1990 Alfa Romeo SZ

Reviving its tradition of building special-bodied Alfa Romeos, including the original SZ (Sprint Zagato) competition coupé of the late 1950s, Carrozzeria Zagato unveiled its outrageous new SZ at the 1989 Geneva Salon. Assembled at the Zagato works at Terrazano di Rho, the SZ was a joint project that also involved the styling departments of both Alfa Romeo and its parent company, FIAT.

The car's original works designation was 'ES 30' (Experimental Sports 3-litre) but soon became known within the company as 'Il Mostro' (The Monster). The aggressive-looking two-seater coupé dispensed with the rounded styling and aluminium-alloy coachwork hitherto associated with Zagato's high-performance Alfas in favour of a dramatically angular bodyshell, crafted in lightweight moulded plastic, alloy roof excepted, which was bonded to the floor pan of the existing Alfa 75. Lessons learned from the 75's IMSA racing programme influenced the SZ's suspension geometry, endowing the car with superb handling and road-holding, with some test drivers recording lateral cornering forces of up to 1.4G, which is a lot!

Powering the SZ to its highly respectable 152mph top speed was a 210bhp version of Alfa's superb 3-litre four-cam V6, widely recognised as one of the finest power plants of its day. Despite its somewhat rectangular appearance, the SZ was quite slippery with a very low drag coefficient of 0.30Cd, the product of many hours spent refining the design in FIAT's wind tunnel. Demand for the 1,000 SZs scheduled for series production greatly exceeded supply, and today, this rare and highly individual supercar is much sought after.

Offered here is chassis #025 which looks to be a particularly interesting example. With a build date of 1990 and a production number of ‘Prova 003’ it’s sufficiently early in the production process that our vendor believes that it may be one of the rumoured 38 ‘prototype/pre-production’ cars.

Presented in Rosso Alfa with a beige leather interior, this left-hand drive SZ is showing just over 50,000km. UK-registered in 2012, it’s been privately owned since and is accompanied by its history file and UK V5C. Please note that the car will be serviced and issued with a fresh MOT prior to the sale. The appropriate SZ registration number will remain with the car.

This is a wonderful example and a seldom seen opportunity to acquire one of these ultra-rare Zagato-built Alfa Romeos that can only become increasingly collectable.