Alfa Romeo SZ | Spotted
Modern car design is divisive, but only the SZ earned a nickname for its distinctive looks
We’re living in a pretty divisive period for car design. Naturally, the first thing that springs to mind is practically everything BMW has put out of late (though change is on the horizon with the recent shakeup of the firm’s styling department), but the rise of the electric car, freed from the shackles of cooling vents and engine packing, has spawned designs so controversial that they’ve ruined friendships and split families right down the middle. (Probably.) Just look at the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford Capri and Alfa Romeo Junior to name but a few.
But no matter how challenging you may find today’s crop of gawping-grilled performance cars and sci-fi-styled EVs, it’s still got nothing on what the '80s was serving up. It was a decade obsessed with embracing the future and pushing the limits of possibility. This is the era of the space-age Aston Lagonda, the pin-sharp Lotus Esprit Turbo and many iterations of TVR Wedge. And it wasn’t just the Brits getting in on it, either. The US had the C4 Corvette, the Alpine GTA was France’s contribution and the Alfa Romeo SZ, much like the one you see here, was Italy's offering.
Even before the covers came off at the 1989 Geneva Motor Show, the press had already given the SZ prototype (then codenamed the ES30) a right hammering for its looks two years prior and its public debut did little to quell the outrage. Alfas were meant to be sleek, elegant and beautiful - everything the SZ wasn’t. What it was, however, was striking, cutting edge and disruptive. Sounds like the work of Zagato, though as you probably know the Italian design house actually took care of the SZ’s assembly, with the styling handled by Fiat’s Robert Opron: the man behind the gorgeous Citroen SM.
Beneath the futuristic skin was a properly well-sorted platform, too. Yes, it was essentially a shortened Alfa 75 (Busso V6 included), but Giorgio Pianta, who oversaw the development of many championship-winning Lancia rally cars, was put in charge of making it work. He set about by plucking the suspension setup from the box-arched 75 IMSA car and calling on Koni for a set of sportier dampers. It also helped that the entire body was made from lightweight composites for a kerb weight of just 1,256kg.
“If you are going to do controversial, don’t do half measures. Make it so ugly children will scream and hide.” That’s what Chris Harris wrote about the SZ for PH 11 years ago. He’s got a point, because it’s working wonders for many EV makers these days, and it helped Alfa shift 1,036 of them, exceeding its planned run of 1,000 cars. While it’s as radical now as it was all those years ago, the SZ does seem to be ageing well. It’s still not conventionally pretty like an Alfa normally is, but seeing one out in the wild will stop you dead in your tracks - just as it would have done 35 years ago.
Now imagine that, only you’re looking out at this particular SZ parked up on your driveway. Or, preferably, tucked away in your garage (we’re talking about an '80s Italian sports car with a steel chassis here). The rich Rosso Alfa paint and delicious tan leather interior look to be in superb condition on this car, while most of the 9,000 miles covered were done so on the salt-free roads of Japan. It’s been in the UK since 2018 and comes complete with its original tailor-fit cover and factory build sheet. All for £79,990. Old ‘il mostro’ has been headed towards six figures for some time now, and examples like this will be the first to do so when that time comes. Not going to get any less cool, is it?
SPECIFICATION | ALFA ROMEO SZ
Engine: 2,959cc V6
Transmission: five-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 210@6,200rpm
Torque (lb ft): 181@4,500rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
Year registered: 1994
Recorded mileage: 9,000
Price new: £35,000
Yours for: £79,990
Must have got the handling very well sorted as they could show a clean pair of wheels to the most powerful M3 of the time when they came out
I know Harry Metcalfe waxed lyrical about one on ‘Harry’s Garage’bit I can’t remember him suggesting it would show a clean pair of (w)heels to something like an M3..
Must have got the handling very well sorted as they could show a clean pair of wheels to the most powerful M3 of the time when they came out
I know Harry Metcalfe waxed lyrical about one on ‘Harry’s Garage’bit I can’t remember him suggesting it would show a clean pair of (w)heels to something like an M3..
Must have got the handling very well sorted as they could show a clean pair of wheels to the most powerful M3 of the time when they came out
I know Harry Metcalfe waxed lyrical about one on ‘Harry’s Garage’bit I can’t remember him suggesting it would show a clean pair of (w)heels to something like an M3..
Performance Car of the Year 1990 it was up against the Sports EVO with 238bhp on track
It turns out that the composite body wasn't light at all, in fact it was thick, heavy GRP with some kevlar reinforcement. They had to make it that way because they couldn't make the complex shape in steel but they still needed the structural strength of the skin to stop the chassis from wobbling all over the place. This was a time before every man and his dog could make lightweight CF parts for anything and everything.
d ugly (but still better looking than most recent BMWs) and no doubt fragile.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff