The Yahoo ES30

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-1249 Chris quoted "The World Encyclopedia of Cars" (1999) on the SZ 
(ES30) "as being one of the rarest and most sought after alfas in all". 
Rarest, perhaps, although there were far more of them than there were of the 
Tubolares, Sprint Zagatos, TI Supers, GTAs, 2600 SZs, GTCs, or most of the 
prewar models. As far as being one of "the most sought-after", d'Amico & 
Tabucchi acknowledge that while among the initial production a few purchased 
by speculators were resold for up to double the list price, some new ones 
were still available at heavily discounted prices in 1996, five years after 
the last of the coupes were built. I believe that is still the case now; in 
the recent past I have thrown away a few offers of new ones, at "good" 
prices, from dealers in Italy and Switzerland.

D'Amico & Tabucchi give production dates of 1989-1991 for the SZ and 1992-93 
for the RZ, suggesting that the RZ may have been an afterthought to goose 
failing sales. They give weights of 1260 kg for the coupe and 1380 kg for the 
ragtop, and say that  "the sophisticated mechanical specification was 
penalized by the excessive weight and a stubborn gearshift that hardly 
encouraged a sporting driving style". I will omit their eliptical comments on 
the styling.

In view of the recent mentions of wide tires on Spiders it may be worth 
mentioning that both cars had 205-55s in front and 225-50s in the rear.

Needless to say, I won't be bidding.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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