TRANSATLANTIC LE MANS ALFA SZ
Bill Noon of Symbolic International in San Diego, USA, has just sold a rare 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato ‘Coda Tronca’. “While this SZ has been missing from the public eye for most of its life, the four Swiss gentlemen that owned it always knew it was special,” explains Noon. “It was never lost, just carefully held and preserved, never leaving the area it lived in all its life after its final race in 1963.”
In the late ’50s some owners sent their Gulietta Sprints to Zagato for conversion to lightweight SVZS. Alfa Romeo and Zagato later came to an agreement and the SZ was catalogued. The first of these are now referred to as ‘round tails’, and later cars were aerodynamically improved with a longer ‘Kamm’ rear and called ‘Coda Tronca’, or ‘clipped tail’ SZ2S. Motore Conrero in Turin became famous for highly tuning these cars for racing.
One such SZ2 was bought by Armand Schäfer of Geneva, the order stating ‘endurance race preparation by Conrero’. Originally metallic grey with red trim, which was later dyed black, many tweaks were made, particularly underneath with panelling to improve airflow.
In 1963 Schäfer joined Scuderia Filipinetti and an experimental 1600cc works engine was fitted before the car was painted red for Le Mans, but it retired with valve trouble. The original engine was refitted and is still in the car today.
Later that year Schäfer was seriously injured in a crash while testing a Lotus and the Alfa never raced again. Having competed in 15 major events, it was sold to Scuderia Filipinetti and soon passed on to Daniel Staudhammer.
“He was young and enthusiastic, but was in over his head,” says Noon. “He could barely drive the car and was shocked that it required 110-octane aviation fuel due to the high-compression pistons and radical cam and ignition timing.”
In ’69 Staudhammer sold the car to another Geneva businessman, Mario Campana, who occasionally took it out for high-speed test runs. On one of these Francis-henri Worm saw the car and strived for years to buy it, finally agreeing the purchase in 1982. “Worm began a careful rehabilitation to get it back to original working order,” says Noon. “It was finally completed in 2017. Worm kept meticulous handwritten notes of everything he did, as well as every kilometre he drove. In 40 years of ownership he rarely showed the SZ to anyone, and drove it fewer than 500km.”
In 2020 Noon managed to acquire the Alfa along with a stash of spares, documents and period photos. The car is now with Emilio Cruz in Mexico City, who plans to restore the SZ to its 1963 Scuderia Filipinetti Le Mans livery.