Pity the Poor Bumper (Post # 160)

One of The Alfatross' siblings with the original front bumper.

 

Having previously posted on the importance of styling (“form”) this one is about the compromises imposed by “function”. I made the decision a long time ago (Posts 38 and 41) to delete the bumpers on The Alfatross. My reasoning was (a) these cars look better without bumpers, particularly the one in front and (b) The Alfatross did not have its original bumpers anyway when I got it so restoration was never an option, only replication.

 

The Alfatross, sans bumpers.

Another sibling with deleted rear bumper and sockets

The designer of the Alfa 1900C SSZ, Elio Zagato, realizing bumpers are a compromise between form and function, made them as unobtrusive as possible but—at least in my eye—they still mar the car’s lines. Apparently other people agree. The vast majority of The Alfatross’ siblings no longer have them, their original bumpers having been removed long ago, like “docking” the tails of Dobermans at an early age. I count 7 with and 23 without, but a few have “sockets” in the bodywork so that bumpers can be reattached depending on the occasion.

 

 Cars have bumpers for a reason. Actually, many reasons. They were a part of every car’s essential equipment almost from the beginning (1897). The challenge for designers and builders was to make them attractive as well as functional.  Having OD’d on massive chrome extravagances in the 50s, designers began to realize that smaller, lighter, less ostentatious bumpers are both more practical and sensible.  Besides, the world was running out of chrome!

1957 Thunderbird: every sports car needs a 200 lb bumper!

Look Ma! No bumpers!  Elio would be proud!

 

 

Then, safety regulators and insurance companies got involved and bumpers started to disappear in the 1980s, or rather morph into energy-absorbing structures hidden behind flimsy plastic bumper covers conforming to body shape. So now bumpers on The Alfatross’ descendants, like the Alfa 4C, are present, but invisible—the best of both worlds.  

 

 

What I have discovered is that The Alfatross may look better without its bumpers, but now there is no handy place to tie the car down, push it, tow it, or even hang the original Italian front license plate!

That is a realization I came to recently due to considerations pertaining to getting the car on the road. In a recent Sports Car Market Reader Forum the question readers were asked to address was “What one thing are you most concerned about when you think about taking your collector car out of the garage?”

Responses varied including safety, inattentive other drivers, putting miles on the odometer, wear and tear, etc., but by far the most common concern was reliability and breakdowns. This is one of my biggest concerns for The Alfatross right now as we get ready for road-testing without bumpers. For trailering, the car can be secured using ratcheting “bonnets” over the tires attached to tracks fixed to the trailer’s floor, but what if something goes wrong on a drive and I can’t get the Alfatross home under her own power?  

Because this was not one of the concerns expressed in the Reader Forum now I am wondering if I am too paranoid (a little paranoia is a good thing). The normal recourse would be to call for a piggyback ride aboard a flatbed tow truck. Unfortunately, that won’t work for The Alfatross because the chassis is low anyway and the body wraps under the car front and rear—by several feet—and will be damaged if winched by a cable at anything more than a very low angle! 

Yeah, but what is there to tie onto?  Run the ropes through the open windows?

 

Oh the joys of old Italian exotic car ownership! How much can a Chinook lift and what do they charge to rescue a damsel in distress?

 

 

 

We Be Stylin' (Post #159)

Zagato: Top coachbuilder for more than 100 years.

 

Like a lot of us, I subscribe to a few  magazines specializing in “collector cars”. The Winter 2020 issue of Magneto carried a feature article by Richard Heseltine called The Top 50 Coachbuilders “From Allemano to Zagato, we celebrate the best of the best carrozzerie those styling geniuses and craftspeople who elevated car design to an art form in the golden age of the bespoke automobile.” Somewhat to my surprise, the Zagato styling studio was at the top: Number One. There are a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which is the fact that it is still around 100 years after it was founded by Ugo Zagato in 1920 and still family-owned! 

 

 

Andrea Zagato with some of his family's creations.

 

 

 

Almost simultaneously, in its December issue Octane magazine featured an article by Massimo Delbò titled “The Z Factor” in which Andrea Zagato, Ugo’s grandson, chooses the most significant designs from his company’s century-long history.  Disappointingly for The Alfatross, the Alfa Romeo 1955 1900C SS Zagato is not among the 13 designs mentioned, but the very similar-looking 1953 Fiat 8V is.  In fact, Andrea says “This was my father’s favourite car.” 

 

The 3 BAT cars styled by Bertone based on Alfa Romeo1900 chassis sold for $14.8M.

 And the third coincidence was the just-arrived January 2021 issue of Sports Car Market featuring a cover story by Simon Kidston titled "Artistic Drive" about the 3 legendary, outlandish (some would say bizarre)  Alfa Romeos bodied by Bertone known as the BAT (Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica) cars.  What do they have to do with The Alfatross? Nothing about their styling would lead the innocent observer to suspect that they are The Alfatross’ contemporary close relatives—sharing the same Alfa 1900 chassis, engine, and running gear! But no one ever talks about what’s under the skin of those 3 cars and you will never see a photo of their engine bays

Together, the three articles underscore the significance of styling in the creation of automobiles. There are hundreds of millions of cars out there. Mere commodities, most of them.  They get old, used up, and are swiftly forgotten.  But a very few others seem to be imbued with an inexplicable visual magnetism. 

In 1960 Henry Ford purportedly said, "We’ve got the capability to set up a production line anywhere in the world and to successfully market a car anywhere, but can’t seem to be able to come up with a car like those put out by Italian designers. There are only about a dozen of them, but sooner or later we’ll be all knocking at their doors."  And that's what they have been doing for the last sixty years.

The Alfatross, the author, and Andrea Zagato.  Can you tell which one has no style?