Update 3/27/12: I received a note from Brian today that included these pictures of his Sprint back seat. He’s getting it redone, but thought we would like to see the originals before they disappear.
This rear seat is in great shape for being original -but still has the usual discoloration from water or whatever. Here again is the raised headliner bit -as if someone tall enough to need clearance would fit back here.
Looks like the stuffing has died. Underdash Norelco razor? I don’t think the bottom cushion is original. Child seat mount straps or seatbelts seen between the bottom and back on the driver side?
Door panels look really good. Nice to see a good set of these.
Originally posted 8/16/2008:Â A rear seat in a Sprint. This is one of those ‘what were they thinking’ accessories, like a phonograph or an in-dash DVD player. I earlier reported that on one desperate occasion I had 5 people in my Sprint and it was a squeeze of clown car proportions. I am not overly tall or long legged but when I am driving my Sprint there is maybe 3 inches between the back of my seat and the ledge the rear seat would sit on. It can’t be more than six inches with the seat all the way forward. I could see this working for a small child, maybe. It’s possible there was a tax or vehicle registration benefit to having the Sprint be a 4 seater that outweighed the cost of the seat but I’m not sure. I do know that Italian tax and registration laws of this era had all sorts of weird impacts on vehicles, most notably the sub 1300cc and sub 600cc breaks. I’ll explore this at a later date.
Below are two examples of rear seats I’ve come across recently. I’ve probably seen three more in the last year in my scouring the net for cars to write up. I have a feeling that when orders for the rear seat didn’t materialize, Bertone started shipping them with cars to get rid of them. I think all the rear seat cars I’ve seen were 1959 or 60 cars.
Vaguely reminiscent of the rear seats found in GTV’s but with a center fold down arm rest. This one seems to have been redone at some point as the original upholstery would look more like that in the next picture.
Continue reading “Giulietta Sprint Accessories part 3: the rear seat”
