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Alfa-BMW connections



TJ suggested an emotional connection between his BMW CS and his Sprint GTV: 
>Well there are at least TWO members of this list who own both Alfas and
>BMWs.  Of course they're not just ANY BMW, rather the most noble and
>beautiful car ever to come from the Munich car maker.  Heck, they
>weren't even designed by BMW really.  They shared the bloodlines of an
>older model BMW designed by Bertone.  

In fact, they shared the lines of an older Alfa Romeo designed by Giorgio
Giugiaro.  

While still an unknown twenty-something employed by Carrozzeria Bertone,
Giugiaro did the body design for the Alfa Romeo 2000 Sprint, which was
shown in 1959, entered production in 1960, and was updated to become the
2600 Sprint in 1962.  He re-used some of the same design elements--notably
the Sprint's distinctive roofline--in another Bertone project, the BMW
3200, a coupe that combined sparkling Italian styling with stolidly German
mechanicals.  The 3200 was not one of the Bavarian company's most
successful products, but elements of Giugiaro's design were folded into
later BMW cars, including TJ's CS and, ironically, became hallmarks of the
brand.  

The Giulia Sprint GT, which became the Sprint GTV, 1750 GTV and 2000 GTV,
was, of course, another Giugiaro design and again the lines mirror elements
of the bigger Alfa Romeo coupe he had drawn a few years previously, as well
as his BMW 3200 design and, indirectly, of later BMW coupes adapted from it.  
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