The Alfa Romeo SZ is quite an interesting car from the Italian automaker. Nicknamed “Il Mostro” for its aggressive looks, it was intended to revive Alfa’s sporting heritage following FIAT’s acquisition of the company in 1986. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the SZ would be the last enthusiast’s sports car Alfa would ever make.
“SZ” stands for Sprint Zagato; the latter being the name of the famous Italian coachbuilder. Produced from 1989 to 1994, only 1,036 of them were made. You could get them in any color you wanted, so long as that was red with tan leather interior.
The SZ has several notable “firsts” for Alfa Romeo. It was the first car to be designed and built using CAD/CAM software. This allowed an unprecedented level of collaboration between the FIAT, Alfa, and Zagato design studios, and combined with extensive wind tunnel testing resulted in a drag coefficient of only 0.30. It was first to employ composite bodywork and the first to sport the sextuplet headlight design that Alfa still uses to this day.
Unfortunately the SZ also had many notable “lasts”. It was the last Alfa to use a rear trans-axle, which gives cars who employ that drive-train incredible balance and handling. The SZ managed 1.1G on the skidpad. It was the last time the venerable Busso V6 would be paired with rear wheel drive. Alfa didn’t produce another rear wheel drive car for 20 years. In fact, the SZ was the last rear wheel drive sports with a manual transmission Alfa ever made. The extremely brief Giulia Quadrifoglio manual option will not be considered. Additionally it was the last Alfa to have no automated driver’s aids. Not even ABS. The driver truly had full control of the car.
It’s no surprise Classic.com puts the SZ’s current moving average at $75,602 with a steadily increasing trend line, even in this complicated market. With Alfa Romeo promising to be fully electric by 2027, we will never see another car like the SZ again.
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Dan is a DIY zealot and autodidact. Real science, pseudoprofessional.
