Originally Posted by cudak888

Gran Sport was the top when it was first introduced - it was Campagnolo's first parallelogram derailer, if I recall right (replaced the Paris-Roubaix, for that matter).

Became the second-tier model by the Record in '65. I do wonder just how many they sold into the '70s though - I've yet to see one mounted on any machine past the mid '60s.

I never thought highly of the subsequent group of the original's namesake (Nuovo Gran Sport, that is) however, for its front and rear derailers always appeared absolutely cheap to me - the plating on the front was abysmal, and the rear was the cheapest copy that one could ever make of the NR geometry - even the Gian Robert knockoffs look good in comparison to the zinc-plated hex bolts and stamped pulley cage. Yech! Great parts mines for NR and SR derailers though.

Nevertheless, the rest of the Nuovo Gran Sport group was finished just as nicely as NR or SR (even if the lettering on the calipers and levers aren't as spiffy), and one must not forget the high-flange Nuovo Tipo hubs either.

I'd knock it down a bit in the lineup if it were my own personal preference, but that wasn't what I had in mind.

For the record though, the following is my own idea of how they stack up against each other - biased and completely subjective:

Victory/Victory S3
Super Record
C-Record (It would rate higher if those dropout stops weren't so prone to cracking)
Gran Sport
Record
Nuovo Record (I do not, and will never care for NR parallelogram angle or cage geometry, or any other derailer that shares it. Shifting into the small cog when on the big chainring is inevitably sloppy no matter what the adjustment)
Nuovo Gran Sport
990
Triomphe/Triomphe S3
980

-Kurt