Re: Giulia disk brakes and related questions

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Hoo boy, oodles of questions-

Jay Mackro asks, for 5 bonus points: would the 1300 engines in the '64-65 
1300 Sprints have been 101, or 105 derived? 

Fusi places the '64-65 1300 Sprints as a separate model in chronological 
sequence in the text, and gives the 1964 Geneva show as the introduction, 
with production started in March 1964, two months before the introduction of 
the 1300 Giulia berlina, and in his production tables he lists it as a 
Giulietta Sprint 1300, as opposed to just a Giulietta Sprint earlier (289 in 
'63, 1,282 in '64, 329 in '65.) D'Amico -Tabucchi includes it in the 
Giuliettas and says "it retained the Giulietta model number and engine type". 
The engine numbering in Fusi starts without any break from the earlier 
Giulietta Sprints, the '62 Sprint ending at 00102.33882 and the '63 Sprint 
1300 picking up at 00102.33883. Numbers, however, can be stamped on any 
casting. I would assume that as far as possible the engines would be 
identical to those in the 105 Giulia 1300 berlina. Is THAT engine 101 or 
105-derived?

Jay writes " Alfa discontinued the 101 Sprint in '65, switching over to the
105 chassis for the Giulia Sprint Veloce." Quibble: No, they didn't, the 105 
chassis was the Sprint GT, and later the Sprint GT Veloce, but the 105 coupe 
always had the GT in the name IF you follow Fusi. D'Amico-Tabucchi says the 
1300 was the Giulia 1300 Junior from 1966 and the GT 1300 Junior from 1974, 
but Fusi invariably calls it the GT 1300 Junior.

Peter Krause refers to the three-shoe brakes coming "Upon introduction of the 
SVZ (Sprint Veloce Zagato)". A slip of the typing-finger here; the SZ (Sprint 
Zagato) was a series-built car, with chassis numbers running from 00001 to 
00217, and sold (more or less)  through Alfa Romeo, but the SVZ (Sprint 
Veloce Zagato) was a much smaller (and earlier) group of cars which were not 
sanctioned by Alfa Romeo. The first was a Zagato rebody in 1956 of a wrecked 
Sprint Veloce, and the rest were ordered by private customers who bought new 
Sprint Veloces and had Zagato hack off the bodies and build new ones, which 
they had to do to stay competitive with the rebodied wreck. One SVZ in turn 
was wrecked, stripped of its Zagato body, and rebodied by Michelotti as an 
SVM.

Peter also refers to "coachbuilt variants such as the SS and the SZ". Purists 
of my acquaintance, perhaps going too far, restrict the term "coachbuilt" to 
a technical meaning rather than a quantitative one: Singers, Morgans, TD MGs 
are coachbuilt, with a wood structure sheathed in panels, whether metal, 
wood, or fabric. Instead they use terms like limited-production or one-off or 
fuori serie for cars like the SS, SZ, or SVZ.. It is perhaps a nitpicking 
point, particularly since the limited-production builders (especially the 
older ones) often had 'carrozzeria' in their name, but the differences 
between the craft-built wood-framed bodies, the  artisan-built all-metal 
small-production cars like the first Giulietta Sprints, and the industrially 
built cars like the later Sprints makes the term 'coachbuilt' arguably an 
anachronism.

There remains the question whether the three-shoe brakes came with the 
introduction of one car or another, whether SVZ, SV, SZ, SS or whatever. 
Hughes and Da Prato give a thorough account (p.107) of the testing and 
rejection of the disc brakes in a very grueling road cycle against the 
standard two-shoe brakes of the Giulietta- 60 cycles of going from 60 km/h to 
120 km/h and back to 60 in twelve seconds- resulting in fading, boiling and 
vapor-lock in the discs. After considering a brake-fluid cooling radiator and 
pump, which had been tried experimentally on the four-leading-shoe 3000 CM in 
1952, Alfa went back to investigate further improvements in drum braking. 
Three-shoe brakes had been used by Wifredo Ricart on the Tipo 512 GP car in 
1940, and planned on the Tipo 160 GP project in 1952. In 1960 the concept was 
revived after the early rejection of disc brakes, and after development was 
applied to both the SZ and SS at the end of 1960, followed by the Giulias in 
1962. Both the SZ and SS had been running since 1957, so the three-shoes were 
a mid-life addition. The earliest surviving SZ known to have been supplied 
with three shoes was 00074, but some later cars were fitted with two-shoe 
brakes at the request of customers who found the three-shoes a nuisance to 
maintain.

One last detail, from Don Black. Earlier there had been some discussions of 
chronological discrepancies between the SS and the SZ - someone had asked how 
come Zagatos came with 750 engines after Sprint Speciales were already coming 
with 101 engines. Don says that Zagato was never considered a 'fornitore' as 
Bertone, Pininfarina, and Touring had been; the Sprint Speciales were sent as 
finished trimmed hulls to Alfa, which added engines and running gear on the 
line and shipped finished cars out to dealers,  but supplied batches of 
engines and other parts to Zagato who did much more assembly and dealt 
directly with the customers. This is confirmed in photos of the cars during 
production- the finished Sprints and Sprint Speciales on assembly dollies, 
and the Zagatos on wheels and tires while workers fitted rough panels.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #706
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