Zagato Alfa Romeo Junior Z

The Junior Zagato is based on the 105 series Giulia and is built on the same floor pan as the Giulia Spider. The Junior Z was first shown to the public in November 1969 at the Turin motor. The very distinctive Zagato bodied Coupe looked fast, but in fact it was only 5kmh faster than the standard Alfa Romeo 1300 GT and even though the early cars had alloy doors and bonnet it was only 10 Kg lighter. The performance could not justify the 800,000 lira difference in price, but to many, the looks could.

The wedge shaped car, as usual with Zagato designs was clean and fresh with an emphasis on good visability. Aerodynamically the Kamm tail was quite advanced. The headlamps are covered by a plexi glass screen with a central hole in the Alfa Romeo emblem and louvres for cooling and for the car to breath through. At the back the hatch has an interesting feature in that it can be raised by a switch in the centre console to provide extra cabin ventilation.

The car was first produced as a short tailed 1300cc version and in 1972 they changed to 1600cc with a slightly longer rear end. The 1300 was produced for 3 years and in that time 1108 were built while 402 of the 1600s were produced between 1972 and 1975.