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Old 02-21-2007, 11:03 AM
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dretceterini dretceterini is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by velocedoc View Post
it has always been my conjecture that when a buyer wanted an Alfa Romeo, they would go to the company and order the chassis (sport/Super Sport). Alfa Romeo would then offer a choice of standard chassis builders and body styles. The company would be contacted upon choice, the chassis delivered and the owner contacted by the coachbuilder. The two would collaborate on what ever personal choices would be made available as the car came together once the chassis was fitted with the body. I am thinking that if you had the money to buy a car of this stature in this time period, (aka buying a top end Ferrari) you could even go find your own body builder to hammer out what ever you wanted. As you say in a previous post, there were 3 levels of coach makers. I never would have imagined there were that many levels let alone that many people out making bodies.
After the war, there must have been a lot of people competing for attention and the Lira hoping to become a major player in the making of bodies for the few chassis builders. The evolution of stardard bodies into racing bodies would have certainly captured the eye of those seeking someone on the cutting edge. The rear window treatment in our discussion car would have been out on that edge vying for attention. I know this is probably retoric, but felt like I needed to say my mind.

I would tend to think cars were available in 3 ways;
1) compleated cars sitting at dealers (probaly PF or Touring, for the most part)

2) as you state above

3) Alfa would sell people a bare chassis/motor unit

This may have even been the case into the time when the 1900s were built..
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