prototypes

[Tessie McMillan <tessmc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Paul Witek mentioned the Bertone Giulietta Spider prototype. It was designed
> by Franco Scaglione, and there is a lot of "baby BAT" to it - the hindquarters
> in particular are very close to the open version of the Sportiva. Two were
> built, #1495.00002 and 1495.00004; Pininfarina built 00003, 00005, 00006, and
> 00007. 00007 was the first one shown publicly around the US, is featured in
> all of the first road tests, and is now owned in the Pacific north-west by a
> friend of the inimitable Tess (please correct me if I have the numbers screwed
> up, Tess.)
> 
> The story that the reason Alfa built Spiders for those of you who like them is
> that Alfa wanted Max Hofmann to sell Alfas, and Hofmann said he would IF Alfa
> built a satisfactory Spider to go along with the Sprints and Giulietta
> Berlinas. Alfa, wanting Hofmann's sales, had a few prototypes built and sent
> him the Bertone/Scaglione 00002 and the Pininfarina 00003 for his review.
> Hofmann picked the PF design and mandated a number of changes - dump the
> wraparound windshield, add wind-up windows in place of the sidecurtains, clean
> up the dashboard, do nicer bumpers, and so forth. The Bertone 00002 was then
> sold here (one-offs were nothing special), Bertone 00004 was sold in Italy, PF
> 00003 was probably returned with Hofmann's corrections and I believe is in the
> Alfa museum, 00005 and 00006 were variations probably for Hofmann's approval,
> and 00007 was the one presented to the public at various auto shows, road
> tested here, and wound up with Tess' friend.

Gee John, it's kinda scarey when you sneak up on a body like that and 
make them have to look words up in the dictionary. Nor will I disagree 
with your redoubtable self. &:-D (Except to say I always thought the 
Bertone prototype to be "Elyse-ish".) Since I can't remember the details 
of the prototypes -- and for some reason had it fixed in my mind that 0004 
was in the Alfa Museum -- I'll just stay hidden under my rock. I never 
told anyone that a lot of the information I got was from a book written in 
Italian. At the time, the only person I could think of who was 
fluent in Italian was my then-boss. Since she was possessed of somewhat of 
a temper and was wont to kick and break things (including people), I was 
necessarily not keen on spending too much time in close quarters with her 
and consequently did not get as much translated as I would have under 
normal circs. So I may have come away with only half a picture, so to 
speak. All I can add is that nobody really knows the history of 0007 after 
it was used as a display car. It did become someone's race-car, as there 
are pictures of it racing against... was it 356s? I can't remember, at a 
track in California. Periodically it will show up in historical photos in 
an automotive magazine (next to the car/driver that was the point of the 
article, never cause for one of its own.) And it was definitely built by 
hand, that's the most fun part about it. But as for whomever was 
responsible for putting those Cadillac-awful Madonnas on the front bumper 
(which none of the other prototypes had -- Madonnas, that is to say, not 
bumpers), I don't think we'll ever know. Didn't Hoffman go on to import 
356s? Or am I mixing up my stories...

Take care -

Tess
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