1970 Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato 1.3

When Alfa Romeo's president visited the Zagato stand at the 1967 Turin Show, his company's range consisted of the Giulia in various forms, Bertone's Sprint GT and Pininfarina's Duetto. That might have been enough, but, mindful of the successful low volume SZ and TZ models, he wanted Zagato to produce something more original and more sporting. Zagato were, of course, happy to oblige. The Milanese coachbuilder's master stylist, Ercole Spada, modelled the new car on the TZ (Tubolare Zagato), which he had styled in 1963. A shallow nose, a raked back screen and an elegant Kamm tail were obvious carry-over concepts. Unusual though was the clever Plexiglass front panel, with just a simple Alfa shield cut into it and the hatchback rear window with its electrical release. While the main bodywork is in steel, the bonnet and doors are in aluminium. The interior has nice Zagato touches with comfortable seats including head-rests and recessed instruments which don't reflect in the screen. When the Junior Zagato appeared at Turin in October 1969, it featured the running gear of the 1300GT on a Duetto chassis shortened behind the rear wheel arches. The 1290cc twin-cam 'four' producing 89bhp at 6000rpm, enough to propel the sleek shape at around 107mph. The 1300 continued in production until October 1972, by which time 1108 examples had been produced, enough to enable homologation in FIA Appendix J group 3. The 1600 version, with 109bhp, followed on until 1975, but only 402 were produced. All were left-hand-drive.

The car on offer here was one of the first production batch. Its chassis entered Zagato on 27th March 1969 and left with white paintwork and black interior on 2nd January 1970, bound for Alfa Romeo. It found its first owner in Turin in January, 1971, and was duly registered E43300-TO. Four owners later in 1986 it was still in Turin. At that time the vendor was working at Zagato for Aston Martin and wanted to bring back a memento. A suitable Junior Z was found by Fratelli Galbiati, the Zagato specialists, who were sub-contracted to build the 'Sanction 11' Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos. In the intervening years it had become red and acquired Stil-Auto 6 x 14in alloy wheels with 185/70 tyres; standard fitments were 165HR14 on 5.5in steel wheels. The car was driven to the UK and imported in March, 1990.

Since then it has had very little use, but the engine has been completely rebuilt in two stages - top and bottom - and the suspension overhauled including new brake calipers, tyres and exhaust system. It would appear to have done just 91,000km in its 42-year life. The bodywork is in good condition and the car is running well with an MoT to 4th October 2012.