1960 alfa 2000 help needed

[DPeterson3]

BTW,

Jay - I didn't put you on our regular email travelogue distribution, as much of it is written for my grandson's 2nd grade class. On the other hand...

We are in Uruguay, and I'm peering into open garages every day. Some interesting stuff, but so far no Alfas. Lots of Fiat 500's (the old ones, not new), in apparently remarkable condition and daily use.

[tubut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DPeterson3 I'm not certain the photos were produced by Alfa

[Fatfishblu]

Don,

There's a Brazilian named Constantine who travels all over S. America uncovering wonderful and rare automobiles. Maybe you've heard of him? Try looking in people's backyards and even the jungle. He seems to find a lot of cars hidden in the jungle.

Hope you're enjoying your trip. Be careful, last time I visited S. America I came back with an addiction to Caipirinha's!

[DPeterson3]

Ruedi,

I'm in no way claiming expertise in this area, just some familiarity with the way Alfa worked in the US in the 60's and early 70's. For some of that time, and earlier, it was Hoffman Motors, and Alfa didn't really handle all or even much of their US advertising stuff. I can easily imagine the Hoffman folks brewing up some literature without home-office participation, and nobody would care.

For instance, I've seen a Hoffman price list where they offered such things as a second chrome strip down the side. We normally associate the double stainless strip as being Euro-only, but apparently they would sell them to you and deliver the car that way as a factory option. Wasn't really "factory", but as it would come from the dealer the owner could assume it was standard.

Even the referenced pictures show evidence of fairly crude layout work. Yes, these pieces may have been what was circulated as "factory" documentation in the US, but I still have doubts they came from Italy. It strikes me as unlikely that the factory would hire a photographer to go to Mississippi for a photo shoot, for instance. Also, the pictured car appears to show a license plate with a date of 61 or 69. It doesn't really look like a 59 to my tired old eyes. The documents I've seen that refer to the 2000 as a "Spider" were for the 61 model year, but in the above photo with a 61 plate, they are calling it a "Roadster".

I reckon we no longer expect consistency from anything Alfa did, and everybody has to believe in something....