Italian design and engineering house Zagato has released a second TZ3 model, the TZ3 Stradale following a gorgeous one-off called the TZ3 Corsa, revealed last year. A little background for those who don’t read Small Italian Coachbuilders Weekly: Zagato’s TZ3 models are being built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo, and pay homage to the original Zagato-bodied Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ and TZ2 sports cars from the 1960s.
Zagato labels the new Stradale an “avante-garde design exercise,” despite its track-ready Dodge Viper ACR underpinnings. (For reference, last year’s TZ3 Corsa used underpinnings from the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.) The ACR bones show through in a few places, namely the car’s prodigious width and well-defined shoulders, windshield surround, staggered front–rear tire sizes, side-exit exhaust, and Viper side-view mirrors. The ZT3 Stradale also inherits the ACR’s 600-hp, 8.4-liter V-10 and six-speed manual, creating what Zagato calls the “first American Alfa Romeo.”
Don’t think that the TZ3 Stradale is all Dodge, though. The ACR chassis is wrapped in classically-proportioned, long hood-short deck bodywork rendered in carbon fiber. (That the Viper shares these proportions no doubt helps.) The rear features Zagato’s signature Kamm tail, highlighted by a blacked-out panel with an integrated vertical rear window that augments the gunslit backlight. The taillights look to be taken straight off of an Alfa 8C, while the wheels recall various Alfas with their rotary-phone-dial look. The b-pillar is hidden behind the glass, giving the greenhouse a pillarless look, and the front-end treatment is more aggressive than the “track car” TZ3 Corsa’s, with more chiseled headlights and an Alfa grille with exaggerated chamfering. The Stradale is very attractive, but there are some parts that look like they need more work, like the unfinished-looking, gaping hole of a grille out front, the unadorned fender and hood vents, and the De Lorean–style inset windows.
As for the TZ3 Stradale’s pricing, that’s a number only nine customers will find out for certain.
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