Re: Junior Z

[Les Singh <Les.Singh@domain.elided>]

Our respected historian John Hertzman wrote:
>No, they didn't bring any, but there are about twenty or thirty in the 
>country. Two types, 1300 (1969-72) and 1600 (1972-75) They are much smaller, 
>built on a Spider wheelbase but much tighter- the 1300 is 9" shorter and 3" 
>narrower than a Spider of the same vintage (half an inch narrower than a 
>Berlina, the narrowest of the standard 105s), and weighs about 185 pounds 
>less, but about 300 pounds heavier than the alloy-bodied Giulietta Sprint 
>Zagato; these are steel. The 1600 is about 4" longer than the 1300. There 
>were roughly 1100 1300s built, plus about 400 1600s, so they are moderately 
>rare but not extremely rare. Most of them lead pampered lives; there is a 
>rather delicate plexiglass grill above a rather delicate front bumper, so it 
>is not a car you park on the street in the city. 

I had the "pleasure" of driving one of these on the track, in the pouring
rain. Luckily it was an Alfa club day so no one was hassling anyone. I
don't know who was more worried the owner's family or mine at the thought
of me throwing this valuable little gem around in conditions that could
only be described as atrocious. Regrettably that was my only drive in the
car, the 1300 version, and I was so concerned with just staying out of
trouble that I don't remember much about the car except that it could have
used some more horsepower, but then so could the Pontiac GTO....... never
enough!!

To add to John's description, although most of the body is steel, the hood
is aluminium with only some black stuff sprayed on its underside as sound
deadening. The other interesting features are the rear hatch which can be
released when driving and opens partially, to allow through-flow
ventilation (don't know about exhaust gases though), and the berautifully
polished cam cover fitted as standard.

New Zealand has just one of these cars, residing here in Wellington. There
was an especially stunning black 1600 version, with darkened windows etc in
Perth, Australia, that was owned by Norm Craven-Kelly who many of the
Aussie digesters will know. But as has been mentioned earlier, these cars
are rare.

Regrettably the person who inherited the Kiwi JrZ has decided he doesn't
want to belong to the AROCNZ so we have not seen this car for a while.

Les 

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