The famous hillclimb has seen its fair share of oddities. From legendary F1 cars to hydrogen powered rally machines, even an autonomous car that had learnt the track layout through a series of codes, but it’s fair to say you’ll rarely see a transforming car head up the 1.16-mile hill. The morphing AGTZ Twin Tail can officially claim that title, and it looked brilliant doing so across the weekend.
We’ve covered the car from its early beginnings, with Polish-based La Squadra teaming up with legendary design house Zagato to create the ultimate homage to the Alpine A220, a car that started life with the highest ambitions for Le Mans success in longtail form, but was shortened at the rear to aid it in tackling twisty rally stages. This new interpretation has all the hallmarks of the original but has been modernised in a celebration of old and new, with the thousands of spectators showing their support as it travelled up the hill.
A special moment came when the new car was led along the course by its originator, turning the somewhat gloomy grey skies surrounding Chichester into a sea of metallic blue with those iconic hints of red and yellow. Driven by La Squadra founder Jakub Pietrzak and Gosia Rdest across the weekend, the polish racing driver had plenty of compliments for the AGTZ. "Shared rides with the Alpine A220 proved that even the history that seemed forgotten can be given new life and return to the spotlight of the automotive world again. In terms of driving itself, work on the suspension and exhaust system of the new car brought impressive results. AGTZ Twin Tail was one of the best-sounding cars on the stage, which should be considered a very big achievement in such a group, and the handling was worthy of racing structures: the way the chassis behaved on this winding, technical route was phenomenal." It's a delight to see not only the crowd welcome this unique creation, but also other car makers keen to find out more about the collaboration. Kimera Automobili founder Luca Betti was seen taking a closer look, where the EVO37 and AGTZ make for perhaps the ultimate conversation-starting duo we’ve ever seen!
Just as the dust settles on the Festival of Speed for 2024, the AGTZ Twin Tail continues its travels around the world, and will be next shown back in Europe, where we have no doubt it’ll cause just as much of a stir as it did in England!
Photos by Mark Riccionni & Andrzej Cieplik
