4R Zagato

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I replied to Tim's question off-digest rather than on, as my opinions are (as
often) relatively negative, but on-digest seems required to quibble about
possibly questionable information.

Tim had written that they "were built on a Giulia floorpan", and George Graves
wrote they "were actually built on a Giulia floorpan by the original
coachbuilder, Zagato and sported a real, fold-down flat windshield."

I question at least the "built on a Giulia floorpan" part; the car has a
wheelbase of 2600 mm, versus 2250 mm for the 101.23 Giulia Spider (whose type
number Russ Neely correctly says they shared), a difference of roughly
fourteen inches. Other Giulia wheelbases are 2380 mm for the Sprint, 2350 mm
for the 105 coupes, 2510 mm for the sedans, 2570 for the 1750/2000 Berlinas.
Even the Milano is 2510; the Alfa Sei was the only Alfa between the 2600
berlina and the 164 with as long a wheelbase as the 4R.

David E. Davis wrote a road-impressions (but not road test) on the 4R in Car &
Driver, August 1966, on the basis of nearly a month spent with a loaner. He
wrote, among other things, "We understand that Alfa is involved in the project
only as a supplier of engines and running gear, and as a sales outlet", and I
have seen nothing elsewhere to suggest otherwise. Davis evidently enjoyed it
immensely ("looks like it would be more fun than a bathtub full of otters"),
although most of his individual comments would be generally considered
damning- "predictably unpredictable electrical system", "the car will go
around corners, it's the steering that doesn't want to", "judge the accuracy
of your line on a given corner by whether or not you are still on the road and
upright", etcetera.

George wrote "the thing was frightfully expensive, costing about the same in
the USA as Jaguar XK-E (almost 6000 1967 dollars If I remember correctly)";
the sales flier produced by ARI gave the price as $4950 P.O.E., slightly more
that a Sprint Speciale or a 2600 Spider (both $4,886) and far below a 2600
Sprint.

Russ Neely wrote "As they are light weight, conversion to Veloce specs makes
quite a responsive, if non stock car." As built and sold they did have the 92
hp, single downdraft carb base version of the 1600 engine. I assume this was
partly because sidedraft Webers wouldn't fit under the relatively narrow
replicar-styling hood, but also was consistent with the car's relatively
modest fun-car intent.

Russ also wrote "Apparently, completed spiders were pulled from the assembly
line and sent to Zagato for conversion.  Since the cars were pulled as Zagato
ordered them, the serial numbers are all over the range of the 101.23 spider."
The numbers given in d'Amico & Tabucchi are curiously out of sequence but not
all over the range, ten cars had numbers from 393901 to 393910 but all of the
rest had numbers between 393001 and 393083. The high number for the 'real'
(Farina-bodied) 101.23 Spiders given in the same source was 392852, below the
start point for the 4R. They indicate also that only the last two Farina
101.23 Spiders were built in 1965, and only the first two 4R cars were built
in 1965. Trivial details, but curious, and suggest not "pulled from the
assembly line and sent to Zagato for conversion."

My impression is that most of the 4R cars are at least third car in a stable,
after the daily driver and the car the owner REALLY prizes as the most
desirable Alfa he can afford - and probably many of them are considerably
farther down the pecking order than that, after one's half-dozen or so
favorites. For my tastes, it doesn't make it to the tail end of the list; as a
car which nobody at Alfa Romeo would have wanted to build, which has no
connection to Alfa's apparent intentions or aspirations, I would question
whether it should really be considered an Alfa, although many will feel
otherwise. Certainly the company never, before or since, built anything that
far from its core competences, and I doubt it would have gone along with this
were it not for the magazine's very considerable importance.

But all of that is my grump. If you have one, enjoy it, and if you want one,
good luck.

John H.
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