{"id":370443,"date":"2013-12-09T08:30:04","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T16:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/?p=57968"},"modified":"2024-01-27T15:27:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T15:27:34","slug":"alfa-romeo-giulia-tz2-driving-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/alfa-romeo-giulia-tz2-driving-report\/","title":{"rendered":"DRIVEN: Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Alfa TZ 2-Much – A Summer Friday Drive on the Monterey Peninsula
\nBy Rick Carey
\nI got a chance to drive an Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2, the ultimate postwar Alfa, at Monterey.
\nThe Monterey week is full of marvelous sights and sounds, but for the most part onlookers are just that, enthusiastic witnesses to an intermittent parade of Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes, Jaguars, Lotuses, Alfas, Allards, Delahayes, Bugattis and all manner and shape of automobiles usually seen in books.
\nWe witness, we smile, we glance quickly in our rear view mirrors while enmeshed in the Route 1 traffic jams, or stop to admire cars usually seen in museums or Concours d’Elegance parked in downtown Monterey.
\nThis year I was one of the fortunate ones who got to drive one of the most rare and distinctive cars on the peninsula, Bill H. Lyon\u2019s 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2, s\/n 750.106.
\nIn Alfa history there are many great cars \u2013 8C Monzas, 6C 1750 Spiders and the great 8C Two-Nines to pick just a few from the prewar era. Postwar there are fewer. None of them rises to the stature of the TZ2.
\nWeighing in at just under 1,700 pounds ready to race, the tube frame, fiberglass body TZ2 had something like 170hp from its 1,582cc dual ignition Giulia engine, a weight\/power ratio of under 10 pounds\/horsepower. Restored in Phil Reilly\u2019s shop with its original engine built to modern standards we had more power and no more weight despite the gorgeous restoration that earned it a spot in the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d\u2019Elegance.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
\n Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2 which 14th and 1st in class at Sebring in 1966 (Bill Stowe photo)\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
\n Alfa Romeo TZ2 at 1967 Monza 1000km\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Raced by Autodelta, it was first in class at the 1965 Monza 1000km driven by Roberto Bussinello, raced at the Targa Florio in 1965 and 1966, finishing 10th overall and 2nd in class in 1966. At Le Mans in 1965 it was, according to Autodelta records, car #63, 14th overall and 1st in class.
\nAt Pebble Beach it was chosen by Gran Turismo producer Kazunori Yamauchi to receive the Gran Turismo Trophy for “the one car that exhibited the best balance of both artistic beauty and performance at the highest level”. It\u2019s the TZ2 anyone can experience in the Gran Turismo simulator on PlayStation. I can attest it is even more exciting in living, breathing, noisy real life.
\nIn 2009 I had helped Bill establish its history, and acquire some of the parts left behind in Steve Forristall\u2019s shop in Texas after he finished racing it. I\u2019d watched it being judged at Pebble Beach, with a certain proprietary eye. In 2013 it was a centerpiece at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering — and my job [sic] was to drive it back from Carmel Valley across the Laureles Summit to Laguna Seca.
\nThere are only eleven TZ2s (plus one chassis used by Bertone for the Canguro concept car.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n