Aurelia Butler

Created to restore Alfa Romeo’s sports car luster after it was acquired by Fiat, the SZ earned it the nickname “Il Mostro” (The Monster) from the Italian press due to it wild looks and race-car handling.Under the SZ’s futuristic composite body lurks a modified Alfa Romeo Milano (75) chassis, with a 3.0-liter “Busso” V-6 and a suspension adapted from the 75 Turbo Evoluzione IMSA.Only 1036 SZs were made between 1989 to 1991, and they’re a bargain compared to many other coachbuilt exotics. This one has just 13,000 km (8100 miles) on the clock.Depending on your perspective, the Alfa Romeo SZ is either postmodern cool or a hideous doorstop. It’s been that way ever since it dropped like a bombshell at the 1989 Geneva auto show, stunning onlookers with its brutal, futuristic angularity. It still splits opinions today, but you can’t ignore it, just as intended. After Fiat bought Alfa in 1986, then-Fiat CEO Vittorio Ghidella decided that a limited-production, high-profile sports car would help rejuvenate the brand’s sporting image, and he specifically asked the designers for “provocative” looks. Courtesy: Bring a TrailerHe got them. But the fact that just 1036 were made suggests the looks were too provocative. This 1991 SZ, up for auction on Bring A Trailer (which, like Car and Driver is part of Hearst Autos), is number 993. To be fair, the SZ also arrived just as the late 1980s exotic and collector car price bubble burst, pitting it against discounted Ferraris and Porsches. The SZ has been undervalued and underrated ever since. It’s still a coachbuilt bargain, though Zagato didn’t actually design it.In early 1987 the only new car in Alfa’s pipeline was the 164, and most of its other designs dated back at least a decade. None were particularly exotic. That February, Ghidella decided to dust off some of the brand’s historical magic with a new version of the Bertone and Zagato-bodied Alfas of the 1960s. But rather than handing the project to Zagato, Ghidella had the coachbuilder compete with Alfa and Fiat’s in-house studios.Courtesy: Bring a TrailerIn this skirmish of sketches, Zagato’s efforts (led by Marco Pedracini) were quickly eliminated, and team Alfa (under Walter da Silva) ultimately lost to team Fiat (headed by former Citroën designer Robert Opron). Designer Antonio Castellana refined Opron’s blocky concept, ultimately achieving a drag coefficient of just 0.30 in the wind tunnel. Zagato’s main contributions to the car were the seats, the name (Sprint Zagato), and the production line.Thanks to the extensive use of CAD/CAM software, the whole design process took 19 months, and even the body panels seemed futuristic. The exterior panels were made of fiberglass-reinforced thermoplastic resin, bonded with special adhesives to a chassis sourced from the Alfa 75, better known to Americans as the Milano. The resin body panels actually made the SZ slightly heavier than the Milano, but they also made it super rigid, and the finished product was capable of pulling 1.1 g’s in hard cornering.Courtesy: Bring a TrailerUnderneath, the SZ’s mechanical pieces were all old-school Alfa. The Milano/75 chassis was cut down for the SZ’s stubby tail, but it was still the same V-6–powered de Dion rear transaxle setup that had debuted on the 1972 Alfetta. The suspension and brakes were sourced from the 75 Turbo Evoluzione IMSA Group A racer and got special height-adjustable Koni dampers. The 3.0-liter, 12-valve Busso V-6 was tuned up to 210 horsepower with new pistons and other tweaks.Courtesy: Bring a TrailerUnlike its visuals, the SZ’s driving personality enjoyed nearly universal praise and still does. It’s not that fast in a straight line, but the sonorous V-6 loves to rev, and the chassis is beautifully balanced. Plus, it’s comfy too, with a big, airy cabin. However, you’ll need the space behind the driver’s seat for luggage because the trunk is actually a spare tire well—one of this car’s many quirks.The SZ wasn’t offered in the U.S., and it struggled to sell in its two main markets, Europe and Japan. Zagato followed it up with the open-topped RZ from 1992 to 1994 but only built 284 of them. Courtesy: Bring a TrailerThey’ve since developed a cult following, and the SZ’s fundamental oddness is both part of the appeal and part of what keeps it accessible. It can keep up with modern sports cars and is lots of fun to drive, but it’s also one of the cheapest ways to saddle up with a low-volume, coachbuilt exotic. They typically sell for about what you’d pay for a used modern Alfa 4C, sometimes less, which is a bargain compared to an 8C Competizione or an Aston V8 Zagato.Courtesy: Bring a TrailerThis particular SZ, imported from Canada earlier this year but sold new in Japan, has just 13,000 km (8100 miles) on the clock. It’s probably one of the cleanest, lowest-mileage SZs in the world. It’s also had some recent work, including a new timing belt, clutch, and engine mounts—all wise ideas given the low mileage.For those who dare to be different, the auction ends on August 6. More

Land Rover has stopped offering 18-inch steel wheels on its Defender for 2024. That’s the bad news.The good news is, you can get a set of white-painted aluminum wheels on the mid-size luxury SUV that are dead ringers for the steelies Land Rover enthusiasts love.They’re available in the Defender County package, and each one is eight pounds lighter than the steelies that came before them.We love steel wheels. They’re rugged, they’re basic, and they look cool. Steel wheels are so universally revered that the Rolling Stones even dedicated a whole album to them. So we should be devastated that 18-inch steel wheels are no longer available on the Land Rover Defender. But we’re not, because they’ve replaced them with something even better: aluminum wheels that look like steel wheels.Nick Dimbleby|Car and DriverThis is a Defender with steel wheels . . . or is it? (Yes, it really is.)Land Rover’s Type 9013 20-inch aluminum wheel is now in production as part of the $5950 County exterior pack, which also includes snazzy two-tone white-and-Tasman-Blue paint and is not to be confused with the Country pack, because that’s totally different. The Type 9013 addresses the main drawback of the steel wheels—and we’re not talking about vulnerability to thieves armed with powerful wheel-grabbing magnets, although that’s certainly a potential liability when one’s wheels are chock full o’ ferrous metal. Nope, we’re talking about weight, because steel wheels are heavy. Rover only offered the Defender’s steelies in the 18-inch size because if they were any bigger they’d have the rotational inertia of Pluto. (And also because smaller wheels with more tire sidewall suit the steelie gestalt, but more the first thing.)Ezra Dyer|Car and DriverA 2024 Defender County with the Type 9013 aluminum wheels.To find out what kind of difference this makes, we asked Land Rover to weigh an example of each wheel, meaning an 18-inch steel one as seen on the UN-spec Defenders, and a 20-inch Type 9013 as will be seen on various beaches on Cape Cod from now on.The results: The steel wheel came in at 39.85 pounds and the 20-inch aluminum stunt double tipped the scales at 31.96 pounds. So, call it about an eight-pound difference per corner, which is more than enough to effect a noticeable improvement in vehicle dynamics. This is why you don’t see a lot of steel airplanes. Land Rover, besides measuring to the hundredth of a pound, also pointed out that the Type 9013s could be even a bit lighter without the white paint they wear in the name of steelie cosplay. But that wouldn’t be any fun.So next time you see a Defender and think, “Nice steelies!” think again. Because the Type 9013 is the new Designer Imposter, driving light but looking heavy. Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive. More

Paging Brian O’Conner to the Fast & Furious white courtesy phone: It’s a turbocharged Eagle Talon on Bring a Trailer!Few of these cars survived the sport-compact craze.This one has just 30,000 miles, making it an ideal ’90s collectible.Twenty-three years ago, on movie screens all around the world, an Eagle Talon went 150 mph in a parking lot. In retrospect, it kinda seems implausible. But in terms of cultural impact, we’re still feeling the echoes of that first Fast & Furious film today. Family. Coronas. And yes, Chrysler-Mitsubishi coupes built in a factory in the improbably named town of Normal, Illinois.Talon! Arguably the best-named of the Diamond Star Motors (DSM) trio—the others being the Plymouth Laser and the Mitsubishi Eclipse—this Eagle-branded coupe was a potent performer in its day, and not just on-screen. This last-of-the-breed 1998 Eagle Talon TSi AWD with the desirable five-speed manual transmission is up for auction on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). This is real-deal turbocharged compact performance, the closest we got to a Lancer Evolution at the time. Bring a TrailerMore than 25 years after this car rolled off the showroom floor, the Talon’s styling still holds up. The asymmetric hood bulge, the blacked-out roofline like a fighter-plane canopy; even the rear spoiler isn’t over the top.Courtesy: Bring a TrailerOf course, what really made the Talon so appealing is underneath. Factory-rated output is modest at 210 horsepower, but the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder 4G63T engine made its name in the tuning world for being capable of huge numbers. Slap on a bigger turbo, get more fuel in the combustion chamber, and watch your rivals disappear in the rearview shouting, “Monicaaaaa!”Courtesy: Bring a TrailerOr don’t. What makes this particular Talon so special is that it hasn’t been messed with by a bunch of would-be Dominic Torettos. A set of Tein coil-overs has been installed to dial in a little lower ride height, but there’s no tacky fiberglass body add-ons or hacked-up engine modifications to be found. Most Talons didn’t survive the era of ham-handed backyard tuners when they were on their third or fourth owners. This one has just 30,000 miles on the odometer, and appears to have successfully avoided any tomfooleryCourtesy: Bring a TrailerYou could get away with a little subtle engine tweaking for more performance, but as it stands, this Talon is a collectible survivor from when sport compact performance was nearing its peak. The Normal factory now turns out Rivian EV pickups and SUVs, either of which is faster in a straight line even than a boosted up Diamond-Star coupeCourtesy: Bring a TrailerSo leave the drag race stuff to fictional street racers, and don’t miss out on your chance to drive and enjoy a fun machine that was one of the quickest on sale in the 1990s.Related StoriesHead on over to Bring a Trailer for your chance to bid, and leave the bottles of NOS at home. The auction ends on August 6.Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. More