Spanish refinement in the streets of New York

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We’ve got a weak spot for Pegasos here at PostWarClassic. And this beautiful Z-102 Berlinetta is no exception. It has the all-alloy dry-sumped V8 with double overhead cams and five-speed manual gearbox plus comes clothed in superleggera aluminium skin by Touring. It’s also got some fine history, as RM Sotheby’s points out. Yep, the car will make it to the block during their upcoming ‘Driven by Disruption’ sale in New York city. That means a big break for the car itself as it spent all of its life in Spain. Sorry, but that just made us think of this. Anyway: RM speaks about ‘the finest original, unmolested surviving example’

There's been one break to Italy, back in 1954 when the brand new car was shown at the San Remo Concours of April 1954. It's there that it got sold to José María de Caralt y Borrell, or the ‘Conde de Caralt’: an ennobled Spanish industrialist who ran a textile factory and winery, which – as RM writes it beautifully – ‘together imbued him with a deep knowledge of both the good life and fine machinery.’ It’s no surprise then that the Count of Caralt started campaigning his Spanish thoroughbred in races and hillclimbs soon later. He came 4th overall sprinting the Alto de Los Leones and 3rd in the Grand Prix National Sport at Barajas. It was also seen at the Montjuic circuit and the Vallvidrera hillclimb. The Count certainly did not spare the car as two months after his first race the 3.2 litre engine needed replacement - just in time for the Vuelta a Andalucia in June 1954.

But after two years he had enough of the car and returned it to the factory – still building sports cars at the time. It was repainted in metallic apple green (!) and the engine was supposedly ‘renumbered to match the chassis number in preparation for sale to a new owner, Señor Rodríguez of Madrid’. After that it was sold two more times, before ending up with its current owner in 1981. He had it repainted once more, now in dark green, but preserved it so well that the original spare tire still has its manufacturer’s labels on the tread. 

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy RM Sotheby's)

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