Curbside Classic: 1974 Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato GT 1600 – Taste Acquired

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– Posted on September 18, 2023

Classic Alfas are typically gorgeous, but here’s one that some may find bucks the trend. That’s because it’s a Zagato-bodied Alfa, and Zagato, though they sometimes designed cars that looked great, seldom did anything conventionally “pretty,” at least in the postwar era. In fact, as time wore on, Zagato designs kept getting weirder every year. A daring strategy, but one that paid off and kept the small coachbuilder in business for decades, right up to the present day.

The designer chiefly responsible for Zagato styling throughout the ‘60s was Ercole Spada. One of his first jobs upon joining the coachbuilder in 1960 was to chop off the Giulietta SZ’s hitherto bulbous rear end, ushering in the era of the Kamm back at Zagato.

The 1961 Giuletta SZ (top left) was the first of a series of coda tronca (cut tail) designs that Zagato adapted to a host of designs for a variety of carmakers. But sticking strictly to the Alfas they bodied in the ‘60s, Zagato also made a run of the race-oriented Giulia TZ (top right, 1963-67), as well as the retro Gran Sport Quattroruote (bottom left, 1965-67). For the prestige 6-cyl. chassis, Spada designed the oddly bug-eyed 2600 SZ (bottom right, 1963-67). All of these were produced in very small quantities – about 100 units for each model.

Zagato’s added value, looks and retro models aside, was their reputation for devising bodies that were lighter and more aerodynamic than other Italian design houses. By the second half of the ‘60s though, chopping off tails was no longer cutting it. Spada’s styling, while keeping the Zagato trademark sportiness and slipperiness, started to become more edgy and wedgy. The Giulia platform was still very much in demand, so by 1967 a new Zagato variant was in the works.

When the Junior Z was unveiled at the 1969 Turin Motor Show (top left), it shocked fewer people than one might expect. The context is important: Spada had been toying with this shape and with far more angular snouts on several one-offs in this period: the Lancia Flavia Super Sport (top right, 1967) and the Rover TCZ (bottom right, 1967) predated the Alfa, the Volvo 2000 GTZ (bottom left, 1969), was shown at the same time. Only the Alfa went to genuine production, though.

The platform used by Zagato was basically that of the Duetto Spider – at 225cm, i.e. 10cm less than the Bertone coupé and 25cm less than the Giulia saloon, it was the shortest Tipo 105 derivative then in production. The rear of the platform had to be modified to accommodate the Kamm tail, making the Junior Z the shortest Alfa of the range.

Zagato and Alfa deliberately picked the smaller 1300cc engine for the Junior Z’s initial run. With all of 88hp (DIN), the slippery two-seater could reach 175kph – above the Bertone-bodied four-seater’s performance, but not outlandishly so. The reason is that, in an effort to keep costs under control, Alfa demanded that Zagato use steel for the majority of the body; only the hood and door skins were aluminium.

Producing the Junior Z was still a very complex affair. Zagato did not have the capacity to do the whole job on their own, given the higher-than-normal sales numbers that Alfa Romeo thought they could get out of the car. A lot of the actual bodywork was outsourced to fellow coachbuilder Maggiora. The cars would then be shipped to Alfa to be fine-tuned mechanically, after which they were sent to Zagato for paintwork and interior fitting, then back to Alfa for a final check-up. The Zagato works were close to Alfa’s Arese factory in Milan, but Maggiore was over in Turin.

Prices were necessarily pretty steep. In the US, these cost $4500 in the early ‘70s – a lot of money for a 1.3 litre car. That may have been part of the plan anyway: in three years, Alfa sold about 1100 units – mostly in Italy – before the model’s life, like the car itself, was cut short in 1972. But that was only so they could switch over to the 1600cc engine. The extra 20hp meant the car, now called Junior Zagato GT 1600 (or 1600 GTZ, for short), could reach over 190kph.

Few changes were done to the interior, as far as I know, aside from added padding and a new steering wheel. It was simplicity itself, aside from the rather novel (for the time) seats with integrated headrests. The cheap-looking trio of switches under the gear lever include one that controls a particular Zagato party trick: the rear hatch is electrically operated to open just a crack to aid with flow-through ventilation. The hatch can be opened all the way, but its usefulness for cargo ingress and egress is rather limited by the size of the opening.

External changes were more evident in the 1600 version, including larger Alfa 2000 berlina taillights, a longer tail overall (by 10cm) to accommodate a larger fuel tank, a slightly revised plexiglass “grille” and a very small amount of additional protection to the front bumper in the form of rubber strips.

Some sources claim that Zagato built all 402 units of the Junior 1600 GTZ within the 1973 calendar year, but that it took Alfa Romeo until mid-1975 to sell them on. Whatever the case may be, the Giulia was getting on a bit by then, though the PF Spider that donated its platform for the Junior GTZ did carry on for a very long time afterwards.

One wonders whether this particular example, which was most probably sold here new, might be the very one that (allegedly) inspired the Honda CRX. There can’t be that many of these in Japan – they were rare when new, after all. Leave it to the Japanese to emulate one of the most offbeat Alfas of the ‘70s. Mind you, the Giugiaro-designed Alfatta GTV (1974-86) did seem to pick up where the GTZ left off, so perhaps the Zagato / Spada influence on Alfa Romeo themselves was more lasting than one could have given the Junior GTZ’s short and very limited production run.

From the clear plastic grille to the pop-out rear hatch, the GTZ is replete with odd but very cunning surprises. Yet it is also a coherent design as a whole and, given that it is based on one of the best Italian platforms of the period, it is said to be an extremely fun car to drive. It could be said that the Junior GTZ is an acquired taste. But then, with the possible exception of maternal milk, Mozart and masturbation, isn’t everything?