FAQ: GT Veloce rear"seat"/package tray/entertainment facility (was: 73 GTV progress)

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

Richard Welty, bless him, has again demonstrated his unselfishness, in that he
maintains for our use a marvelous digest which he does not always have time to
read. In 8-763 he writes, of his '73 GTV, "when it left the road, we didn't
have a daughter yet, so i never went looking for rear belts or rear belt
mounting points before. in checking this afternoon, i couldn't find any. i
would have thought that a car with rear seats in 1973 would have had to have
had rear lap belts in the US market. anyone know what's the story here?"

The story here was covered in the digest in 1998, from June through December.
The bottom line is covered with some authority by Recall Campaign #80.10.47
dated July 17, 1972. The gist is that AR has determined that "2000" series
G.T. Veloce (model 115.01) vehicles fail to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle
Safety Standard 207, as Part S.4.4 requires that "seats not designated for
occupancy when the vehicle is in motion shall be conspicuously labeled to that
effect." It goes on to say that "The absence of the label in itself will not
cause a malfunction of the vehicle" (whew!) but that "Since there is no
warning label someone might sit there." Later it mentions "For your
information the G.T. Veloce has always been a two-seat vehicle and labeled as
such on the loading data label located inside the glovebox door." The bulletin
then illustrates the new labels being provided (two per car) in the form of a
double-faced sticker to be located in the lower, forward area of each rear
side window glass, which shows, on the inside, "REAR SEATS ARE NOT DESIGNATED
TO BE OCCUPIED BY PASSENGERS WHILE VEHICLE IS IN MOTION" but shows from the
outside "ALFA ROMEO "2000" G.T. VELOCE GROUP 2 TOURING CHAMPION 1971 EUROPEAN
MANUFACTURER SERIES". However, at least two respondents, Dana Loomis and
Richard G. Ballentine, had had GT Veloces, a '74 in RGB's case and a '72 in
DL's case, which had single stickers in the middle of the rear seat saying
that the seats were not to be occupied when the vehicle was in motion.

The subject had first come up on the digest when a GT Veloce owner, who knew
it was a two-seater, was pulled over by a CHP officer who tried to tell him
that his car was a four-seater and could not use the HOV carpool lane without
a third person in the back seat. The most favored explanation was that the
thing behind the two real seats was in fact a package tray. The "entertainment
facility" explanation came about at least in part because a month previously
Tracy ("Hot'n H" <tracy344@domain.elided>) had posted on the digest "The worst lay I
ever had was in a Bertone Alpha. Terrible, never again."

As far as anyone could establish, there were no designed-in provisions for the
rear belts Richard needs. Should be no problem: he will need belts, a drill,
and some suitably-sized washer plates.

Good luck, and again thanks, Richard, for all you have done for the rest of
us.

John H.
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