Re: Fusi reliability

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

I think Carson Damm is being just a tad too strong when he says "Don't use
Fusi to reference when your car was built" in AD7-428. (Carson's car didn't
fit Fusi's numbers.) Fusi contains many errors, as do many reference books. I
would modulate to "don't rely on Fusi, or any other source, to be infallible."
Yes, one needs to be critical, watch for anomalies, and get second opinions.
Fusi had been kept on, with a few other overage employees, to catalog and
preserve old drawings, and to restore a few cars to build a museum collection,
and his book followed. Fusi's work is a monumental piece of scholarship, by an
aging draftsman who was not trained as an archival scholar, probably done with
minimal staffing of other retired factory workers, working with records which
may not have been meticulous in the first place.

I just double-checked Fusi's numbers on five cars (remains, actually, but
former cars) 1958 to 1972 and came up spot-on on four of them, and way off on
my own 105.51 1971 GT Veloce (USA), which has a number appreciably shy of the
low number given for the earliest '68 105.51 1750 GT Veloce. Errors happen.
Sometimes they get corrected.

Fusi provides a double check of sorts; after the "Numerazione" section
(p.834-846 in my copy) which gives the range of chassis numbers and engine
numbers by year and type, he has the "Produzione" section (p.848-870) with the
quantity of each type built in each year.

For Carson's 105.44 1750 GT Veloce the "Produzione" quantities listed were:
1968:  10,418 cars
1969:   8,705 cars  
1970:  11,542 cars
1971:   4,639 cars
1972:       8 cars

Back in the "Numerazione" section the chassis number range was:
1968:  from 1350920 to 1361338 = 10,418 cars as above
1969:  from 1361339 to 1360043 = oops, a negative 1,296 cars 
1970:  from 1360044 to 1371585 = 11,542 cars as above
1971:  from 1371586 to 1376224 =  4,639 cars as above
1972:  from 1376225 to 1376232 =      8 cars, as above

So, it doesn't take too big an epiphany to connect the negative tally in
1969's "Numerazione" to the positive number in 1969's "produzione and come up
with 10,000. Somebody- whether Fusi himself or an apprentice draftsman - had
dropped 10,000, putting a 6 where there should have been a 7, and following
sevens where there should have been eights. Corrected "Numerazione" come out:

1968:  from 1350920 to 1361338 = 10,418 cars
1969:  from 1361339 to 1370043 =  8,705 cars
1970:  from 1370044 to 1381585 = 11,542 cars
1971:  from 1381586 to 1386224 =  4,639 cars
1972:  from 1386225 to 1386232 =      8 cars

And Carson's 105.44.138.0957 is where it belongs in 1970.

There are errors in Fusi, in d'Amico/Tabucchi, in old factory records,
everyplace. Use the best data you can get, be thankful it is as useful as it
is, and cross-check where you can.

Cordially, 

John H. 
Raleigh, N.C.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #429
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