Zagato Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ History

The Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ (Tubolare Zagato) was presented at the 1962 Turin Motor Show and entered production in 1963 as a purpose-built racing sports car. Its tubular spaceframe chassis was fabricated by SAI Ambrosini, while Zagato sculpted the lightweight all-aluminium body — the result weighed little more than 620 kg.

The TZ1 used a twin-cam 1,570 cc engine shared with the Alfa Romeo Giulia road car but prepared for competition; 102 examples were built through 1965. A more radical successor, the TZ2, followed at the 1964 Turin Motor Show with a fibreglass body moulded tightly over the same basic spaceframe, reducing drag and dropping weight further. Autodelta prepared its engine to around 170 bhp at 7,000 rpm. Only 12 TZ2s were built, making it one of the rarest Alfa Romeo racing cars ever produced.

Development of the TZ line ceased at the end of 1965 to make way for Alfa Romeo's new GTA racing programme, though unsold TZ2s were campaigned into 1967. The cars competed at the Targa Florio, Le Mans, and across European GT racing, cementing Zagato's reputation for light, aerodynamically efficient coachwork.