Description

1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Zagato (Coda Tonda).

This car is absolutely concours quality restored and race prepped with full FIA HTP papers.

Formerly part of the Banks family private collection (Alfaholics) for some 17 years, having taken 7 years to complete its full restoration.

In my opinion, Alfaholics work and attention to detail are second to none and you really cannot get any better.

When the car was restored, the originality of as much of the aluminium body as possible was retained and made a real priority; the roof, pillars, front scuttle, top halves of front wings, rear bodywork & bonnet are all original repaired items. All the original beautifully manufactured Zagato screen surrounds/aluminium finishers/side window frames/internal screen cappings were polished and re-used.

The car has only covered 100 miles since completion.

The Zagato build number (551) was found marked in various trim/finisher components from the car.

The Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ (for Sprint Zagato, officially the Tipo 101.26, or “Type 101.26”) was an aluminium-bodied 2-seater berlinetta, built by Zagato for competition use on the chassis and mechanicals of the Sprint Speciale. A production competition version of the Giulietta, with lightened bodywork designed by Franco Scaglione for Bertone was then premiered at the 1960 Geneve Salon. Handbuilt by Zagato, entirely in aluminium and with plexiglass windows, the lightened Sprint Zagato (SZ) was light, fast, and expensive. Two hundred seventeen were built, the original design with a rounded rear and with the last thirty (some say 46) receiving a longer kamm-style rear end as well as disc brakes up front. The original design is called the “Coda Tonda” (round tail),while the Kamm-design is referred to as the “Coda Tronca” (truncated tail). The Coda Tronca is sometimes also referred to as the “SZ2”. The first examples were built in December 1959, and production continued into 1962. Zagato also rebodied a few existing cars with this bodywork, leading to discrepancies in the production numbers.

The SZ was very successful in racing, on a national level as well as internationally. The SZ helped Alfa Romeo secure a victory in the 1.3 litre class of the International Championship for GT Manufacturers in 1962 and 1963. Michel Nicol won the Tour de Corse in 1957.

This car competed in Le Tour de France, Coupe del Alpes, Criterium Jean Behra and Criterium Alpin throughout the 60’s.

More recently, the car tested 20 laps at castle Combe and then competed at the Silverstone Classic 2017 and beat the SZ lap record by 4 seconds.

The level of competition history and provenance that this car has, rises it above the rest.