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more on Alfa wagons



Leonardo (alfetta82@domain.elided) sent me a note (but evidently not to the digest)
saying:

"Notice there were also 2 Alfa 90 SW and an Alfetta Zagato, then about the
Giulia I also suppose COlli built kits, because here you can find also Giulia
Nuova Super wagons (the last Giulia).

"I have also the pics of these car.

 "About the 164, it was never produced by Alfa Romeo directly, but in the end
of the '80s many coachbuilder designed some kits to "wagonize" cars as Fiat
Croma and Saab 9000."

 I did find one photo of an Alfa 90 wagon built by Carrozzeria Marazzi, a
small firm which had inherited many skilled workers, and probably clients,
when Touring Superleggera went out of business. Marazzi is probably best known
(to us) for building the Scagliatti-designed bodies of the Alfa 33 Stradale,
but it remains a small semi-industrialized operation employing about sixty
workers mainly producing armored cars, ambulances, and special commercial
vehicles.

 Leonardo's statement that "then about the Giulia I also suppose Colli built
kits, because here you can find also Giulia Nuova Super wagons (the last
Giulia)" is supported by the chronology, as the Giulia Nuova Super did not go
into production (1974) until after Colli had gone out of business; thus
leftover kits could have been used, but Colli could not have assembled the
cars. One source, the "Catalogue Raisonne", says Colli went out of business in
1973 but the more reliable "L'Automobile Produzione e Design a Milano" says it
closed 30 June 1972. Giuseppi Colli, formerly an employee of Touring, had gone
into business in 1932, formed a partnership with his brothers in 1936, and
incorporated in 1951. Much of the business was just industrial subcontracting,
but they also built some sporting bodies on Fiat and Alfa chassis and on
occasional specials before becoming, for a few years, effectively a contractor
for Alfa in producing short-run projects like the wagons, stretched berlinas,
and ambulance conversions.

 John H.

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