More Viotti woody wagons (limited Alfa content)

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

In my reply Jorn Bereng's Viotti woody wagon question I was prematurely
dismissive about Viotti - a coachbuilder who had not really registered among
my interests. The firm was founded as an artisanal coachbuilding shop in 1921,
but evidently became a more industrial contractor with a good reputation at an
early date - but it was a Turin firm, and Turin is Turin, as Milan is Milan,
which explains why Viotti does not loom large on the Alfa scene. The brief
historical note I found on Viotti says "Nel 1946 e presentata la piu famosa
delle sue realizzazioni, la "giardinetta", un elegante tipo di vettura con
particolari in legno" -

 In Wim Oude Weernink's 'La Lancia' on p.123 there is a photo of a woody wagon
with a caption "Again under American influence, demand for station wagons
slowly increased and various coachbuilders produced their individual answers.
Both Viotti and, here, Pietro Frua built an Aprilia giardinetta in 1947, to a
Ghia design." Then, on p.142, pay-dirt; "Another coachbuilder's initiative to
be accepted by Lancia as a listed model was the period stationwagon, or
giardinetta, by Viotti with wooden sidepanels. It was based on the B51
chassis, and 50 were made." (In the text he says 47 were built.)The B51 was a
first-series Aurelia platform chassis; the Aurelia was slightly smaller than
an Alfa 6C 2500. The Lancia Viotti Giardinettas are four-doors while the 2500
Viotti is a two-door, but otherwise the bodies are virtually identical in form
and detail, so it would appear that this 2500 was probably an attempt to build
on Viotti's Lancia base with customers who might prefer an Alfa and/or a
larger car.

 Still later in the Lancia book there is a photo (p.177) of a Viotti-bodied
Lancia Appia 'giardinetta' two-door with a slightly raised roof, but without
the wood trim; it is a very neat-looking car, contemporary with the Colli
Giulietta Promiscua, and 300 were built, a more substantial production than
Colli's.

 A tangent on the intertwining and thus sometimes hard to pin down
relationships of the Italian body builders and panel press-shops; on p.181
Weernink notes that the Pinin Farina Lancia Appia coupes were built mainly by
Viotti due to PF's limited production capacity. This is perhaps analogous to
Alfa's Touring-bodied 2000 and 2600 Spiders, which I feel fairly certain could
not have been built by Touring.

 John H.

Raleigh N.C.

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