Tirade of the moment: Wire wheels, original, and all of that

[RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From: "John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>
>Subject: re: wire wheels
>
>I did hear (perhaps from Braden, perhaps elsewhere) of one instance of an
>American taking delivery on a new Giulietta at the factory in Milan saying
he
>would prefer wire wheels, and being told "that can be arranged", or words
to

>"We didn't know it at the time", and I still don't.

Think I'll throw in my .02:

IMHO, as late as the 1960's, the Italians (and Brits, and Frenchmen) were
_far_ more motivated to please the individual whims of their American
customers than were their American importers. Likewise, one presumes the US
dealers were mostly interested in selling what cars they had on hand. For
an American travelling through Italy with a large enough wad of USD,
"factory options" in Italy seem only to have been limited by the
imagination. For an American buying a car from the dealer down the street,
"factory options" were more limited, but options that weren't factory
options were sometimes added by nonetheless "factory authorized" dealers.

So, there's the job of defining a factory option vs. a factory authorized
one-off, or for that matter, a standard, US-dealer, factory-authorized
catalog-option vs. an option which, though period-correct, was added not by
the factory, but by a factory-authorized agent or dealer. (Still with me?!)

If you can document that a car came from the factory with unusual
equipment, then it's just a matter of historic fact for that specific car.
It's pretty meaningless trying to extend that "option" to every car the
factory built, however.  Likewise, if you can document that a specific car
was modified by an authorized US  agent or dealership before it was sold,
that's another issue. Or, if you can prove that the car was modified
in-period by the original owner, or the second owner, or whatever,
especially if they were historically significant figures, that's yet
another layer of grief. So, you might put forth a more or less convincing
arguement for the historic significance, relevance, or worth of a given
modification and its preservation, even if it's not, strictly speaking,
factory original, so long as it's period-correct and appropriate, even if
it were added much later.

Conversely, in the present tense, if you're a current owner adding
non-standard or unusual equipment to a standard, conventionally imported
and distributed car of no particular historic significance, what you're
really doing is just having fun with your toy. As long as the changes are
appropriate, in good taste, and you aren't hacking up a particularly rare
or good-condition original car, what the hell, enjoy life. Arguably, a
slightly-modified existence is better than another "old clunker" getting
crushed and leaving the scene completely.

On the other hand, if you're one of these cognitive-dissonance-obsessed
souls who feels he just _has_ to club everyone over the head, justifying
his actions to himself and everyone else, all the while quoting chapter and
verse from a book written by some absent third party, simply _assumed_ to
be gospel,  well....  let's just say there are reasons why I hung up my
blue blazer, straw hat, and clip board....
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