This part of a small series of informational passages I'm writing for Granturismox.net. It's basically some background and some history on some of the 700+ cars in Polyphony Digital's new game, Gran Turismo 4 - the latest in the GT series, which dates back to 1998.
Just one look will tell you that the Alfa Giulietta Sprint Speciale is an unusual car. Almost entirely the work of Bertone's Franco Scaglione, the SS was the result of six years of playing around with aerodynamic concept cars in the Moto-Guzzi wind tunnel. Scaglione first came to fame for the Arnolt-MG coupe; the success of which helped save a nearly-moribund Bertone in 1952. The popular MG-based coupe allowed Bertone to get new contracts and to develop a working relationship with Alfa-Romeo, and in the 50's Scaglione styled the Giulietta Sprint and the striking and aerodynamic Alfa B.A.T. concept cars. It was a combination of these two projects - the production Sprint and the aerodynamic lessons learned from the B.A.T.'s - that led to the Giulietta SS (Sprint Speciale).
The SS was initially supposed to be a homologation special for road rallying and GT racing. It was aimed primarily at customers who ran events like the Targa Florio. At the time another Alfa was cleaning up in these races - the Zagato-bodied Giulietta SZ. But the SZ was not a factory-backed model at the time. The SS, it was hoped, would use aerodynamics to get the better of the competition. After three concept iterations, the SS entered production at Bertone in the summer of 1959. Though aerodynamically advanced with a drag coefficient of just .29, the SS was a complex car to produce and was rather heavy for its size. Too heavy, in fact, to compete with the SZ - despite the fact that the first 101 built used aluminum panels and 20 of these used full alloy shells for lightness.
The mechanical package certainly wasn't a let down - the 1290-cc twin cam from the Giulietta was one of the best engines of the 50's, mated to one of the best chassis of the day. On top of that the car came with a five-speed gearbox. At the time four-speeds were the norm and a five-speed was radical. The car was nimble and handled well, and was very stable at high speeds. But in a road race or a rally most of the aerodynamic advantages were not particularly useful - because the advantages of the aerodynamics required great speed, and many special stages and road routes were short or twisty. For all of it's development, the hefty SS just couldn't touch the SZ in the 1300-cc classes. Its few successes included a 13 overall and 1st in class at the 1960 Targa Florio as well as victories in the 1960 Italian hillclimb championship. Almost all of these wins came in cars from that intial batch. With very little else of note, Alfa-Romeo instead adopted the SZ as it's chief competition version of the Giulietta.
With the car D.O.A. on the track by the end of 1960, Alfa was left to pitch the car in a different way. Instead of a racer, it was now billed as a luxurious coachbuilt GT, a more exotic version of an already special car. The interior became more lavish, chrome accents appeared to highlight the styling, and the car became quieter and more refined. With the debut of the Giulia in 1962, the stage was set for the final version of the SS (now called the Giulia SS). The now luxury-oriented GT was upgraded with the 112-hp Giulia 1600 engine and front disc brakes, replacing the earlier finned drums.
Luxury-oriented it was, too. It cost more than a Jaguar E-type 4.2 and it wasn't as quick. Despite its cost and its lack of racing prestige, the SS did very well in the sales race for a coachbuilt car - around 1400 were made before the car was formally phased out in 1966. At that time Alfa was concentrating on the new Duetto Spider as well as the forthcoming Tipo 33 Stradale (also styled by Scaglione), and the SS was an elder statesman in the lineup. The wild wind-molded styling still excites today, and the SS is regarded as a blue-chip classic. Its coachbuilt body never fails to draw stares; and like the other Giuliettas, its mechanicals ensure that it's great to drive.
