$703K Zagato Twin Tail Is a Re-Bodied Alpine A110 With Swappable Rear Ends
Don’t you dare ask, “why?” Instead, you should ask, “why not?”
Zagato has never shied away from bold, ambitious designs, but this one appears to be its most adventurous yet. The Zagato AGTZ Twin Tail is essentially a re-bodied Alpine A110 that comes with two different rear ends. Why do you want a slightly different-looking Alpine A110 with hot-swappable butts? To honor Alpine's racing tradition, duh. However, you'd better really like Alpine's racing heritage, because the Twin Tail will set you back $703,069.
In 1968, Alpine developed the A220 race car with an incredibly long tail and raced it in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Unfortunately for Alpine, all three of the A220 racers that entered the famous race failed to finish, making it an initial failure. However, Alpine then had the idea to chop off a bunch of its rear end, creating a smaller car with less top-speed aero, and entered it in road and rally races. That's when Alpine started winning and finishing on podiums, and that's why the Zagat AGTZ Twin Tail has, well, two tails.
Zagato redesigned the entire Alpina A110 body, and unsurprisingly, it's quite pretty. However, it's the twin-tails feature that makes it truly unique. You can have the original A220 Le Mans-inspired long tail, which is very long and likely annoying to use on the road, but you can also have the shorter rear end. Most samples will just sit in garages so rich people can show off to their friends, so in that case, I'd leave mine with the long tail on.
Without it, the Twin Tail's Alpine A110 roots shine through and its proportions are much better. Although, I don't think Zagato's rear end is as good-looking as the base Alpine's. The rest of the car looks great and the wheels are ace, but it isn't that much better looking than the already very pretty A110.
Zagato teamed up with La Squadra, a Polish high-end car dealer, to distribute the 19 examples being built. This new Alpine will make its debut at The I.C.E. St. Moritz on Feb. 23, and then at the Concorso d'Eleganza in Lake Como in May.
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