It wasn’t just exotic GTs that rolled
off the drawing board of Zagato’s former chief stylist Ercole Spada. He also
had a fantastic idea for a Fiat 500-based sports car
It’s a question that nudges to be asked.
Ercole Spada raises his eyes to the ceiling, which is where they remain while
he considers his answer. In a recently published book celebrating his tenure as
styling supreme at Zagato, one of his many designs for this storied coachbuilder
is conspicuously absent – the car pictured here. Yet the Zanzara was trumpeted
by several magazines in period. It even appeared on the cover of a glossy
volume published in 1969 to coincide with Zagato’s half-century. So why the
omission from a work produced in conjunction with Spada himself? He mulls over
his words, weighing every syllable as if trying to stop himself from saying
something he might later regret. The intonation is clear to the point that
translation from Italian to English is no longer necessary: his design had
been, er, “appropriated”.
Spada
Zanzara: the one that got away
‘I wasn’t interested in lots of power, more
in making the best of what was available’
Not that he’s bitter, just a little irked.
But then for a brief, tantalizing moment back in the late 1960s, this
brilliantly leftfield device could conceivably have worn many nameplates,
Zagato and Fiat among them. Scroll forward to the early ’70s and a variation on
the theme wore Honda logos. But as it stands, the only badge you’ll find
affixed to this, the original prototype is Spada’s.
“It was an idea that had been on my mind
for quite some time while I was working at Zagato,” he recalls, surveying the
car that he still owns. “I was inspired by the Lotus Seven. I really admired
the simplicity of the design – which one part could serve two or more functions
and I wanted to do something along similar lines. I had in mind a small,
lightweight sports car that would be cheap and easy to build; something that
would appeal to young people who might otherwise have bought a motorcycle. It
would be affordable, economical to run, fun to drive and look good.”
Bug-like
face is perfect for Zanzara (mosquito). With low centre of gravity, and at 80kg
less than a 500, it nips through bends.
So, in 1968, Spada set about turning his
renderings into something three-dimensional. This was strictly an after-hours
project, however, something he constructed himself applying a brain-over-budget
approach: “I originally intended using a two-cylinder boxer engine, the kind
you would find in those tiny commercial vehicles made by Iso at that time. I
wasn’t interested in having lots of power, more with making the best-possible
use of whatever output was available. I had sketched out a very simple tubular
steel chassis, but even that turned out to be too complicated so I had a
rethink. Then one day I was visiting one of our suppliers in Turin and spotted
a bare Fiat 500 chassis. The more I looked at it, the more I realized that it
would be perfect for what I had in mind. I sat in it and saw that I could
easily lower the steering box and reposition the fuel tank without having to
make major changes elsewhere. It was simple. I used everything from the 500 –
the floor pan, engine, suspension; just about the lot. I even kept the inner
wheel arches, which were simply painted black on the Zanzara.”
The prototype was completed in 1969, which
coincided with Spada’s departure from Zagato. Yet his former employer displayed
a keen interest in the project; at least he did on learning of its existence:
“I showed the car to Elio, and he was receptive. This was at a time when the
company was building cars for Alfa and Lancia, but it was always looking for
other contracts.”
The Zanzara was displayed at the Turin
Motor Show in October of that year where it attracted plenty of interest, not
least from some Fiat insiders. While the precise details of who did what are
mired in conjecture, a second Zanzara prototype – this time built by Zagato
rather than Spada was evaluated by Fiat for a possible production run. Spada
had joined Ford by then, however, so his attentions were focused elsewhere.
Ultimately, Fiat decided against adopting the proposal – even for a limited
batch and that should have been that.
Zanzara
based on a stock 500 floorpan, even using the donor’s rear arches
Except that wasn’t quite the end of the
story. Unbeknown to Spada, Zagato had also been touting the concept elsewhere.
The Milan firm found a potential partner in Honda’s Italian importer, the
Zanzara morphing into the amusingly entitled Hondina Youngstar. The Fiat motor
made way for a 31bhp air-cooled twin lifted from the tiny Honda N360.
Physically, the ‘new’ car was a carbon copy of the Zanzara, save a chunkier
roll cage, rectangular instead of round headlights, nasty-looking air vents
plus bigger bumpers front and rear. It’s at this juncture that the story gets
even hazier. The Youngstar was reputedly offered for public consumption, but
neither Spada nor anyone at Zagato is sure how many were sold, if any. Or indeed
if it retained the Fiat floor pan
‘It’s blood-sucking inspiration is
clear: there’s a mosquito logo on each side’
Spada is too much of a gentleman to overtly
criticize Zagato for riffing on his idea, at least not on the record. As he
points out, he wouldn’t have worked with the firm in the 1990s had he felt any
lingering resentment? So the Zanzara has simply been assimilated with
resignation but little resistance from its creator into Zagato lore.
