Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ documentation and register by Martin Übelher and Patrick Dasse.

Sixty years ago, in November 1963, Alfa Romeo’s Giulia TZ celebrated its competition debut in the Tour de Corse. The "Tubolare Zagato" – a reference to the tube frame chassis as well as the body designer – was to become one of the most successful models in the long list of race winners from Alfa Romeo. 

The book consists of five volumes, totaling 1500 pages.

The first two volumes document in painstaking detail the development of the Giulia TZ and the racing history of the works cars:

"Giulia TZ - Volume one"
300 pages, 329 black and white photos, 53 colour photos, and one contemporary document 

"Giulia TZ - Volume two"
300 pages, 318 black and white photos and 73 colour photos. 

Volumes 3, 4 and 5 contain a complete registry of all Giulia TZs ever built, as well as the corresponding changes of ownership, registration numbers and race participation up to the end of homologation in 1974, insofar these can be attributed to individual cars. Volume 5 also contains an appendix with various contemporary documents, including homologation forms as well as a technical bulletin covering race preparation.

"Giulia TZ - Volume three" 
300 pages with 258 black and white photographs, 62 colour photographs and one contemporary document.

"Giulia TZ - Volume four"
300 pages, 214 black and white photos, 71 colour photos and four contemporary documents

"Giulia TZ - Volume five" 
300 pages with 132 black and white photos, 40 colour photos and 133 contemporary documents.

Dr. Marco Fazio, former director of the factory archives (the "Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo – Centro Documentazione") allowed us to examine previously unreleased documents related to the Giulia TZ; their evaluation entailed several years of work. The majority of the photographs reproduced in the book have not been previously published. 

Size: 29 x 24,8 cm  

Weight: 8,2 kg

Language: English – German

Authors: Martin Übelher & Patrick Dasse

ISBN 978-3-87166-086-3

Free shipping within Germany.

REVIEWS

Auto Italia (UK), November 2023, Chris Rees
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ Documentation & Register

» It seems fitting that this new book on the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ should be published exactly 60 years after the model made its competition debut on the Tour de Corse in November 1963. The Giulia TZ – meaning ‘Tubolare Zagato’, a reference to its tubular chassis and coachbuilder – is under-represented in book publishing. Forget that only 112 TZs were built from 1963 to 1967, plus a dozen more TZ2s; the importance of the TZ in Alfa history, as well as that of Zagato and motorsport in general, is much greater. Indeed, the TZ was one of the most successful racing Alfa Romeos of the 1960s. So what have authors Martin Übelher and Patrick Dasse delivered in this new work on the TZ? A few statistics hint at their achievement. There are five volumes in the box set; the total number of pages reaches 1500; and the set weighs over 20kg in total – all beautifully packaged in a bespoke cardboard box sealed with a Quadrifoglio. It’s taken a full decade to get this book to print, and it’s easy to see why. The first two volumes concern the development of the Giulia TZ and the racing history of the works cars. The following three volumes consist of a full registry of every Giulia TZ ever built, with changes of ownership and registration number included for all. The fifth volume contains an appendix with various contemporary documents, including homologation forms and a technical bulletin covering race preparation. Easily the most impressive aspect of this work is the comprehensive detailing of every race in which each car participated – “insofar as these can be attributed to individual cars”, say the authors. It’s important to say that races are detailed only up to the end of homologation in 1974. There’s much more to be said about racing after that date but, as the authors say, “that’s another story”. Volume Six, perhaps? Anyone familiar with Dingwort’s other books on Alfa Romeo Giulias will recognise the design and approach of this new box set. The plethora of images is almost overwhelming: there are 1251 black-and-white photographs and 299 colour ones, making a total of 1550 images, most never previously published. The colour images are superb, making the liveries really come alive. Every image is strictly from the period, incidentally, which gives the book a vital flavour of authenticity throughout. The quantity of text (in both English and German) is proportionally quite light, with few passages of storytelling. Instead, the story is mostly told by the documentation, which is painstaking in its detail. Dr Marco Fazio, the former director of the factory archives (Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo – Centro Documentazione) allowed the authors to examine previously unreleased Giulia TZ documents. Of the many delights we found in the book, we’ll pick out just a few. Chassis 750002 was driven by journalists at an industry ‘Foreign Car Test Day’ in Britain in May 1964, with John Bolster declaring: “It is impossible to put into words the combination of sheer cornering power with the ultimate in controllability.” Chassis 750006 had its paint removed in 1967 “to reduce weight”. The precise positions of each car overall of the Le Mans 24 Hours are listed religiously on an hour-by-hour basis. And then there are images of cars after their inevitable big racing accidents – chassis 750007 and 750008, for instance, both suffering cataclysmic incidents during 1964. Of course, €349 is an extraordinary outlay for a motoring book but this is absolutely the definitive work on the TZ. We don’t generally do a ‘Book of the Year’ award but if we did, this would be well up there in the running. «

speedreaders.info (US), November 2023, Sabu Advani
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

 » (English / German) Ding-ding-ding, the prize goes to Dingwort Verlag (Publishing, to non-Germans)! Once again Dingwort chief Patrick Dasse has raised the bar, this time with a pentalogy, a five-book set about one single, rare Alfa Romeo model, the Tubolare Zagato versions 1 and 2 of which not even 130 were built 1963–1967. Since these cars have a great competition history, anyone with motorsports interests will find here drivers and events that are relevant to other contexts. So, grab your brief(book)case by the nifty handle, and off we go to work! Work, because these books are not coffee table fluff but are serious, fact- and data-driven, and brimming with things you will not/could not have seen and/or may not have known before. The authors have done the heavy lifting for you, all you need to do is look sharp, or rather sharply–for instance, if you saw at a glance that the cover cars are all different, you’ll do fine. Speaking of lifting, torque your wrists to just over 16 pounds. The combination of author name/s and subject matter will be familiar to Alfa Romeo folk because of their 2018 cooperation on Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 / 1967 and before that on their epic 2012 overhaul/reimagination of Tony Adriaensens’ most unusual Alleggerita. Moreover, the TZ book covers immediately make a visual connection to another set of Alfa Romeo books by Dasse, numbering eight by now, the Tipo 105 series, because all these models are contemporaries, are conceptually related, and share parts. Just imagine what having 14 similar-looking books on the shelf–a good foot and a half–would do for your bragging rights … But, there are more important reasons to want these books, namely and particularly something they all have in common: heretofore unpublished archival material courtesy of Dasse’s relationship with Dr. Marco Fazio, director of Alfa Romeo’s Centro Documentazione. Already the first book in the series, Arese, seemed to hint at a bottomless barrel of photos and documents and the interesting thing about them is not that they exist at all but that they were never properly filed, ergo remained overlooked. It is not clear to what extent these archival materials were annotated in period, but even if they had been, it would be a monumental task for Übelher/Dasse to verify the data and to weed out inevitable errors. Analyzing the photo credits reveals that only maybe a fifth of the ca. 1700 visuals in these 1500 pages are from Alfa Romeo, the rest is from a variety of period sources, of which only a small number is not specifically attributable and state only “collection of” as a source. Each book is roughly 300 pages; they are not available individually (and share the same ISBN) so we will review them as a set, and refer to them in the singular. The book has been in the making for most of a decade. Right from the start, i.e. the Foreword, it sets a brisk pace. Written by Übelher it answers all the questions a curious reader would have about the how and why and who behind it. If all you have on the shelf is Vito Witting da Prato’s 2017 book Alfa Romeo TZ-TZ2: Born to Win (Giorgio Nada Editore) you will see here a level of magnification of an entirely different order. As in the earlier books, at the core are extensively captioned photos although here there is quite a bit more introductory or summary text. Vols I and II detail the development of the Giulia TZ and the racing history of the works cars. Both aspects are well illustrated, especially the former which will show, for instance, components and assemblies from various angles. The photo captions in this part of the book are enormously detailed, calling out nano detail that even a TZ aficionado might have missed. It is obvious but bears spelling out: it’s one thing for an author to write about “stuff,” even fact-based historical events; the narrative/interpretative process itself can hide ambiguities, omissions, even mistakes. But a photo leaves no wiggle room: car x and driver y at event z in 19_ _ doing _ _ _ _. Or, this part goes here and does that. You’re either right, or wrong. And the evidence is right in front of everyone’s eyes. Beginning with Vol III and running through IV and most of V, the book takes on an entirely different character and becomes basically a run-on list in year, and within that, chassis number order. It is a complete registry of all TZs built, and for lack of a better way of saying it, has limited entertainment value and is primarily intended “to correctly assign the specific cars to the many racing entries.” Our earlier reference to “work” comes into play here because the reader who will most benefit from this data is the historian/researcher. The whole panoply of caveats applies re. data fidelity or even availability–it can only be as complete as the source material allows. Also, realize that owner information (including registration numbers) and race participation (date, event, location, race number, VIN, registration number, driver/team, notes) is in list form, not narrative. Cars that were exclusively used as private road transportation will have the shortest entries and generally no photos whereas show cars/prototypes and racers have the most coverage, sometimes spanning pages. The captions of the photos in this portion of the book mainly consist of strings of data and call out no features of cars or identify people other than the drivers, leaving it to the reader to make their own observations. About half of Vol. V is a multi-part Appendix containing facsimiles of various contemporary documents such as a dimensioned TZ drawing, homologation forms for several years (incl. supplements), technical bulletins (a very few of them have annotations in English but all the docs are of course in Italian), spec sheets, sample pages from the spare parts catalog, a 2nd-edition user manual (incl. a b/w wiring diagram), and a few items of correspondence. Just to say it once more, the casual reader will find all this rather perplexing if not taxing. In that regard, it is all the more brave that a publisher can see the service to history of his book even if there is no clear business case. If a book is a tool for a job, this book is a precision instrument. The right sort of reader will see it as the landmark achievement it is. Obviously, a TZ owner must have this book. If you don’t have one you’ll need to get creative finding an excuse for spending €349 so that incredulous spouses don’t call a sanity hearing. But, hey, don’t think of it as “spending” but “investing” because one day the laws of supply and demand will swing in your favor. If TZs are now your dream car, do churn the Interweb for Zagato’s one-off 2022 Giulia TZ tribute car … « 

Octane (GB), February 2024, Marc Dixon
Book of the Month: Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ 

» German publisher Dingwort blew us away five years ago when it simultaneously released not one but half a dozen hefty hardback picture books devoted to the 105-series Alfa Romeos: one each on the Giulia saloon, Giulia GT coupé, Spider, Junior Z and Montreal (which was developed on the 105 platform), plus a sixth about the Arese factory during 105 production. It felt only right to award them joint Book of the Month status in Octane 185. Since then we've had further books on the right-hand-drive 105s and the Berlinas (reviewed in Octane 231), and the latest release is a five-volume - count 'em - boxed set devoted to the Giulia TZ. Thankfully, the publisher has equipped their sturdy cardboard enclosure with a plastic handle; weighing in at 8.2kg, this set gives your arm muscles a useful work-out each time you pick it up. Given that each individual book runs to 300 pages, and that they average between 250-300 photographs per book, it goes without saying that together they form a catalogue raisonné of the TZ. Volume One describes the TZ's conception and introduction, plus racing activities up to mid-1964; Volume Two covers the racing from then through to mid-1966; while Volumes Three to Five contain a detailed chassis record of each car, with information on its ownership and race history until the end of homologation in 1974. In addition, Volume Five includes reproductions of homologation and technical papers. Naturally, a lot of this is primarly useful as reference material for the historian or fortunate TZ owner. But the sheer wealth of images presented here will fascinate any Alfa fan, too - and most of them have not previously been published. For this we can thank the generosity of Alfa Romeo's archive, which made a fantastic treasure trove available to co-author Patrick Dasse after he first happened upon it in 2011. You'd think endless pictures of TZs might become a little repetitive but it's the background settings and the detail that entrance. So, for example, in a 1964 shot of the Giulia 1600 Canguro ('Kangaroo') show car, outside Bertone's Grugliasco factory, you can just discern a - presurnably rather miserable - kangaroo in a wooden cage, some distance behind it. Then there's a pic of a TZ at Silverstone in 1964 for a UK journalists' Foreign Car Test Day, with John Bolster partially concealing an Alfa Romco-stickered Bedford Donnobile camper. Oh, the glamour. Joking aside, these fabulous books (which have text in German and English, by the way) maintain the extremely high standards of their predecessors and are certain to be instant collector's items. « 

Classic & Sports Car (GB), 2024, Mick Walsh
Book of the month: 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 dass 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 du ring a promotional shoot, and the Pininfaria 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 to England for the SMMT test day at Silverstone, where John Bolster truly relished it. 'A competition car of this calibre is an incomparable companion.' enthused Bolster in Autosport, but in 1972 chassis 750002 was stolen in Turin and subsequently vanished. The fifth volume focuses on the final batch of TZ2s, including the most-raced chassis, 750110. The last section reprints homologation papers, spares catalogues, factory drawings and the factory owner's manual. With original TZs now rarely raced, this wonderful obsessive production is vivid record of its heyday. « 

Tazio Magazine (BE), Spring 2024, Dirk De Jager
Alfa Romeo TZ

 » German publisher, Dingwort Verlag came to the Alftsti's atten­tion over a decade ago, when it updated Tony Adriaensens' Alfa GTA book, Alleggeritta, and added a third volume. Since then, Dingwort has published a further 11 works on Alfa Romeo. Its most recent release is a whopping, five-volume set that details the history of the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ. That amounts to more than 8 kg in total, with each volume running to 300 pages. Many of the images are previously unseen and reproduced in excellent quality. Volumes one and two focus on the development and racing history of the TZs - in German and English. Further volumes document (in English only} in­dividual chassis histories of each car, even if the authors have limited themselves to early history, known first-ownership and racing exploits. The final volume ends, halfway through, with the TZ2 models; its remainder presents fine reproductions of technical papers and homologation forms. None of the books are text-heavy, but the quality of the research and documentation is outstanding. The number of high-quality images alone invites many an evening of quiet contemplation. At €349, the price is heftytoo, but it gets you five books of1500 pages with about 1400 images. TZ is a worthy addition to Dingwort's impressive collection of high-quality books on Alfa Romeo. « 

autoliefhebbers.be (BE), September 2023, Vincent Arpons
Nieuwe boeken voor de autofan. 

» In deze aflevering van de boekenrubriek wil ik je graag twee bijzondere edities presenteren, waarvan de kwaliteit mijn voorraad aan superlatieven heeft uitgeput. Aan de Alfisti en de liefhebbers van zeldzame edities zou ik de raad geven om hun familie en kennissen tijdig in te lichten omtrent deze prachtige nieuwe titels: Kerstmis en Nieuwjaar komen eraan, ‘be prepared’ zou ik zeggen… Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ. Met deze editie is uitgever Dingwort uit Hamburg niet aan zijn proefstuk, zo was er eerder al de schitterende reeks over de Alfa Romeo Tipo 105. Maar nu overtreffen auteurs Patrick Dasse en Martin Übelher zichzelf in de vijfdelige uitgave over de TZ/TZ2. Dit ultra complete werk is net als de Alfa 105-reeks gebaseerd op originele Alfa Romeo documenten (met toestemming van Alfa Romeo-archivaris Dottore Marco Fazio) aangevuld met informatie van meerdere bronnen. In de vijf volumes, allemaal boeken met hetzelfde formaat als die van de Tipo 105, brengen de auteurs alle mogelijke details over de TZ’s. In deel 1 en 2 beschrijven de auteurs de historische aanloop naar de wondermooie TZ. Dat gebeurt met interessante foto’s en historische documenten. Dan volgen foto’s met passend commentaar over het wedstrijdpalmares, de deelnames van het Autodelta-team en de race-geschiedenis. Vanaf volume 3 komt ieder chassisnummer met zijn historiek aan bod, mooi geïllustreerd met zeldzame foto’s. Een echt monnikenwerk als je het mij vraagt! In het laatste deel vind je tevens alle technische fiches, onderdeelcatalogen, homologatiedocumenten en de user manual. Verder is er info met foto’s over de aanwezigheid van de TZ/TZ2 op de verschillende autosalons (Turijn, Parijs, Genève enz.) en wordt verwezen naar de afgeleide modellen zoals de Canguro van Bertone of Pininfarina’s Giulia Sport Speciale. Het 1500 bladzijden tellend geheel vormt een hoogst interessant en compleet relaas over een van Alfa’s boeiendste types. Het wordt gepresenteerd en geleverd in een verzorgd kartonnen koffertje. Kortom, het is ‘straordinario, eccellente’: een must voor de Alfa-fan. « 

Il Riscione (BE), 2023, Leo van Hoorick
X-MAS SHOPPING 

» Het begon met Alleggerita, het boek van Tony Adriaensens over de Alfa GTA-familie uit 1994. lntussen heeft het een cultstatus en is nagenoeg onvindbaar. Patrick Dasse, een Duitse Alfa fanaat en uitgever wist Tony ervan te overtuigen om hem de rechten en de iconografie te verkopen om het boek opnieuw uit te geven . Dat resulteerde in 2012 in een box met drie boeken: de herwerkte originele Alleggerita, een deel met de technische documentatie en een "Register". Daarmee is het verhaal nog niet afgelopen. Zopas ver­scheen een box over de legendarische Giulia TZ. Het is net 60 jaar geleden dat de "Tubolare Zagato" voor het eerst aan een race deelnam: de Tour de Corse in november 1963. De naam verwijst naar het buizenframe enerzijds, en zijn bouwer anderzijds. Het werd één van de meest succesvolle modellen uit de Alfa racegeschiedenis. Van de eerste versie, de TZ1 met aluminium carrosserie, werden origineel 112 ex. gebouwd. Daarna volgde nog een TZ2 met glasvezelcarrosserie, enkel bestemd voor de competitie, uiterlijk te herkennen aan de achterruit uit één stuk i.p.v. drie. Hiervan werden slechts twaalf stuks gebouwd. De box is samengesteld uit niet minder dan vijf boeken. De eerste twee delen beschrijven tot in het kleinste detail de ontwikkeling en de racegeschiedenis van de fabriekswagens. Volume 3, 4 en 5 bevatten een compleet regis­ter van alle Giulia TZ die er ooit werd gebouwd, inclusief de wisseling van eigenaars, de registratienummers en eventuele deelname aan races, en dat tot het aflopen van de homologatieperiode in 1974. Volume 5 bevat ook een appendix met een overzicht van historische documenten, waaronder ook homologatiefiches en technische verslagen m.b.t. het prepareren voor races. Elk van deze volumes telt 300 bladzijden en een schat aan historische foto's waarvan vele nooit eerder werden gepubliceerd. « 

l'automobile classica (IT), February 2024, Paolo Sormani
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ 

» Èstato un anno lungo e difficile il 2023. Ma anche se il Natale è ormai solo un ricordo lontano, può sempre valere la pena farsi un regalo. Magari esagerando con l’opera “Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ - Box-Set”. Cinque volumi in cofanetto per l’opera definitiva sulla Giulia TZ, per complessive 1500 pagine. Occorre dare una spolverata all’inglese o al tedesco, per chi li sa leggere, ma il corredo iconografico e la mole di informazioni meritano uno sfoglio attento. I primi due volumi documentano in modo minuzioso lo sviluppo della “Tubolare Zagato”, il debutto nel novembre del 63 al Tour de Corse e la storia agonistica. I volumi tre, quattro e cinque contengono il registro di tutte le TZ costruite, compresi i relativi passaggi di proprietà, i numeri d’immatricolazione e le partecipazioni alle gare fino alla fine dell’omologazione nel 1974. Il quinto volume comprende infine un’appendice con vari documenti contemporanei, tra cui i moduli di omologazione e un bollettino tecnico sulla preparazione finalizzata alle gare. «

Austro Classic (AT), Ausgabe 6/2023
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ 

» Bücher über Auto­marken gibt es sehr viele, Bücher über ein­zelne Typen auch noch reichlich, aber dass über einen Typ, von dem - inklusive wie­der auf gebaute Fahrzeuge, die eine neue Chassisnummer bekamen - 117 Stück ge­baut wurden, nicht nur ein Buch, sondern gleich fünf(!) Bände zu je 300 Seiten - also in Summe 1.500(!) Seiten mit einem Gewicht von stolzen 8,2 kg - das gibt es wohl nur beim Dingwort Verlag ... Anhand unglaublicher 1.250 SW- sowie rund 300 Farbabbildungen und Dutzende historischer Dokumenten wird die gan­ze (Renn-)Geschichte des Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ - für jede einzelne Chassis­nummer - detailliert dargestellt. Fazit: Würden wir ein "Buch des Jahres" verge­ben - wir hätten es gefunden. « 

autobuch.guru (DE), Oktober 2023, Marco Rassfeld
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ 

» Der Hamburger Dingwort Verlag hat in vielen Bücher schon einige Modelle des italienischen Herstellers Alfa Romeo vorgestellt. Dabei sorgte man immer für eine einzigartige Dokumentation, welche oft in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Museo Storico Alfa Romeo entstand. Nun ist ein Titel über den Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ erschienen, der das außergewöhnliche Sportcoupé in gleich fünf Bänden vorstellt. Dabei sei zunächst auf die Verpackung eingegangen, denn schon beim Auspacken beginnt die Entdeckung eines besonderen Titels. Stilvoll verpackt sind die Bücher in einem Umkarton, der zugleich als ständige Ablage für die fünf Bücher genutzt werden kann. Versiegelt mit einem Aufkleber, der das berühmte vierblätterige Kleeblatt trägt, ist der Karton zudem mit dem Buchtitel und den Autoren bedruckt. Auch das Verlagslogo sowie die ISBN-Nummer lassen sich noch entdecken. Ein eingearbeiteter Tragegriff erleichtert das Handling mit dem unglaublichen 8,2 Kilogramm schweren Paket. Geöffnet kann man der Reihe nach auf die fünf Bücher zugreifen, welche sich im Stil der bisherigen Bücher über die Modelle aus der Tip 105-Serie zeigen. So gibt es jeweils eine Seitenansicht von individuellen Modellen der Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ zu entdecken. Dabei ist der Hintergrund im edlen Gold gehalten und unterstreicht den hohen Anspruch. Auf den jeweiligen Titeln findet sich immer auch der Hinweis auf die beiden Autoren und die Bandnummer dieser Buchreihe wieder. Auch auf dem Rücken ist diese Nummer wiederzufinden, um eine deutlich Unterscheidung auch im offenen Bücherregal zu ermöglichen. Alle Bücher tragen einen Schutzumschlag, aber auch der Bezug selbst wurde mit dem selben Motiv realisiert. Schon beim ersten Auspacken kann man somit schon viel erkennen und kann erahnen, dass es wohl kaum eine umfassendere Darstellung von einem einzelnen Automobil geben kann. Die Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ ist in der Reihe der Tipo 105-Modelle fraglos etwas besonderes und wurde mit Blick auf den Einsatz im Motorsport entwickelt. Es ist zugleich das letzte Tipo 105-Modell von dem im Dingwort Verlag bislang noch kein einzelnes Buch erhältlich war. Die Bücher sind, wie schon die erhältlichen Titel, in zwei Sprachen umgesetzt und enthält neben dem deutschen auch englischen Text. Dies macht das Werk auch für die breite Fanbasis der internationalen Alfisti interessant. Zum Auftakt folgt in Band 1 nach den Danksagungen das Inhaltsverzeichnis, welches in jedem Band individuell ist. Im Vorwort geht dann Martin Übelher als einer der Autoren auf die langwierige Entstehung dieses Werkes ein. Dabei wird der Anspruch an eine komplette Dokumentation der Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ hier sehr deutlich wiedergegeben. Die folgende Einleitung geht auf die Geschichte und Entwicklung des Modells ein. In dieser wird der wichtige Einsatz im Motorsport als Werks- sowie als Kundenfahrzeug deutlich und auch deren Vorläufer genannt. Gemeinsam mit Abarth arbeitete Alfa Romeo an einen neuen Sportmodell mit Gitterrohrrahmen als Basis. Auf dem Turiner Salon im Jahr 1958 wurde der Alfa Romeo-Abarth 1000 erstmals der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert. Doch das Modell verschwand schnell wieder und Alfa Romeo setzt auf mehr Hubraum, so geht das Buch in der Folge auch auf den Conrero 1150 ein, welcher einen Motor von Alfa Romeo nutzte. In der Folge entschied sich Alfa Romeo für den Einsatz in der internationalen FIA-Meisterschaft für GT-Wagen mit einem Modell mit Gitterohr-Rahmen. Dazu nutzte man zunächst die Motorisierung der Giulietta um die Prototypen zu testen. Schon von diesen, bislang genannten Modellen finden sich im Buch sehr viele, zeitgenössische Bilder wieder. Der Leser kann eine bildreiche Reise durch die Entwicklung hin zur Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ aufnehmen. Mit der Vorstellung der Giulia TI im Juni 1962 kam auch ein neuer Motor. Diesen adaptierte man auch gleich in den Prototypen, der dann erstmal das Kürzel GTZ tragen sollte. Dieser feierte im Herbst des gleichen Jahres auf dem Turiner Salon seine Publikums-Premiere. Die endgültige Form und letzte technische Details waren aber noch nicht gefunden und es sollte auch noch bis zum Anlauf der Serienproduktion dauern … Doch der Fokus des Modells sollte der Motorsport sein und trotz der noch nicht gebauten, zur Homologation erforderlichen 100 Exemplare wandte man sich an die FIA. Denn im Jahr 1964 wollte man in der GT-Kategorie am Start stehen. Schon vorher feierte die Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ ihr Renndebüt, bei der Tour de Corse im November 1963. Nachdem die Modelle hier das Ziel nicht erreichten konnten, folgte der große Erfolg mit einem ersten Siege zwei Wochen später in Monza. Es sollte der Beginn einer beeindruckenden Renn-Karriere sein … Diese und auch alle weiteren, nur denkbaren Ereignisse rund um die Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ finden sich in den fünf Bänden wieder. In chronologischer Reihenfolge kann der Leser die Entwicklung von der ersten Idee über einige Prototypen bis zur Klein-Serien-Fertigung bei Auto-Delta nachvollziehen. Mit dem Ende der offiziellen Werkseinsätze im Motorsport aber endet Band 2 und die mit unglaublich viele Aufnahmen gezeigte Reise. Die Weiterentwicklung zum TZ2 ist hierbei wie selbstverständlich inbegriffen. In Band 3 und Band 4 findet sich dann eine komplettes Chassis-Register wieder. Hier kann der Leser alles zu einem bestimmten Chassis nachvollziehen, von den Einsätzen im Motorsport oder den Besitzerwechseln mit den entsprechenden Kennzeichen ist hier alles zu finden. Dazu gibt es auch hier viele Bilder, welche selbstverständlich auch das jeweilige Chassis zeigen. Band 5 komplettiert diese Chassis-Register und rundet die vollständige Darstellung dieses besonderen kleinen Sportwagens mit noch weiteren Details ab. So findet man hier die Zeichnungen zu den beiden Modellen und die Homologationen für die verschiedenen Rennklassen. Dazu gibt es noch technische Rundschreiben, die offiziellen technischen Daten und auch ein Blick in den Teilekatalog sowie die Bedienungsanleitung runden die wirklich komplette Darstellung gelungen ab. «