Zagato AGTZ Twin Tail is a stunning longtail take on Alpine A110

Italian coachbuilder Zagato has used the svelte Alpine A110 coupe to create a limited-run sports car inspired by the Alpine A220 that raced at Le Mans in the late 1960s.

Just 19 examples of the dramatic, smoothly-styled coupe will be produced and each Zagato AGTZ Twin Tail will be priced from a cool €650,000 ($A1 million).

Creating a fitting modern tribute to the A220, which Zagato calls the “forgotten Le Mans icon”, was no mean feat and involved producing an entirely new rear bodyshell made of carbon-fibre, which sees the AGTZ Twin Tail measure in 662mm longer than the regular A110 coupe on which it’s based.

If you're wondering where the Twin Tail name comes from, Zagato will allow owners to remove a rear carbon-fibre section of their car, presumably to aid parking.

While it’s easy to spot its longer rump, Zagato says every single panel is completely bespoke to the AGTZ Twin Tail, including the firm’s trademark double-bubble roof, and its designers also tweaked both the A110’s headlights and grille.

Even the wing mirrors haven’t escaped an extensive redesign, while new wheels were also specially created for the limited-run model.

Despite looking like it could crack 400km/h on the Mulsanne straight, under the skin it’s thought the AGTZ Twin Tail will top out at 285km/h, like the Alpine A110 R on which it’s based.

That means the exotic Italian coupe is expected to produce the same 240kW of power and 340Nm of torque as the standard A110’s 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine.

That said, with a lighter body you can expect some improvement on the stock A110 R’s 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.9 seconds.

Originally launched back in 1968, the Alpine A220 racer was first developed for endurance motorsport. Unfortunately for the French sportscar-maker, the A220 wasn’t actually very fast.

In fact, it was so unsuccessful that Alpine gave up its ambitions of winning Le Mans with it in 1970 and took 300mm out of its body to enter hill-climbs, short-circuit races and even the odd rally stage, where it eventually scored podium finishes.

Production of the AGTZ Twin Tail has already begun and all 19 cars are expected to be sold soon – despite their million-dollar price tags.

Sadly, the Alpine A110 was pulled from sale in Australia back in late 2021 due to its lack of compliance with the new ADR 85 pole side impact performance regulation, which also brought the demise of the Nissan GT-R, Mitsubishi Mirage and Lexus IS, RC and CT.

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