James Elliott joins an exclusive Japanese classic tour in an exquisite Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato 1600
Suddenly it doesn’t feel like tourist Japan anymore. We are far from the dominant shadow of Mount Fuji, well away from the constraints of Tokyo and its head-rule-heart Expressways, and chasing car designer Ken Okuyama’s pokey little hardtop racing Frogeye through a network of deserted private toll roads. At every tollbooth we are told that the car in front has already paid for us. Classy. Especially as Okuyama had a traumatic start to this event, his Corvette C2 failing on the Expressway out of Tokyo and causing a big tailback. He dashed home, picked up his Frogeye to rejoin the rally, then that Frogeye ran out of fuel in a long mountain tunnel and had to pull over into an emergency layby to await a top-up. And all this while his fellow entrants were still talking about his speeding violations on the previous tour!
Thankfully the intrepid Ken retains his good humour far better than I might have and all of that angst seems well in the past now – he is clearly enjoying himself as he threads the Frogeye through the forests and canyons. As am I, following him in this little 1973 Alfa Junior Zagato that has suddenly come alive. Dramatically so. Not that it was any less capable with more mundane driving conditions, but you know when you can sense a car’s emotions – well, here that emotion is happiness. Myself and my excellent co-pilot Dr Maki – daughter of Yuki Hayashi, who had generously asked Octane to join him on the invitation-only Ralph Lauren Tour d’Elegance in Japan in November 2023 – have come alive, too. I am in the driving zone, she is filming the road we are gorging on as it flashes under the car.

This exclusive event is the only Ralph Lauren Tour d’Elegance in the world. There are high hopes it might provide the template for similar events in other territories and it deserves to but, for 2023 at least, it is unique to Japan. The event was dreamed up with the intention of ‘bringing style and excellence to classic car touring in Japan without the pressure of timed stages’. It is willfully small – only 16 starters in 2023, the maximum set at 20 – for those who ‘appreciate the finer things in life’, including the very best hotels and exceptional cuisine (usually traditional Japanese at lunchtime and more international in the evenings).
Co-organised by Paul Goldsmith, an ex-Goodwood guy who has run major concours in Tokyo and Kuwait, plus Octane Japan’s editor-in-chief Shiro Horie, it is supported by Range Rover and Bollinger and this third running has been meticulously planned and is full of surprises.
Of course, even after Osato Research Institute boss Yuki invited us and supplied his own kin to co-drive, Octane still needed a car. That came courtesy of the unbelievably generous Dr Masatoshi Tanifuji, who has not only loaned me the Alfa but is also supplying steeds for the other British guests. Racing driver Anthony Reid and wife Tina opt for a pokier V6 Maserati Merak, while John Brigden and Claire Cochran from Bespoke Rallies take the touring choice with a V8 Mondial Cabriolet.

So why pick the little four-pot Alfa against such power-brokers? Well, given the pick of eight cars from Dr Tanifuji’s collection, excluding the V12 Lamborghini Jarama S he was happily burbling along in with wife Hiromi, I wanted the Alfa simply because I have never driven one and I wanted to see if there really is that much difference between this and a stock 105, to gauge exactly the potency of Zagato’s magic if you like. A Giulia 105 would be great in itself, but the much-vaunted added nimbleness and agility of the Zagato should elevate that to another level.
The Junior Zagato was born out of Alfa boss Giovanni Luraghi’s visit to the Zagato stand at the 1967 Turin Salon. Could Elio Zagato build a compact, more wind-cheating, sportier baby GT on the 105 Pininfarina Spider platform? He could. Getting to work the following year, Ercole Spada evolved design themes already trailed in the 1967 Rover 2000 TCZ to give the Alfa its distinctive, pointier and thoroughly modern looks. The all-ally prototype was delivered by July and between then and 1972 just over 1000 Junior Zagato 1300s – productionised with only doors and bonnet in aluminium – were manufactured, sales stunted by a Lire800,000 premium over the stock car, lack of support from ambivalent step-parent Alfa, and a shape that may have been prescient but at the time deviated too far from Alfa’s established ‘look’.

I guess it might look very ‘wrong’ to Alfascisti but it’s also incredibly right, especially thinking about the outlines of so many cars that followed, from Giugiaro’s Alfasud Sprint and VW Scirocco Mk1 to Kigoshi’s Honda CR-X. That plexiglass light cover could have looked cheap, tacky and placky, but as a part of this design it is beautiful – there’s something very attractive about it and its chrome surround that belies their simplicity, framed by the subtle tilt of the bonnet. Where others see cost-cutting, I see only great proportions and balance.
Late in 1972 came the 1600, with myriad small differences and two big ones. For a start, the bigger engine offered 109bhp and the car was also longer, but there were also new wheelarches, floor panel, deck, lights (Berlina 2000 instead of 1750) and bumper at the rear, plus front bumper, dashboard, three-spoke steering wheel and more. These upgrades didn’t make enough difference to potential buyers, however, and only 402 had been built when the plug was pulled in late 1975.
Today they are notoriously tricky to restore because so many parts rot, and most of them are unique to the model, but Dr Tanifuji’s car is exactly how I like a classic: in lovely condition, but primarily usable, on the button and mechanically sorted. With 105-series mechanicals, of course, it offers a perky twin-cam engine and a willing five-speed ’box. So, in a way ideal for a touring rally, in many others not. We shall see.

The event kicks off with a private shopping session at Ralph Lauren’s flagship Tokyo store in Omotesando, which I miss, and then a Champagne reception the night before the rally, which I don’t. There we all introduce ourselves and then mingle, giving me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the car designer Shiro Nakamura. An early night follows because we need to be lined up behind the store early the next morning for the lengthy but fascinating blessing ceremony (of both cars and crews) before the off.
The 16 cars range from Bugatti guru Franco Majno in a locally owned 1929 Corsica-bodied T44 to the Brigden/Cochran 1988 Mondial Cabriolet. White, of course. The rest of the fleet includes the likes of Susumo Otomo’s pre-A Porsche 356 to the Müller family’s wonderfully wafty 1956 Bentley Continental, which makes almost unnervingly serene progress throughout the tour. My host, Yuki Hayashi, is in his Aston Martin DB5 with wife Toshi, while Octane Japan editor Shiro Horie is playing support in a Range Rover.
When we are flagged off by Ralph Lauren Japan president Jay Kimpton, objective one is simply to get clear of Tokyo, which we do, slowly. First stop is for an extravagant traditional Kaiseki lunch at the Hakone forest retreat, about an hour-and-a-half south-west of Tokyo, and that is followed by a visit to the unexpected Lalique museum on its doorstep, with afternoon tea in an original Orient Express carriage decorated by Lalique in period. After that we strike out due south for Atami and the astonishingly luxurious Pearl Star Hotel.

Getting there means passing through the 770m Jukkoku pass, which provides the most breathtaking views of Mount Fuji imaginable. Credit to the route planners, we arrive just in time for sunset on a cloudless evening; even the Japanese are saying that the views are rarely that good. As we descend into the achingly chic seaside resort of Atami after 130km on the road, you cannot help but draw comparisons to dropping into Monte Carlo. Park up, check in, get in your daily steps just traversing the hotel room, then dinner accompanied by a stunning fireworks display.
Mount Fuji still looms large on day two as the tour quits Atami and heads for the next overnight stop some 267km north-west. There is an equally packed schedule, starting with the Herb Garden Fuji Kawaguchiko and its spectacular views of the mountain, then calling in at the also-unexpected Nakamura Keith Haring Collection in Kobuchizawa, where more than 200 of the late New Yorker’s works are on display. Lunch is at the Shichiken restaurant Daimin attached to an ancient but still working Saki brewery. Next we call in for a hugely in-demand seasonal dessert – describable only as water jelly – at the 120-year-old Daigahara Kinseiken sweet shop, before hitting the road again for the last call of the day, arriving at the Takizawa-Bokujyo farm just as the temperature plummets. The hotel for the next two nights is the splendid Hiramatsu in Karuizawa Miyota, meaning we can unpack our luggage, which has of course arrived before us after travelling in supreme comfort, before dinner and an entertaining after-dinner speech from Anthony Reid.

After waking up to incredible views of Mount Asama and enjoying an Onsen bath while taking in the panorama, it is time to consider day three. A redrawn route due to snow closing the 2170m Shibu Pass means the final day on the road is a loop back to the Hiramatsu, starting at the newborn Komoro Distillery, through the picturesque old town of Unnojuko, a lunch consisting almost entirely of chestnut dishes – including the world famous Mont Blanc cake – in Japan’s chestnut capital Obusedo, and then an unscheduled guerilla visit to a museum dedicated to the Edo-period artist Hokusai. Last stop of the day is at an avant-garde art museum honouring the rather more modern artist Horishi Senju, before it is all rounded off with a gala dinner (for which I lugged a dinner jacket halfway across the world), some awards (in which Octane did not feature) and a well-earned rest before saying our goodbyes in the morning.
The previous two nights, thanks to a combination of jet-lag and narcolepsy, I had been falling asleep early and embarrassingly publicly, but on this final night I’m still buzzing from the driving and the Alfa. It has been only a 167km day, but the route was more engaging and challenging from the off, then it really got going after that old town and a quick dash down the Joshin-Etsu Expressway – ever improving, ever gnarlier, building up to the deserted toll roads that kick in at 130km.

On these roads I was discovering not Japan, but the brilliance of Zagato, from the body-clasping qualities of those unique bucket seats (complete with integrated headrest that swivels out of the backrest) to the spirited revving of the twin-carb twin-cam as it powers the Junior zip-smooth from corner to corner. The short overhangs mean you know exactly where the corners of the car are and can place them precisely, the stiffer suspension offering more nimbleness, perfect steering feedback whispering advice all the time through the ribbed-for-pleasure wheel, the steering box offering a wonderful fluidity. Of course, the terrain and undulation and corners skirting along the wooded base of a high vertical cliff play a huge part in these thrills, but this Alfa tackles a sequence of corners so effortlessly that it feels as if it is straightening them, like pulling on a string, like a shuttle flying across a loom.
The brakes, discs all around, are more than adequate, as is the smooth five-speed gearbox, both of which point towards how sophisticated the Giulia was for its era. That said, however tight the transmission, I will always baulk slightly at the way the long, chunky lever sprouts out of the top of the tunnel like a front-wheel-drive’s. And its long throw. Shorten both and you’d have a genuine world-beater.

Road time also allows us to celebrate familiar Giulia touches – including the beguiling simplicity of turning a stalk to activate the headlamps or the surprisingly effective two-speed heater – plus Zagato-specific features such as the eye-crossing kink of just one of the wiper blades and the button that lifts the tailgate a few centimetres to aid airflow. Remarkably, it works both in theory and practice.
If the Zagato lacks anything it is accessible space, with rear seats no more than a twin arse-shaped parcel shelf and only a small cubbyhole in the front. The Italianate driving position also means there is little space for driver’s legs (even as short as mine), one of which impedes the gearshift’s first-second plane as it arches around to operate the throttle.

None of this matters, though, as you arrow through those corners, where all 109bhp of Alfa advances with supercar intent and family wagon smoothness. There is much less noise than you would expect, even on the Expressway, where it canters along at 140km/h. For me the Alfa is as beautifully proportioned and balanced to drive as it is to look at and it is far more nimble, tight and quick than I had dared to anticipate.
Its humble(ish) spec might be quite in contrast to this luxurious event, but the Ralph Lauren Tour d’Elegance is similarly dripping in generosity of spirit. While the island-race Japanese revel in a reputation for being slightly insular in the same way as Zagato’s cars might be, break down the barriers and both are keen to share their enthusiasm with the world.

THANKS TO Yuki, Toshi, Maki and Aki Hayashi, Dr Masatoshi and Hiromi Tanifuji, Paul Goldsmith, Jay Kimpton and Matthew Sleath, plus Shiro Horie and the Octane Japan team. See tourdelegance.jp.