What's in a name (twice)

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

Before getting on with the essentials of Alfadom, anyone who has not yet
noticed should make a note that the digest seems to be twice blessed, with a
Wille Roos in Sweden and a Willem Roos in South Africa - a source of potential
confusion, like the British statesman Winston Churchill and the American
novelist Winston Churchill, who was there first, which is why the statesman's
writings are always published with his middle initial S. When I first saw
Willem's questions I asked myself "Is this some joke? Wille certainly knows
all this - -" before I caught on.

 That said, on to WilleM's subject-

 The 116 Giulietta indeed was never imported officially to the United States,
although a couple got in - the late Gary Valant had one, but they are at least
as rare here as Alfasuds. They might look oddly familiar to us, as the 75 (our
Milano) is a restyled Giulietta, keeping the same doors and basic structure
but adding the bent-up tail of the early 33s and a much fussier treatment of
the wheel-arch flares, which on the Giulietta are more like those of the GTV 6
and Alfetta coupes.

 I believe the "Executive" version which Willem mentions may have been a South
African edition prodced by the local importers, like the Strada in England and
the Grand Prix in Switzerland and the entirely different Grand Prix in
Australia. In any event it does not show up in any of the published
comprehensive listings of Alfa models.

 In addition to the 1.8 and 2.0 versions mentioned there was a 1.3 version,
the first, a 1.6 (the most numerous, more built than all other versions
combined), a Turbodiesel, and a small number of Turbodeltas (50,890 1.3,
187,064 1.6, 87,468 1.8, 5,249 2.0, 17,141 Turbodiesels, and 342 Turbodeltas).
According to the information in d'Amico & Tabucchi there was never a
fuel-injected version, (although there could have been in South Africa) and
the Ti was different only in trim, substituting bronze glass, flat black trim
in place of stainless, a leather steering wheel, electric windows and similar
variations which bore no relation to what "T.I." had meant originally. There
were also "L" versions, presumably Luxus, and many trim variations and name
variations, sometimes Giulietta and sometimes Nuova Giulietta.

 The US market never received two appreciably different sedans at the same
time, and often received only two different basic models at one time, but for
much of its last fifteen years as an independent company Alfa Romeo tried to
get a very broad market coverage from entry-level through luxury out of the
116 cars and the Alfasud-33 cars, building the Alfettas 1972-1984 (initially
along with 115 Berlinas), the Giuliettas 1977-1985, the 90 1984-1987,,and the
75 1985-1992, with usually three to five sizes of engines along with two or
three sizes of the boxer engines.

 A trivia item for the US interests is that the 1.3 Giulietta was a very
different engine from the 1.3 of the original Giuliettas and Giulia Juniors,
using the bore of the 1.8 (or 1750) with a short-stroke crankshaft; the old
1.3 was 1290cc, 74 x 75 mm, the 1570 cc '1.6'  78 x 82 mm, the 1779cc
'1750'/1.8  80 x 88.5 mm, and the 116 Giulietta "1.3" a 1357 cc 80 x 67.5 mm
unit sharing the stroke of the 1290 cc 78 x 67.5 mm GTA 1300 Junior

 Willem's other question is what the 'A' in GTA meant; it used to mean
'Alleggerita', lightened, and now, like TI, it doesn't mean anything. Times
change.

 Cordially,

 John H.

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