Beating a dead horse (was: 1962 Sprint at National)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In AD9-0519 Christopher Boles added further comments to the wire-wheels
thread, both about the concours-winning '62 Sprint and about the 6C2500 and
the 1900. I don't really care about most aspects of the wire wheels questions
- they are in my opinion largely a matter of personal taste, although in
earlier times they were matters of technical advantage and of fabrication
expediency, well adapted to considerable variation in very low production
quantities. I do, however, care considerably about the falsification (however
inadvertant) of the factual historical record, especially when it is in a form
which makes it subject to broad acceptance through repetition in published
statements by authorities or "authorities".

Taking the smallest question first, Chris says "1900's had wire wheels in the
competition cars, and I have seen lightweights with wire wheels."

The 1900 Berlinas and TIs, which were as much competition cars as any 1900s
(remember the well-earned "The family car that wins races" slogan?) had steel
disc wheels, and the 1900 C (the platform chassis supplied to coachbuilders,
mostly Touring, Pininfarina and Zagato but also any other coacbuilder who had
a customer who wanted a coachbuilt Alfa) normally had wires, although some,
mainly the Pininfarina cabriolets, usually had steel disks, perhaps for their
easier maintenance. While the sedans had uniform weights the coachbuilt cars
were not necessarily "lightweights" - they usually had alloy bodies (almost
certainly for ease of hand-forming) but also usually had more sumptuous
furnishing, and a platform chassis is inherently heavier than a
unit-construction body of the same strength. Undoubtedly the lightest 1900s
were the few 1900Cs built expressly for competition (the "Corto Gara" Touring
coupes, of which I would guess there were probably not more than two or three)
but otherwise the 1900 wires were probably primarily cosmetic- matters of
marketing and personal taste.

On the Giuliettas, Chris says "I knew that some of the early sprints had wire
wheels" and "So why would it be ludicrous to not think that some early spiders
could have come from the factory with wire wheels. All the customer would have
had to do was sit down at the dealership, make up a wish list to go with the
order of what they would want installed and let the dealership do the
negotiations on what is available at the time. The factory would have probably
been more than happy to provide a customer with special order parts as it
would have meant a few more Lira coming into the factory coffer."

I would refer back to Denny Pillar, quoted by Joe Cantrell in AD9-0515: "there
were NO options". You took one of the colors that was in-stock, or you didn't.
Pillar was speaking of an earlier period than my initiation, but in none of
the five Alfas I bought new (from three different dealers) was there ever any
suggestion that there were any options.

Apart from the general all-models books, there are two books which I find
particularly useful on the Giuliettas. One is the Anselmi/Boscarelli book
"Alfa Romeo Giulietta" in the series "le auto classiche"; the other is the
"Alfa Romeo Veloce- The Racing Giuliettas" by Donald Hughes and Vito Vitting
Da Prato. Both are marvelously detailed, considering that between them they
total only about 350 pages- between them, along with a lot else, there are the
dates of constuctions, initial owners, chassis numbers, engine numbers,
colors, overall wins, class wins, and drivers of Giulietta SVs, SVZs, the SVS,
the SVM, SSs, Berlinas, Berlina t.i.s, Sprints and Spiders (including the
"G"s) from 1955 through 1965 (not everything, no DNFs or seconds listed) and
scores of photos of the cars in dated events. In the two books wire wheels do
appear- on a Conrero-built hybrid Alfa-Lancia chassis, on the 1500 cc
Giulietta-engined, Abarth chassis, Boano-bodied Alfa 750 Competizione, on a
1924 6C 1500, an 8C 2900, a 1900C in the background at the Turin introduction
of the Giulietta Sprint, on the 1100 Alfa-engined Farina-bodied Abarth record
car, the B.A.T. 5, B.A.T.9, on a Lotus Elite, but never once on any of the
scores of photos of Giuliettas, either static or in dated competitions, is a
wire wheeled Giulietta. That doesn't prove that there wasn't ever one - it is
hard to prove a negative (was there ever a double-bubble Berlina? There could
have been. All it would take was one person who wanted one badly enough to pay
for it).

Obviously, there are wire-wheeled Giuliettas and Giulias (and low-riders) and
probably, somewhere, a Milano or a 166 or a 147 "GTA". Somebody, somwhere, may
be able to produce a datable photo (between 1955 and, say, 1975) of a
wire-wheeled Giulietta, or a dated build-sheet, or a receipt, or some other
incontrovertable document. And it doesn't really matter, does it? It is just
history, and history is bunk, to people to whom history is bunk. And I don't
doubt for a moment that it was a nice '62.

Said too much already. Long ago, in fact. Sorry, will try hard to curtail.
Enjoy yours,

John H.
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