The Unexpected Craze For The World's Ugliest Car! Alfa Romeo SZ

It has everything going against it, it's not pretty and not particularly fast, yet now the Alfa SZ is one of the most loved. In this video we explore the appeal of this unique car.

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[travkatz]

I don't understand why anyone thinks this is ugly. I've always loved it very much

[vincentvg]

What a thing it is! I was an Alfa dealer when these came out. We had more fingerprints on our showroom windows than ever before when this was on display. We only sold one: but oh my - the build quality! We were really shocked when it rolled out of the closed transporter at the dealership - we didn't expect German build quality (we were Alfa dealers after all). But this was on another level! Anyway, luckily our customer, who'd paid a fat deposit to order the car, either knew what to expect - or didn't care. We had plenty of warranty issues with it - but luckily nothing too terrible. Long live Alfa!

[Pandamasque]

It's quite handsome even for the era. Right now it looks better than 80% of the blobs on the road and 95% of blobs in the showrooms.

[honda]

That is NOT ugly!! It looks really amazingly good and so raw and cool.. and sounds like an old F1 car!😍

[uncensored]

I was fortunate enough, to be able to rag these about when I worked for FIAT Auto UK. We supplied Derek Warrick one of these when he was racing for Alfa Romeo in the BTCC, the regno. of that car was SZ6020, which was a long term FIAT Auto fleet car. There were never 100 of these sold in the UK as we were in a recession, the majority of the unsold cars were sent back to Italy!

Also, there was a lot of paint problems on these (cracking), which were mostly corrected by Marinello's in Egham or Fiat Motor Sales in Wembley (Which was a Fiat Auto owned dealership at the time), as no one else could deal with the composite material.

Great cars that were underrated at the time, I remember taking my late father-in-law out for a drive in one, he absolutely loved it!

[Klarkash-Ton]

I've seen a few of these in person, and I really think they're captivating. Certainly not beautiful, but extravagant and wild.

[brianiswrong]

The blacked out roof and pillars against the red is a design master class.

[ExUSSailor]

Ugly, or, not, you can not beat that sound! Positively symphonic!

[JacobTab_S_Plus-sgju]

In my all time dream garage for ever,
My dad was a alfa dealer and had a 75 1.8 turbo and I had a GTV serie 3 with a 2.0 Twin Spark put in when I was 22,
This car is made with 75 group A parts, it is so GREAT.

[adampase]

Jack, I’m a very lucky person who owns both an SZ and a 75. I’ve often tried and failed to tell people how the SZ chassis changes the driving experience so dramatically compared to the 75. You did a brilliant job of articulating the differences. Now I can just refer people to this video for a better explanation than I can ever give, thankyou!

[PEPPE]

Guardate gli occhi di quest'uomo sono lucidi .. è fuori di sé ad ogni curva ..questo è quello che crea un alfa romeo quando la guidi . è unica.

[archiegoodwinjr]

Yay. Finally. The SZ is perfect for this show.

[CSX]

10 seconds in and I have a big grin on my face. The Busso is simply one of the best sounding engines ever produced, and the one in this car is taken to the next level with that exhaust system. Lovely!

And please stop calling the SZ ugly. It's not your normal kind of beauty perhaps, but beautiful it is. I've been in love with it since they introduced it way back. Just wish I could afford one.

Thanks for the vid! Cheers!

[Lazy_Jay_Racing]

The sound of that engine through that exhaust system is like hells fury! Absolutely fantastic 😁👏👏👌 definitely a car I'd have if i was a wealthy man 👌

[margaretbehler]

Still better looking than the nose of BMW's of today. The is invigorating! Nice Jack.

[RobertLeather]

I remember seeing one of these in central Manchester around the mid-90's. I think I was the only person in a group of 20 guys who knew what it was. It was joyous and the noise was 👌

[perfectwrist]

Interestingly, watching this, you seem more engaged and enthusiastic than in almost any other car...perhaps there's a sign there

[carlostavares]

This was the first road car to be able to go over 1G in lateral acceleration, in public roads. It uses a full race suspension, but remains confortable. The reason why you found it so sharp, it's mainlly because it uses no suspension bushes - only bearings! And the then new Pirelli PZero, like the Ferrari F-40. At the time, nothing was capable of that level of grip, precision and handling. It was to become the car I have photographed the more. I did a photo session with an SZ and an F-40, at the same time, and only when seeing the photos did I realized that I had 3 times more photos of the SZ! Those lines were just a never ending inspiration! Still have plans to offer one to my wive, who only drives italian cars... like I once said to a italian lady once, "to my wife there are only 2 type of cars: Italian cars, and other people's cars".

[andrewshearn]

This car nearly killed me on the San Bernardino. After 2 bends I ended up going round a hairpin using the handbrake to slow down because the system had faded completely. Alfa showcased the car in a support race at Monaco in 1990, but shortened the race to 3 laps after the cars couldn't brake by the time they got to Mirabeau. Looks great, but beware.

[Mastermind]

Looks like it belong in a 80s anime cyberpunk movie, absolutely love it.