[alfa] Re: alfa-digest V10 #111

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

So called "robbing the parts-bin" for small items has been a trick of 
small volume manufacturers for decades. Instances: The Tom Tjarda 
designed Ferrari 365 California drophead coupe used tail lights from a 
big Fiat truck tractor. The last series of Lotus Esprits used tail 
lights from a Toyota sedan. The door handles on the original production 
run of Ford GT-40s were from a Ford Consel. The eyeball vents on Alfa 
GTV-6s come from a Fiat 131. The electric window mechanism on a GTV-6 
is exactly the same as the one used in the Ferrari 328. The gas cap on 
the GTV-6 is shared by the Lancia Beta Scorpion (Montecarlo). 
Pininfarina used to buy door handles, window cranks, dash-board knobs, 
seat mechanisms, trunk and hood latch mechanisms, and god-only-knows 
what else from Fiat in bulk lots for his Ferrari models.

Truth is that many of these cars were built in simply too-small a 
volume to justify the tooling costs for many of these parts. Your 
average off-the-shelf Pontiac, for instance has much better door seals, 
trunk seals, etc. than does a low volume Ferrari (this may not be as 
true today as it was in past). The Ferrari seals are likely to be a 
long, straight piece of rubber that was hand inserted around the door 
and trunk lid, while the Pontiac will have specially molded gaskets 
that fit the door and trunk perfectly because they were MADE for that 
door and that trunk. Something a company like Ferrari can rarely afford 
to do - especially in the days of low volume production where the 
coach-work was farmed-out to the various Italian coach-builders.


George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'



On May 25, 2004, at 2:30 PM, alfa-digest wrote:

>
> Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 14:36:36 -0400
> From: RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] Shared tail lights not so curious
>
> Folks,
>
> While it would strike me as odd for someone to use a stylistically
> inappropriate tail light on an otherwise nice-looking, expensive, 
> exotic
> car, when you realize what it cost  to design, tool, and manufacture
> unique, multi-lens, over-molded tailight assemblies, it shouldn't be
> surprising at all that low volume manufacturers simply found
> acceptable-looking, off-the-shelf parts which they could simply buy
> ready-made.Making road cars, even exotic ones,  has generally been a
> "for-profit" enterprise!
>
> RON
>
>> Subject: RE: [alfa] Maserati, Ferrari, Alfa comparison Alfa Content 
>> Parts
> Sharing
>>
>> The Espada did, but stranger still is the original
>> Lamborghini Countach used the same rear tail
>> lights as the series 1 Alfetta Sedan, the ones
>> with three square lenses on each side!
>> And off the topic of Italian cars:  The Aston
>> Martin Virage used the tail lights from the '86 -
>> '88 VW Scirocco....Something I always found very
>> curious.
>
>
George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
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