In 2001, at 250.000 km. the owner decided to give the car a complete overhaul..... the car looks like a new one again and it still runs very well, top speed is about 270 km/h. I do not think there is a SZ out there with more km's on the counter !!??
1. The pre production code name of the Alfa Romeo Sprint Zagato was ES-30, this means Experimental Sportscar 3.0 liter engine.
2a. Production Time Line of the SZ is:
1989: ZAR 162000*03000001 - ZAR 162000*03000011
1990: ZAR 162000*03000012 - ZAR 162000*03000300
1991: ZAR 162000*03000301 - ZAR 162000*03001036
2b. Production Time Line of the RZ is:
1992: ZAR 162000*03002001 - ZAR 162000*03002050
1993: ZAR 162000*03002051 - ZAR 162000*03002241 ??????
And than something very strange happened.....
After RZ chassisnumber 03002241 there have been more RZ's produced ( upto number 0300278 ??? )
In my RZ register the highest known number is 03002282 !!!
So officially the last known RZ in the Alfa Romeo Historic Data Base is number 03002241 and it was produced in September
1993 ! The ones with a higher number are absolutely not tracable in the Official Alfa Romeo archifes,
but according to my register they certainly exist !
Who can tell me what happened after that last official production number ???
3. As you can see in the Register the production versus chassisnumbers seems to be a mess.
4. In the Netherlands is a SZ owner, who now has more than 300.000 km. on the counter !!! He claimes that the only trouble - aside of normal maintenance - was a problem with the gearbox and with the pump of the air conditioner, at about 200.000 km. a damaged valve and at 230.000 km. a damaged kath.
In 2001, at 250.000 km. the owner decided to give the car a complete overhaul.....
the car looks like a new one again and it still runs very well, top speed is about 270 km/h.
I do not think there is a SZ out there with more km's on the counter !!??
5. In the Netherlands there were 29 SZ's imported.
In Switserland there seems to be 126 SZ's imported.
In Germany 150.
In England 50.
In France 80.
In Spain 4.
In Norway 2.
In Denmark only 1 ( not registered ).
In Sweden 5 SZ's and 1 RZ.
In Japan there are about a 100 SZ's / RZ's ??
In Argentina it seems in 1993 there were 15 - 20 SZ's imported, but it was not the "commercial
success" they did hope for.
In Bahrain only 1 was imported.
In South Africa only 1.
In Guernsey ( UK ) only 1.
In Jersey ( UK ) only 1.
In Taiwan seems to be 3 imported.
There are also 2 SZ's registered in Zimbabwe. One is very rare, that it is an Autodelta right
hand drive conversion with a 3.5 litre engine. Jano at Autodelta tells it was the only SZ
they ever converted to right hand drive and that they will never do it again. The RHD SZ is at
the moment in South Africa.
6. A Dutch person told me that he reached a top-speed ( on the German "Autobahn" ) of 275 km/h. on the counter !!! In fifth gear the car seems to accelerate with 38.1 km. per 1000 revs and it goes on to a maximal of 7200 revs !!!
7. About the "saga" of the set of suitcases specially made for the SZ..... there was only one set made, only for fotoshootings and carshows.
8. The "carbon fibre dash" etc. is in fact Fablon laid over plastic !!!
9. The SZ can pull upto 1.4 G. in cornering.... I think it is still the champion of the production cars....
Ferrari 360 F1: 1.13 g.
Ferrari 355 F1: 1.13 g.
Chrysler Viper VT 1.11 g. ( what a surprise !! )
Lamborgini Diablo VT 1.09 g.
Porsche 911 Carrera 1.06 g.
Lotus Esprit V8 1.06 g.
Ferrari 550 1.04 g.
BMW "M Coupe" 1.03 g.
Audi S4 Avant: 0.96 g.
Volvo V70R AWD: 0.90 g.
I have got this information from the Italian carmagazine "Quattroruote".
If you have any articles, books etc about the Alfa Romeo SZ ( ES-30 ), I am intrested
in purchasing them.
Please email me if you have anything of interest.
evdbeek@wxs.nl