AGTZ Twin Tail – merging two design stories in one car

Coachbuilding is a specialised field in the auto industry, offering cars that are built with fine craftsmanship and often unique in their merging of art and engineering. Today, there are a number of companies that offer coachbuilding services and some of them have a long history.

Grand Tourer specialist
Carrozzeria Zagato, for example, began its business over 100 years ago and the founder’s grandson, Andrea, continues the business as its CEO today. The company has specialised in Grand Tourers, producing many iconic cars over the years.

“The task of coachbuilders is to provoke the car world with alternative design languages. Playing with a round or truncated tail was always in the design ethos of Zagato for its Gran Touring models,” said Zagato.

“As a new dawn for the automobile arrives, people wish to remind themselves of the past, and therefore the epic cars of the 1950s and ‘60s,” he said. “Stories of iconic cars from history simply must be told today. It is a crucial task if we are to inspire new generations to create their own stories. Without knowing the past, you cannot invent the future.”

To create one story, Zagato has teamed up with La Squadra, a Polish distributor of exclusive car brands, to offer the AGTZ Twin Tail. This is a thoroughly modern GT car that continues the A220 story that had missed out on being victorious at the Le Mans 24-hour endurance in the late 1960s.

Success with a different form
Though it did not succeed there, its use did not end and the designers revised its design, slicing the  bodywork to create a 30-cm shorter tail. This revision refocused Chassis #1731’s attention onto shorter circuits and rally stages. Podium finishes quickly followed and while they could not truly prolong the car’s life, they underlined its place in the history books.

Now the partnership of Zagato and La Squadra revisits that part of the car’s history with the AGTZ Twin Tail. It gives the form of the A110 berlinette, a modern mid-engine icon, a dramatic new suit that brings together heritage and technology as well as history and progress.

Rear end can be transformed
The ‘Twin Tail’ in the name refers to the ability to the removable rear bodywork which allows transformation to either a longtail or the muscular punch of a shorttail. It is thus two designs melded into one. The sleek profile and  aerodynamic intent of the original A220 longtail lives on… and beneath it, full of latent potential, is the muscular A220 shorttail.

Cars for all purposes
“Zagato was always a Grand Touring coachbuilder, producing cars capable of racing but which you could use every day on the road or grace a Concours of Elegance lawn with. This is the reason behind the name ‘AGTZ’ and the mission of our project,” said the founder’s grandson.

“We didn’t want to make a pure racing car because technology, aerodynamics and power have changed a lot since the 1960s. Instead, we wanted to capture the inspiration and design innovation of the A220 shorttail and create an authentic Gran Turismo in the true Zagato tradition,” he added.

Long and shorttail examples of the classic A220 will be on display at The I.C.E. St. Moritz this weekend. The AGTZ Twin Tail, priced from €650,000 (RM3.36 million) ex-factory, is expected to make its public debut on the shores of Lake Como in May 2024 ahead of customer deliveries from October 2024. Only 19 units will be produced.

“Here we are paying tribute to an iconic brand rich in heritage and which successfully revived its legendary A110. As social media plays an ever more important role, I am dreaming of seeing this car on the streets of Tokyo, Le Mans and in the Great British countryside,” said Jakub Pietrzak, founder of La Squadra.