Alfa Romeo have partnered once again with the legendary Italian design firm, Zagato, to build a one-off, two-door version of the Alfa Romeo Giulia sedan. Introducing the very sexy Alfa Romeo Giulia SWB Zagato.
What started off as a sedan had its wheelbase shortened, its nose extended, a chassis and engine from a Giulia Quadrifoglio added, and a new unique carbon-fibre body that removes two doors and takes inspiration from the Giulietta SZ (the front) and Giulia TZ (the back) race cars of the 50s and 60s. Almost every part of the body has been redesigned as a result. They even removed the door handles!
It isn’t just those two cars that this takes inspiration from, no this is a regular Frankenstein’s monster made from several Alfa Romeo parts. You’ve got the three-eye headlights drawing inspiration from the 90s Alfa Romeo SZ, which are already similar to those on the Tonale SUV, updated Giulia, and Stelvio models. The “truncated tail” rear and double-bubble roof are taken from the Zagato stable of design.
The two companies are celebrating 100 years of collaboration since the 1921 Tipo G1 was green-lit. Commissioning this piece from Zagato was a German customer “selected from among Zagato collectors” who already owns several Zagato-fied Aston Martin models. Unfortunately for us, the price hasn’t been disclosed but we can assume that it didn’t come cheap with some estimates claiming it to be in the millions while others say in the hundreds of thousands.
Under the hood is a twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 with a GTAm spec capable of pumping out 403Kw/600Nm instead of 375Kw/600Nm. The original GTAm has an eight-speed automatic transmission, the Zagato has the Quadrifoglio’s six-speed manual transmission.
Other GTAm features added are carbon-ceramic brakes, dual centre exhausts, and 20-inch centre-locking wheels.
The Giulia SWB Zagato was designed with “support” from Alfa Romeo, but Zagato says that the “conception, development and production of the car were carried out entirely and independently” by Zagato.
Alfa Romeo design vice president, Alejandro Mesonero, said in a statement: “As Centro Stile [Alfa Romeo’s design house], we are happy to have supported Zagato by contributing to the design of the car, which with this ‘one-off’ has chosen to celebrate its historic bond with Alfa Romeo.”
CEO of the Zagato design house, Andrea Zagato, said: “We are extremely satisfied with the collaboration we had throughout this period with Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, the teamwork was perfect, also with the Marketing and Communication department. It has been an exhilarating experience that has confirmed how the combination of Alfa Romeo and Zagato is an absolute classic of collecting.”
