Addenda to "When is an Alfa Not an Alfa?"

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Ed Solstad, continuing the "When is an Alfa Not an Alfa?" thread, asks "In 
regards to the Renault Dauphines and R4's assembled under license, have you 
ever seen any production figures? I was under the impression that these were 
actually assembled at the Naples facility rather than Portello."

On the production numbers, d'Amico & Tabucchi give 70,502 for the Alfa Romeo 
Dauphine and the Ondine, a deluxe version of the Dauphine, and 41,809 for the 
R4 (which was not badged as an Alfa Romeo). To put these numbers into 
perspective, there had been a total of 3,627 6C 2500 cars (both prewar and 
postwar), 21,152 1900s of all types, 7,060 ironblock 2000s of all types, and 
11,460 2600s. The total number of cars prior to the 6C 2500 - from 1910 on - 
had been 10,326, giving a grand total of 35,115 cars from the first A.L.F.A. 
through the last 1900. Even the Giuliettas did not come in huge numbers - 
45,700 Sprint, Sprint Veloce, Spider, Spider Veloce, Sprint Speciale and SZs, 
39,053 Berlinas, and 89,769 T.I.s collectively edge the Dauphine/R4 by 
174,522 over 112,311. The Giulietta totals stretch over seven years, against 
five for the Dauphine/R4, so on a per-anum basis they were fairly close.

On the question whether they were produced at the Naples facility rather than 
at Portello, d'Amico & Tabucchi (p.447) show them on an assembly line which 
they identify as at Portello.
- ---------------------------------
Giovanni Rizzo mentioned, in connection with the Brazilian Alfas, my possibly 
helping with the David Mericle Alfa Timeline published in European Car. The 
issue was August 1998. The Timeline is a condensed eleven page overview of 
the marque history, containing over fifty photos, so the text can do neither 
Alfa's history nor Mericle's erudition full justice, but qualitatively it 
beats many longer histories. As always there could be quibbles, notably with 
publishing errors beyond Mericle's control, like a photo of a 6C2500 
captioned as a 1957 Sprint Speciale. The paragraph which touches on the 
Brazilian Alfas doesn't mesh with what I had understood; he says they were 
2000 chassis shipped CKD and assembled there for local sale, while I had 
understood that the cars deviated more and that those shipped from Brazil 
back to Europe were rather deficient in many ways; anecdotal reports say that 
they were generally unsalable, and eventually junked. Fusi lists a few 2600 
Berlinas CKD, and does not list CKD 2000s. In any case, they were at most a 
minor tangent to Alfa history.

John H. 
Raleigh, N.C.

------------------------------