Re: Fusi reliability

["Robert Cess" <rcess@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry for the repeat, I hit "send" instead of "save as draft" before I was
finished.  Like Fusi, I too can make mistakes.  The complete, and corrected,
posting follows:

In AD7-428 Carson Damm states "Don't use Fusi to reference when your car was
built", followed in AD7-429 with an excellent rebuttal by John Hertzman.  Anyone
who has ever published (in my case roughly 200 papers in scientific journals)
knows very well that "bloopers" do happen; if this were not the case, such
journals would not contain  sections entitled "Erratum".  Indeed, my two volumes
of d'Amico & Tabucchi include an eight page "Errata Corrige."

One of my cherished Alfa Romeo possessions is a framed photograph of a group of
people standing in the foyer of the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese.  This group
includes myself, John Hertzman, Fred Di Matteo and Luigi Fusi.  This occurred
during a trip to Arese arranged by Fred in 1991, and the highlight of the trip
was a group lunch followed, with the aid of a translator, by Fusi describing his
career at Alfa Romeo, which he began as a 14-year old apprentice draftsman.
Thus obviously Fusi did not have an extensive formal education.  But as John H.
so nicely, and in my opinion accurately, puts it, "Fusi's work is a monumental
piece of scholarship, by an aging draftsman who was not trained as an archival
scholar."  This is high praise coming from one with the credentials of Dr.
Hertzman (Ph.D. in art history as I recall), who is indeed  an archival scholar.

To put all  this in perspective, recently I received an e-mail from a gentleman
who had just purchased a car that was titled as a "1963 Alfa Romeo Giulietta
Sprint ", Chassis No. 370208, and he was curious as to what he had purchased.
I was pretty sure it was not a 1963 Giulietta Spider, since 1962 was the last
year for the Giulietta Spider, confirmed by pp. 840-841 of Fusi.  But according
to Fusi the last Giulietta Chassis No. was 173086.  A check of d'Amico &
Tabucchi indicates differences with Fusi that are possibly caused by model year
versus calendar differences in the two reference sources, as discussed by John
in an earlier posting, plus a quantum jump in chassis numbers not contained in
Fusi, but explained on p. 419 of D&T as:

"The last batch of cars was prepared in 1962 using the bodyshell shared with the
Giulia Spider and numbered from 37001 to 371096. Production ceased at the end of
the year".

The car in question does indeed have the Giulia hood scoop, and a check back to
Fusi does show the existence of Chassis No. 370208, but as a 1962 Giulia (10123)
rather than a 1962 Giulietta (10103).  So the two reference sources are
obviously struggling as to what to do with a car that has a Giulietta engine and
a Giulia body.  One calls it a Giulietta and the other a Giulia, and this
certainly emphasizes the problems faced by both.

Bob Cess, Stony Brook, NY

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End of alfa-digest V7 #432
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