Re: Alfetta berlinas (quibble time)

[James Montebello <jamesm@domain.elided>]

Of course.  My mistake for trying to apply rational naming to a company
that changed the name on one car nearly every year without actually
changing the car itself much at all (I'm thinking of the 116 coupe, which
went by at least three names in the US during its five-year run).

So, is it "berweenas" or "bertweenas"? 

james montebello


On Mon, 28 Jan 2002, John Hertzman wrote:

> James Montebello, responding to Biba, writes "Berlina does simply mean sedan,
> and what was referred to in this country as the Alfetta Sport Sedan was called
> the Alfetta Berlina in other markets.  If you've never seen or heard of the
> Sport Sedan (and they are indeed very rare here), imagine a car roughly the
> same size and shape as an early 5-series BMW, but was the same underneath as
> the '75-'79 Alfetta GT coupe.  More or less the same bodywork was used in the
> first car to use the V6, the Alfa Six, which wasn't imported over here."
> 
> A minor distinction is that the car called "Sport Sedan" in the US market was
> the second series Alfetta, only. The first series, which was not called 'Sport
> Sedan' but was instead simply called 'Alfetta', was much closer to a 115
> Berlina in several formal details and some technical details; the door-handles
> (grab handle and pushbutton, rather than paddle) and front quarter windows
> (rather than a full undivided side glass) and cowl (upswept to the windshield,
> rather than straight to the base of a deeper windshield) and dashboard
> (ribbon-stripe African mahogany) and instruments (white on black) were all
> visually rooted in the 115 Berlina, as were the round-hole steel wheels and
> optional Turbina alloys; the integral (rather than bolt-on) front fenders and
> nose-panel ahead of the hood were also hangovers from the 115. The larger
> hood, bolt-on front fenders, undivided door glass, avant-garde Italian mod (or
> proto-'Memphis')dash, paddle handles, 'styled' steel wheels, wild Campagnolo
> alloys, and other details of the second series, the '78-'79 Sport Sedan in the
> US market, were all harbingers of the more angular Giulietta Nuova (on the
> same 116 platform) which in turn morphed into the 75 and our Milano.
> 
> The U.S. parts books do not use the 'Sport Sedan' name at all but instead
> refer to the first series as the Alfetta 2000 and the second series as the
> Alfetta 2.0. Some of the parts drawings, on which the typography is entirely
> upper case, refer to the BERLINA 2000, the BERLINA 2.0, and the G.T.V. 2000.
> Elsewhere in the world, with a wider range of sizes, the coupes were Alfetta
> GT 1.6, Alfetta GT 1.8, and Alfetta GTV 2000 (without periods, and never
> Veloce) while the sedans were Alfetta 1.6, Alfetta 1.8, Alfetta 2000, Alfetta
> 2.0 America, Alfetta 2.0, and Alfetta Quadrifoglio Oro, but never Berlina,
> capitalized as a proper name, only berlina, lower case, as a type description.
> The distinction between upper case and lower case will, I know, be lost on
> some, and they are, as far as I am concerned, perfectly at liberty to call
> them all berweenas.
> 
> Cordially,
> 
> John H.
> 
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