Alfa Romeo SZ
Encyclopedia
The Alfa Romeo SZ or ES-30 (Experimental Sportscar 3.0 litre) is a high-performance limited-production sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

/road-concept car built between 1989 and 1991 with partnership via Centro Stile Zagato
Zagato
Zagato is a design consultancy and engineering services company situated just outside Milan, Italy.The company's premises occupy an area of , of which are covered....

, Centro Stile Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

 and Centro Stile Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

. It was unveiled as ES-30 in 1989 Geneva Motor Show as a prototype by Zagato, although the car was mainly built by them - not designed mechanically.

Robert Opron
Robert Opron
Robert Opron is a French automotive designer, trained as an architect, and noted for designs from the 1960s through the 1980s for Simca, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Ligier, Renault and Citroën – which he joined in 1962 and where he became Responsable de Style, head of the design department.Opron was a...

 of the Fiat design studio was responsible for the initial sketches while Antonio Castellana was largely responsible for the final styling details and interior. Only the 'Z' logo of Zagato was kept. The car possessed unusual headlights positioned in a trio on each side - a styling used more subtly on later Alfa Romeos in the 2000s.

Mechanically and engine-wise, the car was based on the Alfa Romeo 75
Alfa Romeo 75
The Alfa Romeo 75, sold in North America as the Milano, was a compact sports saloon / compact executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 1985 and 1992...

, production being carried out by Zagato at Terrazzano di Rho
Rho (Italy)
Rho is a town and comune near Milan, Italy in the region of Lombardy, and has about 51,000 inhabitants.-History:Rho is first mentioned in a written document from 846 AD, referred to as simply a bunch of houses under the name of Vicus Raudus. According to a theory, the name derives from the Campi...

 near the Alfa factory in Arese. The thermoplastic injection moulded composite body panels were produced by Italian company Carplast and French company Stratime Cappelo Systems.

The suspension was taken from the Alfa 75 group A/IMSA car, and modified by Giorgio Pianta, engineer and team manager of the Lancia
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...

 and Fiat rally works team. A hydraulic damper system was made by Koni. The SZ was originally equipped with Pirelli P Zero tyres (front 205/55 ZR 16, rear 225/50 ZR 16) and is able to sustain over 1.1 G
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...

 in cornering, some drivers have measured a cornering force of 1.4 G, which remains an excellent performance figure.

The two-seater hard roof version also saw a convertible version, the RZ (for Roadster Zagato), produced from 1992 until December 1994. Although almost identical to look at the two cars had completely different body panels save for the front wings and boot. The RZ had a revised bumper and door sills to give better ground clearance and the bonnet no longer featured the aggressive ridges. Three colours were available as standard black yellow and red, with black and yellow being the more popular choices. Yellow and red cars got a black leather interior and black cars burgundy. Although the interior layout was almost unchanged from the SZ, the RZ had a painted central console that swept up between the seats to conceal the convertible roof storage area. 350 units were planned but production was halted after 252 units when the Zagato factory producing the cars for Alfa Romeo went in to receivership, a further 32 cars were then completed under the control of the receivers before production finished at 284 units, making the RZ the lowest production Alfa Romeo ever produced. Of those final few 2 were painted silver with burgundy interior and another pearlescent white.

It features as one of three drivable cars in a Commodore Amiga/Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

 game Super Cars
Super Cars
Super Cars is a top-view racing game from Gremlin Interactive, who later produced the Lotus series of games. Stylistically, the game is influenced by Super Sprint...

as a Taraco Neoroder Turbo.

Characteristics

  • Engine: 3.0  V6 (2959 cc), 210 PS at 6200 rpm,245 newton metre at 4500 rpm
  • SZ : Only one official colour scheme was available: Red with grey roof, Tan leather interior
  • One in black for Andrea Zagato
  • RZ : Only three official colour schemes were available: Red with Black leather, Yellow with Black leather, and Black with Red leather interior
  • Two in silver, one in pearlescent white
  • 1036 SZs were produced (planned: 1000), about 100 were exported to Japan.
  • 284 RZs were produced (planned 350)




External links

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