Sharknado - the NART Zagato
10/30/2025
When new emissions regulations threatened to make the import and sale of European luxury sports cars in the USA more difficult at the end of the 1960s, Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti had the idea of offering his customers a car that was at least as exclusive and domestically produced.
He chose the Cadillac Eldorado as the technical basis, whose 400 HP 8.2-liter V8 was moved in front of the rear axle, which it was now to drive instead of the front wheels. Chinetti received technical and financial support from General Motors, which even made one of its studios available for the construction of the clay model.
The body design itself allegedly came from Chinetti's son Luigi Jr. and was turned into sheet aluminum at Carrozzeria Zagato. In terms of its own aspirations, it was a kind of American Lamborghini Espada, but visually and technically the result was more of a somewhat unfortunate cross between an Oldsmobile Toronado and a Monteverdi Hai.
With the name of Chinetti's North American Racing Team on the front, the 2+2-seater mid-engined coupé was finally presented to the public at the 1970 Turin Motor Show. But by then General Motors had already lost interest and Chinetti had lost the foundation for his planned series production. The NART Zagato remained a one-off.
