[tadslc]

Looking at a 1959 Spider Veloce with a split case transmission. It is original

I thought it should have a tunnel case so my question is when did the change occur.

Build date on this car is May 6th 1959

 

[tadslc]

Never mind, I just read a post that explained the changeover date and approximate serial number start/end.
For some reason I thought it was sometime in 1959-1960.

My 1959 transition Sprint came with a tunnel case.

 

[AlfistiSA]

Hi Tadslc

If your Sprint originally came with a Tunnel case box then I'd hazard a fairly educated guess that your Sprint is actually a pre September '58 model that was first registered in '59.....

Ciao
Greig

 

[tadslc]

Thanks Greig,

I havent even checked on that for the Sprint. I'll see what Alfa says.

 

[AlfistiSA]

Alfa gives the chassis number of 1493*07300 as the point where the column shift tunnel box was no longer used on Sprints, an educated guess places this number as the arrival of the split case box in September '58, so a Sprint with a chassis number below 07300 had a tunnel box, above 07300 had a split case box.

I've never seen or heard of a column shift tunnel box higher than 05766, but then I've only been researching Sprints for 22 years now. What we do know is that Alfa used the tunnel box until September '58. The floor shift was standardised for the USA spec cars while the Home or Italian market got a mix of floor and column shift. Sometimes these column shift cars were sent to other markets, 05639 was bought in France and my own 05262 was a UK bought car - although I suspect collected in Italy & driven back to the UK to avoid purchase tax.

Ciao
Greig

 

[Tom F2]

According to the shop manual supplement dated 4/1959, issued for the change to the split case transmission, the chassis numbers for the changes were: Berlina 1488.20801, t.i. 1468.8501, Sprint 1493.7301, and Spider 1495.4811. I don't know the dates corresponding to the chassis numbers, but it is around September 1958, as Greig says. My January 1959 Spider is 1495.05875.

Alfa dropped the place holder zero in listing chassis numbers for the t.i., Sprint and Spider in this shop manual supplement.