My Continuing Obsession With The TZ

I"ve posted about the Alfa GTZ before.  The link below is to a good video walk-around for those who share my enthusiasm for "little dog" race cars (especially GT's).  Alas, no engine sounds.  And this one obviously has camshafts as radical as the original race car's: the rebuilt engine has a rev limit of 8000 r.p.m., 1500 more than the '64-'65 car.

If the current owner is correct that this is an ex-Auto Delta car, it was not only a racing TZ but a factory-supported car.  With historic race cars, provenance can be cloudy.  Engines and drive trains blew, chassis got crashed and repaired or scrapped, subsequent owners modified the cars.  This car is not a completely original specificaton: it lacks the closeable flaps over the upper radiator air intake and has additional cooling slots.  And some modern interior equipment.

The GTZ is sometimes called "the baby [Ferrari] GTO."  Like the GTO, it had a production-based engine, an aluminum body, and a lighter-than-previous space frame.  And the two cars look somewhat alike, although the GTO's body was done by Scaglietti and the TZ's by Zagato.  The "baby" theme is carried through today: while TZ's cost maybe 10% of  a GTO's auction price, they're not cheap.  About 125 were built, so they're rare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x5u_C45J_w

The 1964 Sebring class-winning Alfa GTZ in the Collier Museum today, restored to its as-raced-at-Sebring trim.  Alfa
brought four identical cars to Sebring, thus the yellow identification stripes on the fender for timing and scoring.

The Stoddard/Kaser GTZ hauling the mail to a class win at Sebring.  Before cool-suits: want some relief from the heat?
Hold the vent windows full-open with rubber bands.  Many racing TZ's had sliding panels in their plexiglass side
windows.  But not the team cars at Sebring in '64, or the TZ that Stoddard raced in the States in '64 and '65.