The Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ (also known as the Alfa Romeo TZ or Tubolare Zagato) was a
sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
and
racing car manufactured by
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
from 1963 to 1967. It replaced the
Giulietta SZ. In 2011, the name was reduced from Giulia TZ to TZ in the new TZ3 model.
Giulia TZ
The original TZ, currently sometimes referenced as TZ1 to differ from later TZ2 was presented at the 1962 Turin Auto Show.
It featured a 1,570 cc
twin cam engine and other mechanical components shared with the
Alfa Romeo Giulia
Alfa Romeo Giulia () is the name of three not directly related models by the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo. The first is a line of sporty four-door compact executive cars (Type 105) produced from 1962 to 1978, the second is an updated, ma ...
and carried a 105 series chassis number,
but was a purpose built
sports racing car
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is o ...
, with a tubular
spaceframe
In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure ( 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with ...
chassis built in the province of
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...
by
SAI Ambrosini and the light all-aluminium bodywork was made by
Zagato
Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupies an area of 23,000 square metres (250,000 sq ft)- 11,000 ...
, final assembly was made Delta of Udine, with
Carlo Chiti
Carlo Chiti (19 December 1924 – 7 July 1994) was an Italian racing car and engine designer best known for his long association with Alfa Romeo's racing department. He also worked for Ferrari and was involved in the design of the Ferrari 156 Sha ...
initially on board as a consultant before becoming the project leader. The firm soon changed its name to
Auto-Delta and relocated to its current site in Settimo Milanese, on the outskirts of Milan, not far from the
Alfa Romeo Portello Plant.
[Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ 2]
Zoute Grand Prix - Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ 2
access-date: 29. June 2019
It has disc brakes and independent suspension. The result was a lightweight
coupé of only and top speed of . The TZ was built both for street and racing trim, with the latest racing versions producing up to . Alfa's twin-spark cylinder head, as also used in their
GTA, contributed to the speed of the TZ; the standard Giulia alloy block with wet steel liners was installed at an angle under the hood of the TZ to improve airflow.
Aiding the TZ in its quest for performance was the treatment of the rear bodywork. Incorporating the research of Dr.
Wunibald Kamm
Wunibald Kamm (April 26, 1893 – October 11, 1966) was an automobile designer, engineer, and aerodynamicist. He is best known for his breakthrough in reducing car turbulence at high speeds; the style of car bodywork based on his research has c ...
, the TZ used a style called in Italian, meaning "short tail.", otherwise known as the
Kamm tail. The principle is that unless an aircraft-like extended tail is incorporated, which is not practical for an automobile, there is little, if any, increase in drag and a marked decrease in lift or even some downforce by simply chopping off a portion of the tail.
Zagato
Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupies an area of 23,000 square metres (250,000 sq ft)- 11,000 ...
had previously proved the success of this tail treatment in their Sprint Zagato sports-racing cars, and it was a natural evolution to adapt this to the Giulia TZ.
The car debuted at the 1963
FISA Monza Cup, where TZs took the first four places in the prototype category. At the beginning of 1964 the TZ was homologated (100 units were needed for homologation) to the Gran Turismo category.
After homologation it started to take more class wins in Europe and North-America. Of the first TZ, 112 units were built between 1963 and 1965.
Only built as limited amount these TZ models are quite collectibles nowadays, listed price around 150,000-200,000 US dollars.
Engine
*1,570 cc
straight-4 DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
112 bhp (82 kW) at 6500 rpm (road trim), 160 bhp (118 kW) (race trim)
Giulia TZ2
A new version of TZ was introduced at the Turin Auto Show in 1964 in the Zagato stand. In order to reinforce the structure and further reduce the car's weight, Zagato replaced the light alloy body with an even more streamlined fibreglass body moulded tight to the chassis providing lower drag and reduced weight of . The new design was called the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2. The TZ2 was only built as racing version; it was equipped with an Autodelta-prepared twin
plug,
dry sump lubrication
A dry-sump system is a method to manage the lubricating motor oil in four-stroke and large two-stroke piston driven internal combustion engines. The dry-sump system uses two or more oil pumps and a separate oil reservoir, as opposed to a conve ...
DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
straight-4 engine
A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...
producing around at 7000 rpm. With this engine the car reached top speed of
.
The rear window was also changed, now single unit rather than three part window in TZ. Development of TZ cars was stopped in the end of 1965, to make room for the new Alfa Romeo GTA racing program. Only 12 TZ2s were built.
The car won the prestigious Gran Turismo Trophy at the 2009
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
Race results
The TZ2 took class win on 25 April 1965 in the 1000 km of Monza, with
Bussinello-
De Adamich finishing seventh overall and first in the GT 1600 category. Also in 1965 it took class victories thanks to
Rolland-
Consten in the 12 Hours of Sebring;
Bianchi-Rolland in the Targa Florio; and Adamich-
"Geki" in the 1000 km of Nürburgring, the 6 Hours of Melbourne, the Giro d'Italia and the Criterium des Cevennes. There were further class wins the following year: at Monza (De Adamich-
Zeccoli), Sebring (
Andrey
Andrey, Andrej or Andrei (in Cyrillic script: Андрей, Андреј or Андрэй) is a form of Andreas/Ἀνδρέας in Slavic languages and Romanian. People with the name include:
*Andrei of Polotsk ( – 1399), Lithuanian nobleman
* ...
-"Geki"), in the Targa Florio (
Pinto-
Todaro) and at the Nürburgring (Bianchi-
Schultze).
TZ3
A homage to the TZ3 was made in two different iterations in 2010, celebrating Alfa Romeo's centenary.
Zagato TZ3 Corsa
The Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa is the track version of the TZ3 (hence the name TZ3 Corsa, Corsa meaning race in Italian) built to celebrate 100 years (a century) of
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
in racing. The Corsa is a
one-off
In the field of vehicles authorized to drive, a one-off vehicle is a vehicle that was manufactured only once. The production of unique vehicles is reduced to one unit in each case.
The easiest cases to analyze are those of cars and motorcycles. Un ...
car that was first presented at, and won, the 2010
Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este
Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este () is a Concours d'Elegance event in Italy for classic and vintage cars. It takes place annually near the Villa d'Este hotel in Cernobbio, on the western shore of Lake Como in northern Italy. Since 2011, the e ...
in Italy. It is based on the
Gillet Vertigo.5 and was made for German collector Martin Kapp.
The car weighs thanks to its carbon fibre frame and hand beaten aluminium body panels and has a dry sump 4.2 litre V8 engine. The car has a 6-speed automated manual gearbox and can attain a top speed of over . It can accelerate from zero to in 3.5 seconds.
The chassis is a carbon-fiber monocoque with some tubular elements. The suspension setup, front and rear, are double wishbones, with pushrod actuated coil springs, and dampers from
Ohlins.
Zagato TZ3 Stradale
The Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale is the road version of the TZ3 (hence the name TZ3 Stradale, stradale meaning road in Italian), designed by Norihiko Harada of
Zagato
Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupies an area of 23,000 square metres (250,000 sq ft)- 11,000 ...
, and was built to celebrate 100 years of Alfa Romeo on the road. The TZ3's chassis is based on the
Dodge Viper ACR-X, and has been re-bodied to suit road conditions. Only nine units of the vehicle have been made.
The TZ3 is powered by the ACR-X's odd-firing 8.4-liter Viper all-aluminum 90° OHV 2-valve V10, but its power has been reduced to at 6,100 rpm, and of torque at 5,000 rpm.
Redline is reached at 6,250 rpm. All of this power is delivered to the rear wheels, via a 6-speed
Tremec
TREMEC (Transmisiones y Equipos Mecánicos SA de CV, formerly Transmission Technology Corporation, TTC) is a manufacturer of automobile transmissions and drivetrain components based in Querétaro, Mexico.
Company
Torque transfer solutions fro ...
TR6060 manual transmission.
The interior design is mainly the same as a regular Viper, but has Alfa Romeo badging.
The body and the frame come from the ACR-X, which are manufactured with SMC & rim panels over a tubular space frame.
The brake discs, which are 2-piece, come from StopTech, and the calipers are from
Brembo.
The steering wheel is rack-and-pinion, with power assist.
The suspension setup for front and rear are A-arms, with coil-over shocks and stabilizer bars.
Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super G ...
2012">
File:Alfa romeo TZ3.jpg
File:2012 Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale (7567996328).jpg