Do you know this one? Autech Zagato Stelvio
08/16/2018
Yes, there was a car with the nickname "Stelvio" around 1990 and it wasn't an Alfa Romeo or an SUV. And the car didn't come from Italy either, but from Japan. However, the Italians were definitely involved, as the body company Zagato designed the exterior and parts of the interior.
The starting point was the Nissan Leopard (F31), also marketed as the Infinity M30. This was probably not exciting enough for the creators with its well-behaved Nissan exterior, so they had a hotter version built by subsidiary Autech. And Autech in turn turned to Zagato and the result was definitely neither boring nor ordinary. The silhouette was reminiscent of Astons built by Zagato, and the rear-view mirrors were integrated into the fenders.
However, the car was not really beautiful and was also extremely expensive, even more expensive than a Honda NSX, which was after all the top sports car in Japan. At the beginning of the nineties, not even a hundred of the 280 hp car could be built.
Every now and then, one of these quirky coupés, which were originally only sold in Japan, appears in the West, as is currently the case on the Hemmings sales platform. The seller of the car pictured here is asking USD 48,000.
The gods know whether the Autech Zagato Stelvio AZ1 will score points at a Concours d'Elégance, but the car would be sufficiently exotic and rare to boot.
