ALFA ROMEO GIULIA TZ
There’s no doubt automotive books are getting bigger, heavier and more expensive, but for Alfisti the ongoing series from German publisher Dingwort Verlag is a treat for which the postman will curse your order of this 8kg masterwork. The latest edition focuses on the Giulia TZ GTs and runs to five volumes and 1500 pages, all packed in a cardboard case with a reinforced handle.
Authors Martin Übelher and Patrick Dasse have compiled a remarkable collection of TZ and TZ2 documents. They combed more than 20 archives to source rare unpublished images of every one of the 124 Giulia TZs, split between 112 TZs and 12 TZ2s. The 10 x 9in format follows previous volumes and showcases its publisher’s characteristically superb reproduction and printing.
Here, volume one focuses on the development from the Conrero 1150 special and the open-top Giulietta GT, which early in 1962 gained a hardtop. Zagato stylist Ercole Spada continually refined the design until it was unveiled at the 1962 Turin Salon, but it would be another 12 months before the Giulia TZ made its competition debut at the ’63 Tour de Corse, with French teams running two red-and-white cars that both failed to finish. These initial 158 pages are packed with detail studies, and testing and colour motor-show images.
Volume one’s final section and volume two cover every competition outing, from the Corsican debut to the 1966 Nürburgring 1000km, where the TZ2 of Lucien Bianchi and Herbert Schultze took the 1600cc class win. This section also features two sensational show cars comprising the Bertone Canguro, which was designed by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro and disastrously smashed up during a promotional shoot, and the Pininfarina dream car styled by Aldo Brovarone. Both of these concepts are now in Japan and rarely seen.
Thanks to Alfa’s press department, many of the test sessions are well covered, including a spring day in 1966 when a pair of TZ2s were shaken down alongside GTAs at Balocco in preparation for the Sebring 12 Hours. Evocative photographs include Carlo Chiti ushering team drivers Russo, Zeccoli, Bussinello and de Adamich.
The final three volumes detail the race record of every TZ and TZ2 chassis. The sagas include some big shunts with these hard-driven GTs, including Deene Brengle’s off at Riverside that required a makeshift rear-body rebuild because the factory was slow to supply a replacement.
Most TZs were finished in red, but the early press car was painted white and came
