 |
| 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? |
