"GTZ" has nothing to do with Gran Turismo. It stands for "Giulia Tubolare [tubular] Zagato. Doesn't that trip nicely off the tongue? For me, this is a good book, but not a great book. It is expensively produced and elegantly designed, with lots of large photos (including color) on high-quality paper stock.
Knowing something of the TZ myself, it was disappointing to see that the author, Vito Witting da Prato, knew nothing of Chuck Stoddard's very successful SCCA seasons in 1964 and 1965. da Pratto wrote, wrongly, that the TZ was not raced in the States. (For the sake of a second edition, if there is one, I corrected this in direct communication with him.) Along the same lines, it was disappointing that the book does not include a table of the car's FIA race results. (da Prato's accounts of Sebring and the Targa Florio are good, and his accounts of LeMans are passable.)
Another complaint is that English is da Pratto's second language. He has lived in the States, and clearly has a command of spoken, idiomatic English. He wrote the book in English. But his command of formal, written, English is insecure and often confusing. It often seems like he's trying to translate Italian into English, particularly technical language.
That said, da Pratto was presented with some unusual challenges. The chassis history of TZ's is not well-documented, sometimes intentionally so by Alfa Romeo, Scuderia St. Ambrosia, and Autodelta. There are differences in perspective and memory among some of the key players in the development of the TZ. da Pratto tries to resolve this somewhat by inserting sections into the book called "The Protagonists Speak." I found those Q & A sections unenlightening and often even more confusing. There are a lot of allusions to, but not clarifications of, internal politics at Alfa Romeo and between Alfa and Zagato and Autodelta.
Having got my carping out of the way, I'd like to say what I really enjoyed about the book. First, the pictures and drawings, many rare and previously unpublished.
da Pratto gives a fine account of the roots of the TZ's design in previous Alfa Romeo models, and its (unusually long) gestation and development. Zagato in particular was pursuing a "true" Kamm tail design, of which the TZ may be the most pure real-world example. It is interesting to think about the TZ as one of the last, most fully-developed concepts of a GT car, like the Ferrari 250 GT SWB or the Porsche 904. The TZ really was dual purpose and could be road driven. As required by the FIA, well over 100 examples of the model were produced.
The TZ2 was, essentially, a different car--a race car. From the outset, it was intended for competition only. Only 12 or so cars were produced. It shared a power train with the TZ, but the frame was highly modified and the body was fiberglass. All TZ2's had limited-slip differentials and close ratio gearboxes; none of them had windshield defrosters. They had dry-sump engine lubrication. They rolled on 13-inch wheels, damped by two-way adjustable Koni shock absorbers. The suspension links were adjustable. TZ2's were 200 kilograms lighter, and 4 inches lower. There were, essentially, no interchangeable parts.
Although the TZ's gestation period was unusually long, it was still (barely) competitive with later, less expensive designs like the Lotus Elan. The TZ2, an "evolution" of the TZ, seems to have been doomed before it raced. For one thing, the rear-engine revolution was well underway by 1965. For another, the FIA by then required 500 examples (not 100) to be produced to qualify as a GT car. So the TZ2 found itself running in the Sports class with cars like the Porsche 906. And by 1966, Alfa Romeo, encouraged by the results of the TZ, was back in big-time sports prototype racing with the Tipo 33.
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