OR
The SZ shown at the March 1989 Geneva Salon = The Black Zagato SZ
According to the information in the Piatti SZ book at page 37 the red SZ with the vin: ZAR16200003000006 was a pre-production / show car used at the March 1989 Geneva Salon
At the Geneva show you could clearly see that this car had a pre production front bumper, front blinkers, rear fog lights etc. etc.
Also the absence of the silver plaque on the console makes it even clearer that this is a prova
Click here or more information about The SZ at the Geneva Salon de l'Automobile in 1989.
In that period before the production defenitively started there has been experimented with exterior and intorior parts, instruments, lamps etc. etc.
So the appearances of those cars changed more often over time.
The engine number ending on xxxx23 seems a bit high for a pre-prod car. But on the other hand, some of those first series cars got even higher engine numbers.
So probably such cars have been put aside during this pre-production fase for some time and got the engine later or engines have been swapped during that whole startup production fase ?
So, this car was "born" as a normal red/grey SZ, but probably came back to the Zagato company with a mild damage possibly caused during a Trophy run or what ever in the beginning of its existence
Eventually Zagato took this car back and repaired it in the RZ production line, wich was running at that moment. The color has been swapped from red to black, the personal choice of Sig. Andrea Zagato. The car got in those days the Milanese licenceplate: MI 1R5 179. In the Official Italian Registration papers that have been found back has been mentioned: Proprio: "ZAGATO ANDREA MICHELE".
So this SZ has been painted completely black and parts have been replaced by Zagato factory parts in black colour. Even the interior has been converted to black parts and obviously all pre-production interior items have been swapped for the normal Zagato factory production items, taken from what was available at that moment at the Zagato factory for this conversion.
Click here to see the topic: "Differences during production".
So the bonnet on the car is clearly one with the double reinforcement parts under the hood, so an item from later in the production process.
Also it got the lego like door panels mounted more firmly, with a kind of pop rivets ( used later than car number 600 ).
As far as I can judge from pictures it got the later serie hollow and beter finished rear spoiler
The trunk lid door is from a later serie.
Probably the stickers on the back of the instruments etc. will also show late or different production dates.
The altering from interior and exterior went on and as can be seen at the added pics the car had in the beginning a normal SZ bonnet and front bumper, but still some pre-production items like the very special pre-production rear bumper but now painted in black ( also shown in the SZ book from Piatti but there in normal red ).
Sometimes the normal dark grey production lenses have been used on this car, but also the pre-production multi coloured lenses and fog lights.
Some close-ups:
If time went on this SZ got also a replacement RZ bonnet ( without the fake louvres used as on the SZ ).
The car has been used as personal car from Sig. Andrea Zagato and for instance as "guest" car during the Trophy-race in Monaco.
The driver of this black SZ at Monaco was Thomas Bleiner, sponsored bij S.M.E.G. ( household appliances ), Alpitour ( travel agency ) and Grondona ( cookies ).
The car stayed mainly standard, so it has never been fully race prepared like the other SZ / RZ trophy race cars.
Years ago I got a mail from a car journalist about this car. He wrote to me that at a certain point this car was converted to meet the minimum requirements that the trophy racers had to meet at that time. So a roll-over-cage was built into this car etc.etc. Still some proof of that can be found under the carpets.
The next 2 pictures are under copyright from W. Wilhelm.
The car has been used for a race and one day later the roll-over-cage was taken out, original seats and radio built in again etc.etc. because Sig. Andrea Zagato needed the car for his vacation trip wich started a day later !
In the end it has been sold to a new owner in Japan who owned the car for several years. This mysterious and unknown owner(s) never entered this car into our registers.
Suddenly in September 2017 the car appeared on an auction site in Japan, sadly not in a perfect condition. One would expect that such special car would have been pampered over the years, sadly this wasn't the case. It had 77.395 km. on the clock at that moment and a RZ front bumper had been fitted, so another conversion again.
The car had some extra's I haven't seen before on other cars. The seats have 2 extra levers and at the konsole is an extra button ???
A Canadian registermember could buy this car and he found out that this SZ had 4 owners in Japan until december 2000 , including two car sellers for a short duration.
Here what we know about the Japanese history ( thanks Cyril ).
1) The black SZ was imported in JAPAN on 2000, december 11th and first registred by the owner : Mr Shinichi Naruse (registration number 300SE4795)
2) Sold to a company HAYAKEN CO.LTD on 2005 NOVEMBER 11th.
3) Transport’s Ministry mechanical inspection to 75900 kms on 2005, December 12th
3) HAYAKEN CO.LTD sold the black SZ three months later on 2006, January 25th Mr YO HAYAKAWA. (has not been plated immediately, no number plate.)
4) Transport’s Ministry mechanical inspection to 76800 km (2008, January 15th )
5) Mr YO HAYAKAWA sold to ZAM JAPAN CO.LTD on 2017, August 29th
6) ZAM JAPAN CO.LTD sold on auction 2 weeks later by ZAM on 2017, September 14th
7) Purschased on 2017, September 14th by Mr Cyril Gaonac’h, CANADA
So now it is in Canada.
In conclusion, you can say that this car:
1.) has had very early pre-production parts.
2.) has had pre-production parts from the final stage of this fase.
3.) has parts used in the beginning and end of true production. (see the topic: Differences during production.)
4.) has RZ parts.
5.) has parts and a color that are not used on any other SZ.
So in my personal opinion you can look at this car in 2 ways:
a.) It is a car with lots and lots of history and an amazing display from the total production of SZ's over the years.
This SZ has it all because it started as a Pre-production car, than it was upgraded to a "normal" production car, it was Trophy racer and a "Black Zagato Special"
with RZ features.
A "want to have" for many people.
b.) But as a result, it is also a car consisting of various parts from different production periods and pre-fabricated cars. Today, one would call this a FRANKENSTEIN ** car.
In the case of the SZ, nick named "Il Mostro" we now have a "double Monster" and maybe better to call this one a FZ ( Frankenstein Zagato,... hahaha ! )
Dear SZ & RZ owner, despite of all the time and energy we did put into this registersite since 1999, and despite of the copyrights clearly mentioned at my site, there will always be people who continue shamelessly - without asking - copying content, pictures, text ecc.ecc. from the site for their own honour and glory. I am really sorry for this ! Please note that I will not be provided with pictures from other websites, of which you do not have permission from the author !
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