Re: pigs COULD fly, if you stuck 'em in a trebuchet (was: questions about 1974 Spider)

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

Scott Fisher writes:

"'74 is the best -- it's so good that Alfa made 1974 Spiders till sometime in
1976. :-)  Seriously -- because Alfa couldn't get the performance they wanted
and meet the California smog requirements for 1975, they only sold 1974
Spiders in California until the 1977 model year introduction, by which time
they worked it out.  While the official story is that California dealers sold
existing stock for the intervening two years, there is some suggestion that
some of the "1974" Spiders sold in California were actually produced in 1975
and early 1976; my own '74 Spider, for example, has a build date of September
1974 stamped on the door jamb, but was first sold (according to the California
registration in the car when I bought it) in May of 1976.  Yes, I suppose it
COULD have sat on a loading dock for 20 months... and Pininfarina COULD have
produced nearly 6000 Spiders in 1974, after producing barely 2000 a year for
the previous half-decade... and pigs COULD fly, if you stuck 'em in a
trebuchet."

I strongly suspect that the "were actually produced in 1975 and early 1976" is
a canard, quite capable of flying, and propagating, with minimum help. In any
event, both the "nearly 6000 Spiders in 1974" and the "after producing barely
2000 a year for the previous half-decade" are hyperbole, I think.

It is true that in the waning days of the 101 the trebuchet factory flew
modest numbers of Spiders - 2,232 in 1964, 1,059 in 1965 - but initially by
1957 production had hit 2080, peaking in 1960 at 5,096, not that far below
Scott's 6,000 number; 4,497 in '62, 3,875 in 63. The 105 Spider started
respectably with 3,363 cars in 1966, 3,812 in '67, 3,329 in '68, 3,158 in '69,
2,610 in 70, 3,517 in '71, 4,424 in 1972.

Thus spake Fusi; all a smidge more than "barely 2000". For later numbers one
must go to other sources, a.k.a. d'Amico & Tabucchi. I suspect Scott inherited
the "barely 2000" figure from some person or persons who took quickie numbers
- 1600s OR 1750s OR 2000s OR USA cars, neglecting that for Pininfarina's
hull-building purposes some years were 1600s AND 1750s, lhd AND rhd, 1750s AND
1600 Juniors AND 1300 Juniors, 1750s AND 2000s, Eurospec AND USAspec.
Pininfarina was clearly able to annually build over 5000 Alfa Spiders, along
with Fiats and Ferraris and whatever else.

For 1973 the total I get from d'A&T is 4,458 Spiders, of which 1,359 were USA
cars. For 1974 the total I get from d'A&T is 5,353 Spiders, of which 3,500
were USA cars, goosing up the "USA" production by 2,141 cars while increasing
total production for the year by just 895.

I don't know, but strongly suspect, that ARI may indeed have ordered a couple
of thousand extra cars in 1974 to try to cover California with 1974 leftovers
until the fifty-state cars were introduced. It is possible that Arese had
Pininfarina shave the Juniors, rhd, and Eurocar production for the year to
support the company's position in the California market, or equally possible
that Euromarket sales were off enough to give PF headroom, and equally
possible that PF could have built 7,000 if the market would have absorbed
them. Don't know. But the "barely 2000 a year" figure seems clearly unfounded,
and I wouldn't have greater faith in the "nearly 6000 Spiders" figure. I have
no doubt that ARI would have been willing to overorder, and Arese to
overbuild, within the law, and sell the 'leftovers', within the law, but I
doubt that they would have tried to build and import '1974' cars in 1975 and
1976. I don't think they would have expected to get away with it.

There are many interesting legends about Alfas, and enough of them are true.
Some aren't. Weeding the questionable ones adds, I believe, to the
unquestionable legitimacy of the ones that count. This is not to disagree with
the thrust of what Scott was writing about the various years, and I want to
take this opportunity to say how glad I am that he is back on the digest.

John HE.

Raleigh, N.C.

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