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Information

Differences Bewteen American and Euro-spec Berettas
Last Updated: August 30, 2006

This information was passed on to us from an overseas Beretta owner (actually, he owns two GTZ's) to inform us about the differences between American and Euro-spec Berettas.


Here are a few basic things:
  1. Not all of the Berettas in Europe are Euro-spec -- they are actually pretty rare there too, depending on the country
  2. The European Beretta parts are made by GM in the United States and the conversion was done by TDM World Conversions Ltd. in Germany
  3. Some of the conversion parts suffer from poor quality -- especially in the wiring of lights.
  4. It appears that the first Euro-spec Berettas appeared in 1991 (older Berettas are American versions that were imported)
Other known differences include:

HEADLIGHTS
As many of you may already know, Euro-spec Berettas came with 'Camaro'-style headlights, where the inner light (closest to the grille) acts as a high-beam.


The lights themselves bolt up the same as the US ones do, but instead of the fuses being located in the fusebox, they are behind the headlights. The angle of the low-beams are controlled remotely from inside the car by means of a motor. There is a switch located on the center console which allows you to adjust the height of the beams 3-ways.


(Adjuster has been removed in this picture)



The adjuster motor (made in France, and break easily apparently)



The adjuster switch


BUMPER LIGHTS
The front bumper lights are slightly different than in the US -- they have parking lights on the outer edge with turn signals on the inner edge. The difference here being that the turn signal is amber in color already, without the use of an amber bulb. On Z04 cars, the middle divider between what would be the turn signal and foglight on a US Beretta, has been removed.



REAR BUMPER COVER
The rear bumper cover has a larger area for the license plate and there are 3 lights for it, instead of only 1 on US Berettas. The bumper itself is constructed from 2 pieces of plastic -- the bumper itself and the plastic under the plate. Some rear bumper covers have a rear foglight molded in, and there are a few versions of the plastic that goes under the plate.



TAILLIGHTS
There are two versions of the Euro taillights, but both versions have the yellow blinker on the top portion and your regular tail/brake light on the bottom. Euro taillights don't have reflective tape on them. The first design is the same as the US taillights, except for the amber blinker on top.



The second design is slightly different -- there is a red reflector between the upper and lower portion of the taillight.



There is also a different lense covering one of the reverse lights.




Back view of the 1st design


Backside of the 2nd design Euro taillights
(notice the lower reverse light doesn't have a place for the bulb)


CLUSTERS
European clusters don't have any MPH markings, just km/hr. Some non Euro-spec Berettas have a km/hr cluster in them also. Oil pressure is in KPA instead of PSI and water temperature is in degrees celsius (instead of on the US cluster specifying "C" for cold and "H" for hot)


90 GTZ speedometer



91 GTZ speedometer


SIDEMARKERS
Euro-spec Berettas have an aftermarket blinkers on fenders while the US version ones are replaced with red or black plastic -- there is no place for the bulb to go on them. The rear sidemarker lights are also blacked out. Some of the US-spec Berettas also have the aftermarket blinkers on fender.



MIRRORS
All Euro-spec Berettas have the GTU/INDY style mirrors on them.



SPOILERS
While there aren't any Euro-spec GTU's, some GTU's had a different style 3rd brake light.


The GT/GTZ/Z26 spoilers are shorter in length and don't have 3rd brake lights built into them.



DRIVING LIGHT WASHERS
These were most-likely a dealer installed option, but some Berettas over in Europe have washers for the driving lights.

The system consists of its own fluid tank behind the front bumper, with a neck that rises up behind the passenger side driving light. Two "doublenozzles" are placed in front of the driving lights. The fluid tank is made in Germany and looks like that it will only fit a Beretta -- more information on that is still missing however.

More Euro-spec Beretta pictures can be found here.

Pictures used on this page were contributed by Veli-Matti Juvonen - thanks!
Information used with permission of the author from this topic on Bstuff.com.

contributed by: Veli-Matti Juvonen
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