Zagato has a history of somewhat polarizing designs, and the new Zagato AGTZ Twin Tail, based on the current Alpine A110 compact sports car, continues that trend. This little machine has a longer nose and removable long tail cone, ostensibly to make it more aerodynamic, but also to remind enthusiasts of the long-gone days when Alpine ran the A220 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in long and short tail configurations. This new modular sports car from Zagato is a beautiful retro-futurist view of that Le Mans effort.
For 1968, Alpine debuted its new A220 long tail in an attempt to take the overall honors at Le Mans. The idea was that the long tail would help with aerodynamic efficiency and stability on the long Mulsanne straight. Only one of the four French-entered Alpines would finish the race, a distant third-in-class to Porsche’s somewhat similar philosophy 907 langheck. Once Le Mans was over, the team set about cutting the big long tail from its A220 to make it more nimble and better set up for hillclimbs and shorter circuits. Without its long tail, the A220 was much more successful, grabbing a few podium places for the sporty shorty.
Inspired by this story, Zagato wanted to recreate this story in a modern street-going sports car “in theatrical style.” The modern A110, a thoroughly modern mid-engine icon, which could probably absolutely lambast its A220 forebears on the track without changing out of its loafers, was fitted with a new 1960s race car suit.
It does not appear that Zagato has done anything to the Alpine underpinnings of the AGTZ to make it more capable than the standard car. No performance metrics of any kind are attributed to the AGTZ Twin Tail, so I’m forced to assume that it simply carries on with the Alpine A110’s Nissan-based 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder making 249 horsepower.
The regular Alpine A110 costs about $70,000 at current exchange rates, putting it toe-to-toe with Porsche’s 718 Cayman. If you want the Zagato version, however, it’ll run you a little over ten times as much. That’s right; Zagato is asking for over $600,000 to modify the bodywork of an Alpine. Admittedly, the A110 is already a very good car, so the AGTZ Twin Tail probably drives better than most other coach-built supercars. It probably won’t be faster, though.
