Photo from the book, Alfa Romeo Junior Z.
By Pete Vack
The Alfa Junior Zagato was a landmark car for the coachbuilder, and marked the final transition from the hand-built aluminum bodies to a far less expensive pressed steel body.
For a number of reasons, the handcrafted panel beaten aluminum confections could no longer offer a viable and cost-effective way to produce a body in any kind of production run, no matter how small. Zagato, being in Milan and not Turin, was one of the last holdouts. Everyone else had seen the future and adopted accordingly, led by the wise old Battista Pininfarina who was as good a businessman as he was a designer.