Italian coachbuilder Zagato has revealed its latest design, a homage to an Alpine race car from the late 1960s.
Zagato calls it the AGTZ Twin Tail, the name a reference to the removable tail section that enables the car to switch between standard and long-tail designs.
The feature is a nod to the Alpine A220 race car that was originally developed with a long tail to handle the high speeds of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Three of the cars were entered in the 1968 race but all failed to finish.
Later, engineers removed around 12 inches off the rear of one of the cars to race it on shorter circuits and rally stages, and a number of podium finishes quickly followed.
Alpine A220
Zagato’s AGTZ Twin Tail is based on an Alpine, the modern A110 sports car, though there doesn’t appear to be any lines shared between the two designs. A total 19 examples will be built, each priced from 650,000 euros (approximately $705,000) before taxes.
Zagato hasn’t revealed any technical details. The donor A110 is a mid-engine sports car powered by a 1.8-liter turbo-4 that gets mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and spins the rear wheels only. The most powerful versions of the A110 develop close to 300 hp, though Alpine also built a one-off example with around 500 hp for the 2023 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
The AGTZ Twin Tail project is a partnership with La Squadra, a distributor for high-end automotive brands in Poland. Among the brands represented by La Squadra are Bugatti, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, and also Alpine.
The car will make its public debut at an event scheduled for May on the shores of Lake Como. Customer deliveries are due to start in October.
