Tipo 116.xx (was: Balocco register)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Mark Mucciacciaro, a GTV6 'Balocco' owner, writes "I was looking at the
numbers and noticed many sources say that the Balocco edition should start
with the numbers 116.70, instead of 116.69 like the "regular" Gtv6s."

I am mildly curious about the "many sources" and downright skeptical about the
116.70 type number; it does not show up in any of the ARI model-number lists I
have, and I am fairly sure that the Balocco was one of the notorious USA
"special edition" concoctions, unknown in Italy and the rest of the world.

The 116.69 model designation, following the type-decimal-subtype format first
used in 1957 on the Sprint Speciale (tipo 101.20) apparently was a USA-only
thing on the GTV 6, other counties getting a 116 C or a 116 CA (with
catalyst). Elders may recognize this as the Giulietta model numbering format
(750 B, C, D, E, and F) which the company returned to with the Alfasuds (904
A, etc) in 1972. The Giulietta/Nuova Giulietta variants of the 116 (generic
transaxle cars) started as the 116.44 (etc.) in 1977 but switched to the
alphanumeric mode in 1979 with the 116 A; the Alfetta Turbo Diesel then was
the 116 B, and the GTV 6 the 116 C. (Subtypes and later variants picked up
added letters and numbers - 116 BA, 116 B3, 116 A1A, etc.) The last of the
transaxle cars, the 90 and the 75, were tipo 162 cars, and the 164 is a tipo
164, both with alphanumeric suffixes (164 K2B, etc).

Not that anyone asked- but the GTV 6, tipo 116.69, was the last first-use of
that type-number format; last surviving use was the 115.38 Spider which did
not become the 115 A1 until 1989.

John H.
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