1974 Zagato Zele 1000
This weekend at London, RM Sotheby's will auction many great cars with for example :
But now, I understand the name of the auction block The Weird & Wonderful Collection, with many stunning lots and also weird lots like this Zagato Zele 1000, an electric car from 1974 for an estimate price of £5,000.
I knowed Zagato, the Italian design company behind some great handmade Italian GT cars, but I never saw this electric microcar with this square design.
History of the Zagato Zele
The Zagato Zele was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1972, just one year before the global fuel crisis.
The electric microcar with a fiberglass body was produced between 1974 and 1976 to only 500 examples. Three different models exist, 1000, 1500 and 2000, due to the wattage of its Marelli electric motor.
Technical specification
This Zagato Zele 1000 has a glass fibre bodywork over a steel chasis derived from the Fiat 500 and Fiat 124. It's powered by 4 12 volt batteries, you can reach the 40 kmh for a range of 80 km (with full battery).
This model is offered in yellow paintwork (7 colors was available : Orange-red, Brown, Dark blue, Pastel blue, White, Green and metal flake Blue). For the design, we are far from the usual production of Zagato, known for their beauty and performance (like this Maserati A6G / 2000 (old post about it).
The Zele is a little square on wheels with a spartan interior :-).
It looks like a car used in the movie Austin Powers
Sources
On Wiki :
Zagato Zele
Zagato
My Old Posts about Car
Lotus Elite Super 95
Maserati Ghibli SS Spyder
Porsche 911 Turbo Classic
BMW 633 CSi
Porsche 911 Targa
That's a cute little car, but I wouldn't drive it on Sydney's streets with all the crazy drivers, you would end up under a strange rover, cheers.
Yeah I always know Zagato about its design for Italian sport cars (Maserati A6, Lancia Fluvia...), and this square on wheel seems weird. But an electric car just before the Oil crisis, it was a great idea.
40 years later the Smart car
It's true there is an air of family :-)
I have actually seen these driving around in California. Crazy.
The Smart or the Zagato ?
Smart. I'm always shocked to see something that small on the road.
In Montreal, we have Car2go, carsharing system with Smart