Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

The Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ (also known as the Alfa Romeo TZ or Tubolare Zagato) was a sports car and racing car manufactured by Alfa Romeo 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 and carried a 105 series chassis number,[2] but was a purpose built sports racing car, with a tubular spaceframe chassis built in the province of Perugia by SAI Ambrosini and the light all-aluminium bodywork was made by Zagato, final assembly was made Delta of Udine, with Carlo Chiti 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

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 620 kg. 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 1570 cc DOHC straight-4 engine producing around 170 bhp at 7000 rpm. With this engine the car reached top speed of 245 km/h.[7] 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.[7]

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-"Geki"), in the Targa Florio (Pinto-Todaro) and at the Nürburgring (Bianchi-Schultze).[3]

Prominent Australian racing team of the 1960s, Sydney based Mildren Racing run by former race driver and Australia's official Alfa Romeo importer of the time Alec Mildren, also raced the Giulia TZ2 in sports car racing. Painted in the teams traditional bright yellow, the car was driven to victory and placings in sports car races in Australia by the teams driver Kevin Bartlett.[8][9]

Bartlett and Doug Chivas drove the Mildren Racing TZ2 to third place in the 1966 Rothmans 12 Hour International Sports Car Race held at the Surfers Paradise International Raceway in Queensland, Australia. Bartlett and Chivas covered 471 laps, 23 behind the winning Ferrari 250LM of Jackie Stewart and local racer Andy Buchanan.[10]

manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
aka	Alfa Romeo TZ
production	1963–1967 112 produced
assembly	Italy: Udine (Delta of Udine:1963) Settimo Milanese (Autodelta: 1964–1967)
predecessor	Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ
successor	Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA (Giulia TZ road trim) Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 (Giulia TZ race trim)
class	Sports car (S) Racing car
body style	2-door coupé
layout	Front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive
engine	1.6 L DOHC I4
transmission	5-speed manual
wheelbase	2200 mm
length	3950 mm TZ 3680 mm TZ2
width	1509 mm TZ 1600 mm TZ2
height	1199 mm TZ 1020 mm TZ2
weight	660 kg (TZ) 620 kg (TZ2)
related	Alfa Romeo Canguro Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Sport
designer	Ercole Spada‡R1R‡ at Zagato (TZ1 and TZ2) Aldo Brovarone for Pininfarina

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Giulia TZ

Engine

Giulia TZ2

Race results

TZ3

Zagato TZ3 Corsa

Zagato TZ3 Stradale

See also

References