re: Giulia sedan bodies

[Dana Loomis <dloomis@domain.elided>]

>The Giulia sedan was styled in-house by Alfa, as I understand it.  But who
>built the bodies?  

This is an interesting question because the first Giulia TIs were built in
1962 while the Arese plant was still under construction.  Giancarlo
Catarsi's book on the Giulia (from the series "Le Vetture che Hanno Fatto
la Storia," published by Giorgio Nada, Milan) says that the Portello plant
at that time was outdated and was using most of its capacity to produce
Giuliettas and Renault Dauphines, so that production of the Giulia was
progressively transferred to Arese as the new facilities became
operational.  The Giulia Sprint GT, which was without doubt designed by
Carrozzeria Bertone, debuted late in 1963.  Fusi describes the Sprint GT as
the first car to be assembled at Arese, although initially some of the
mechanical parts were still sent from Portello.   

One might assume that if the first Giulia bodiess weren't assembled at
Arese, they must have been done at Portello.  But if Portello didn't have
the capacity and Arese wasn't on line yet, one could also speculate that
some of the work could have been subcontracted out to an outside firm with
the necessary fabrication capabilities.  I haven't seen any reference to
this kind of subcontracting, however, or to any involvement on the part of
Bertone.

>And I assume that, because Bertone did the restyle on the 1750/2000 Berlina,
>they actually built those bodies.  Is that true too?

Catarsi says the restyling was done "in collaboration with Bertone."   No
mention of Bertone having done anything other than the exterior tweaking.  

Dana Loomis
71 & 72 GT Veloces "disegno di Bertone" 

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