Addenda to the Ford quote on Alfas

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Paul Witek in ad7-1178 and Simon Favre in ad7-1179 both commented on the 
"quotation" of Henry Ford about lifting his hat when he saw an Alfa Romeo. 
Griffith Borgeson called the statement "a rather unlikely legend", and in 
response to his inquiry to the Ford Archives it was called "implausible and 
apocryphal." When Borgeson asked Ugo Gobatto's son "do you know how Mr. Ford 
came by any opinion at all about Alfa cars? Very few ever came to the States 
in those days" Pierugo Gobatto replied "I seem to remember that in 1938 Mr. 
Ford had examined an 8C2900 roadster that had been bought by a member of the 
Rockefeller family. In any case, I know that he respected their design and 
workmanship."

I don't know whether McClure Halley was a member of the Rockefeller family, 
but his Touring-bodied 8C 2900 came to the States in 1937 or 1938, and is the 
only one I recall which had a well-known prewar history here. One or more of 
the younger Fords was strongly interested in the styling aspects of European 
sports cars, an interest which resulted in some sporting one-offs and finally 
the Lincoln Continental, which had started as a one-off personal custom. I 
suspect that the McClure Halley car (arguably the loveliest Touring bodied 
2900) may well have been the car Henry spoke of, quite possibly the only Alfa 
he had seen, and the comment probably was made only as courteous conversation 
with a visiting foreign industrialist. Henry himself was not famous for 
advanced or sophisticated tastes.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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