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Name this car....

elansprint72

By elansprint72
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pippy

pippy

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There are certainly a few odd design features. Much of the execution seems fine yet there is that rather nasty-looking plastic vent-thingy.

The angled bars / strakes on the rear-side windows sort-of ring a bell but it's tolling in far too muted a fashion to be of much help! At first I was confusing them with the front side-windows seen on the Aston V8 Zagato of the 1980's but it's obviously not one of those.

As to the origins I'm wondering if it's an Italo-Japanese collaboration but I don't quite know why...

Looking forward to the next crop!

Philip.

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NigelG

NigelG

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Hmm…puzzled (which is good!)

The crude vent fixing details seems odd (and maybe low-volume manufacturing) and the very deep swaging makes me wonder if it’s fibreglass?

I was assuming the “bars” on the windows were reflections rather than Subaru SVX-style insets…

To me it’s giving off a bit of an Italian flavour - mainly Lancia/Pininfarina - but I think the detailing is all wrong…so maybe British 🫢

Edited by NigelG
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pippy

pippy

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13 minutes ago, NigelG said:

...The crude vent fixing details seems odd (and maybe low-volume manufacturing) and the very deep swaging makes me wonder if it’s fibreglass?...

I share these same thoughts.

Phil has said that there were 100+ (or so) made so the low-volume thing fits but I still can't understand why such a highly stylised body design would be afflicted by those crudely-made plastic vents!

Looking forward (as I believe I've written before?...😸...) to the next crop.

Philip.

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Phil1066

Phil1066

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top marks for identifying Zagato and italian/japanese....

Next crop:

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Phil1066

Phil1066

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3 minutes ago, NigelG said:

Ahh…those (mad?) integrated wing mirrors mean it’s the Zagato Nissan. I think they made up a new marque name for it but I can’t remember what it was…

I’m not sure there ever were 100 of them?

Well done Nigel 🙂 1990 Autech Zagato Stelvio AZ1

Here is a link to an article that may be useful. https://www.gtplanet.net/the-autech-zagato-stelvio-az1-combines-italian-styling-with-japanese-manufacturing/

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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NigelG

NigelG

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Thanks for the link - I can’t believe quite how hideous the interior is 🫢 (they didn’t get the Zagato memo!)

I also thought it was 80s not 90s - it’s styling is IMHO quite 80s “car from the future” in some ways and it should surely be seen lurking in the background in a distopian near-future “neo-noir”…

Not one of Zagato’s best even if it does have a version of the double-bubble roof…

Edited by NigelG
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NigelG

NigelG

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Yes…doesn’t seem to crop-up in my Zagato registra…

What’s weird is the justification for the bodywork-faired mirrors (surely one of the most outré incorporated-into-the-styling features ever) ie that Japanese drivers preferred lower wing- mounted mirrors is somewhat compromised… by the fact that Zagato designed a version of the 300ZX which has a lot of BMW Coupe styling cues but also regular wing mirrors and was designed at about the same time IIRC.

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wlaidlaw

wlaidlaw

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51 minutes ago, stuny said:

There are so many striking Zagato designs (such as Wilson's DB4 GTZ) that it's hard to believe this comes from the same studio.

Sadly the DB4GTZ, the 911RSR and the 250GTO are all sold, due to my brother and I having given up competitive rallying and racing. The last to go was the 911, which went in May this year to a Swiss owner. 

Wilson

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NigelG

NigelG

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Actually I just looked re the mirror issue and I now see the 300ZX remodel was ‘92 so maybe they realised that fairing the mirrors into the body was a dead-end stylistically? 🤣

FYI The 300ZX based design was the “Bambu” which IMHO was styled like it could have sported a BMW roundel or AM wings on the bonnet.

https://automobiles-japonaises.com/Zagato/Bambu/ZagatoBambu.php

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wlaidlaw

wlaidlaw

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2 hours ago, stuny said:

Yikes!  One of the 36 GTOs!

What a lovely stable to have given up.

Stuart,

It was 3527GT, the ex Lucian Bianchi car the third GTO made Wonderful car to drive, if a bit on the warm side on a hot summer day. The problem nowadays is poor quality replacement parts, even expensive ones from the original makers. In 2012, we were lying in third place in the Tour Britannia, with some of the speed trials to come, which favoured the 250GTO, when a brand new Fichtel and Sachs clutch died, due to failure to heat treat the release fingers, which bent. We had to drive it back some 50 miles to base which was the Celtic Manor Hotel (total dump) at Newport in Wales, with a clutch which would not disengage. It has been bought and sold twice since we sold it in 2018. 

Wilson

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NigelG

NigelG

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1 hour ago, wlaidlaw said:

Stuart,

It was 3527GT, the ex Lucian Bianchi car the third GTO made Wonderful car to drive, if a bit on the warm side on a hot summer day. The problem nowadays is poor quality replacement parts, even expensive ones from the original makers. In 2012, we were lying in third place in the Tour Britannia, with some of the speed trials to come, which favoured the 250GTO, when a brand new Fichtel and Sachs clutch died, due to failure to heat treat the release fingers, which bent. We had to drive it back some 50 miles to base which was the Celtic Manor Hotel (total dump) at Newport in Wales, with a clutch which would not disengage. It has been bought and sold twice since we sold it in 2018. 

Wilson

Ahh…the mistake you made was to drive it rather than polish it up and display it in your “car home”…

(Well done you! )

 

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NigelG

NigelG

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I will post something if I find a relevant pic…

I should have taken an M with me today walking from my apartment to a meeting in Mayfair.

I passed: a matt-black Bugatti Veyron, an Aston DB5 and a Cullinan that looked like the about-to-be-released version (still hideous). 

All were “street-parked” which my NYC neighbours would find astonishing (I had to explain that we don’t really have parking garages here…and we just “have insurance” 🙄)

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stuny

stuny

Posted
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45 minutes ago, NigelG said:

I will post something if I find a relevant pic…

I should have taken an M with me today walking from my apartment to a meeting in Mayfair.

I passed: a matt-black Bugatti Veyron, an Aston DB5 and a Cullinan that looked like the about-to-be-released version (still hideous). 

All were “street-parked” which my NYC neighbours would find astonishing (I had to explain that we don’t really have parking garages here…and we just “have insurance” 🙄)

And that's one of the reasons I almost always have at least one camera with me (most frequently the Q)

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