ZAGATO MEETS MONZA

Story by Marco Betocchi, Photo by Luca Danilo Orsi

Monza. July 2020. Morning.

At the beginning of the Parabolica you arrive by chance and you just find it in front of you, gray, huge, wonderful.

FLASHBACK

Juan Manuel Fangio, five-times World Champion, whizzing rapidly on the Parabolica aboard the Alfa Romeo GTC used for a beautiful advertorial for Pirelli tyres.

We approach a little dazzled and try to position the cars, two wonderful Alfa Romeo SZ ES-30 and a Junior 1600 Zagato, which will be the subject of this feature, but we are quickly knocked off.  The slope is absurd. It is almost impossible to find a scenic pose, the car seems to want to rollover, the objects in the passenger compartment fall like in a boat.

FLASHBACK

The 1966 Ferrari F1 car is launched on the Monza circuit, and the shot showing the entrance to the Parabolica takes your breath away, the car tilts almost vertically, the suspension works to the limit of physics, the white spaghetti exhaust screams under the power of the twelve cylinders. It is only a film, but the footage is real, not digitally enhanced as it would happen today.

Luca, our photographer, brings back the order as he arranges the cars. He starts shooting in the silence of this veritable, if secular temple, where even speaking in a low voice one hears everything from a distance. We try to get to the top of the old banking, where the iconic guard-rail still exists, in order to get a particular perspective but one has to climb on all fours, it is impossible to carry the equipment up there. After a while, the first Sunday tourists begin to arrive riding dubious bicycles and scooters, some intrigued, others annoyed, none of them having the slightest idea where they are putting their feet.  It's time to go.

FLASHBACK

Interview with Clay Regazzoni, winner of the 1970 Monza F1 GP: "To get the best time in qualifying at Monza you had to take the Parabolica at full throttle, but you knew that if you lost it there you would die." To anyone with a minimum of racing experience, this is a chilling thing to hear. To all the others I would not know, but these words perfectly convey the true and profound sense of the passion that sets in motion a pilot. Today everyone talks about the sport, but very few really know what it actually is.

We move to the modern part of the track, still used today for the Italian Formula One Grand Prix.  A faded plaque welcomes us at the entrance reminding us that here, in 1948, Italy was trying to recover after the damage of the Second World War with a restored circuit.  Crossing the finish line, three Alfa Romeos in the first three places with Wimille, Trossi and Sanesi. This plaque can hardly be read anymore.  Dynamic shooting is difficult here on the move, but coordination with the two-way radios is perfect and for just over an hour our Alfa Romeos follow continuously that strip of asphalt with the headlights on and the camera lens pointed at them. Few words are spoken during this session, the athmosphere is overpowering.

FLASHBACK

We are stopped at the Ascari variant, the sun is hot, the shadows of the trees stretch out on the asphalt, the birds are chirping.  From a distance it's as if one hears the roar of the Ferrari four-cylinder  750 Monza that pierces the silence of the woods. Alberto Ascari reaches the corner that does not yet bear his name, then a sudden skidding, fatal and inexplicable, brings back the silence. The Milanese champion died on May 26, 1955, thirty years after his father. Legend has it that a worker who worked at a nearby construction site crossed his path. One of the construction workers building the flyover. The funeral will fill the Basilica of San Carlo, and at the entrance to the house where he lived, on Corso Sempione, there is still a commemorative plaque, but even that one is no longer read by anyone.

We end the day in a forgotten corner, where there is a strip of track still with the original cobblestones and concrete guardrails. The uncultivated grass makes the place almost unrecognisable, but the magic is absolute, you can still see the perfect line of the curve. The day is drawing to a close, we are tired and overheated, the Alfa Romeo owners still have a couple of hours to drive home. But Luca looks up and "sees" the shot. He freezes on the spot and, almost in a whisper, tells me that we should re-enter the old track, let our SZ pass over there on the other elevated corner, keeping the sister car in the foreground. It is far away, it is complicated, we have to call the security guard to accompany us to the other side of the circuit.  But we all believe in it. Let's turn the walkie talkies back on and let’s go. The result is incredible, a spectacular shot, one of the most beautiful motorsport photographs I have ever seen. It is Monza's gift to us.

The stars of our feature are two Alfa Romeo SZ ES 30s that Marco and Michele bought almost at the same time, a couple of years ago. Red with a black roof, like all other 800 or so produced. One bears the license plate of a Sicilian province where a local entrepreneur bought it, taking it to that island where a strong passion for the Biscione brand has always existed. The other was ordered by a well-known Turin plastic surgeon who wanted it, perhaps as a symbol of his success, and still bears the original plate which also recalls the purchase by Fiat of the Milanese brand a few years earlier. Both cars now live in the peaceful Emilian plains, not far from the factory that built their composite bodywork at the time. They have travelled just a few thousand kilometers and are rarely used by the two owner friends, for some Sunday outing on the hills or for an occasional and much applauded participation in the Vernasca Silver Flag. These are cars with a very obvious sporting inspiration, in the chassis even more than in the engine, the famous three-liter Alfa Romeo six-cylinder engine designed by the engineer Busso. Coming here to Monza was our way of paying homage to all those men like him, who designed and built these cars, and to all those who have made our industrial, sporting and civil history great, whose names have faded with time and whose works are almost completely forgotten...

Giuseppe's Junior Zagato 1600 has been part of his collection since 1996, bought from the second owner. It is the number 219 of 402 produced examples of the rare 1.6-liter version and has participated in several regularity races and also in the Vernasca Silver Flag. Strictly original in its beautiful red livery, it has an extraordinary scenic effect and it clearly shows the original idea of ​​Zagato's truncated tail design, which proved to be very efficient from an aerodynamic point of view and which was further developed on the SZ ES-30s of our feature.