
stab at serial production, built only 17,243 1900 Berlinas (still more than
the total of Giulietta Spiders) but by European production standards and
American journalist's testimony (and its enviable competition record, which
goes on for page after page after page) the Alfa 1900 ("the family sedan that
wins races") was a production Sport Sedan before BMW started building Italian
Isettas under license- 

I am reminded of the term an old Alfa friend uses for certain types of
professional automotive writers- "urinalists" - -of course there are
exceptions, or used to be - - people like Manney, Cahier, Bendel, Pomeroy were
enthusiasts before all else, and frequently scholars too. Witness that Road
and Track, then effectively a journal of record, used to publish an annual
index, a helpful device for fact-seekers.

John H.
Raleigh, N,C.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #408
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