Auto Italia, Issue 171 (May 19-June15, 2010) in an article by Johann Lemercier entitled /The Shape of things to come?/ write about the Pininfarina 2uettottanta and the TZ3 Corsa Zagato. As per this article, the car was designed by Zagato's chief designer Norihiko Harada in 2003 and progressed as far as a full scale mock-up. It unfortunately failed to interest the powers that be a Fiat. However, on a visit to Zagato, Martin Kapp, a collector of Alfas bodied by Zagato, was shown the styling mock-up and fell in love with the design. So much so that he commissioned Zagato to build a functioning which could be driven both the road and also have the performance required for use on the race track. The article states that the car uses an aluminum body over the carbon fiber shell of a GT2 race car with front and rear sub-frames in tubing (What type of tubing isn't mentioned.) with Ohlins push-rod racing suspension all around. The motor is derived from the 4.2 liter version of the Ferrari V8 as raced by Maserati in the GranSport Trofeo series, matched to the same 6-speed sequential racing gearbox. Published figures indicate a power output of 435hp and a top speed of 300 km/hr (186 mph).
So yes, there are tubes used in the cars constructions, but does it really matter as Zagato can in reality call it whatever they want to call it. Ben Ament, Good luck on your head gasket replacement. Will you be down for Wheels of Italy on 8/22 in Minneapolis. I'll try to talk Tom Zat into bringing over his 2600 Berlina Staff Car which will be making it's public debut at il Rally Centenario Alfa Romeo 1910-2010 on July 31st. Ciao, Ed Solstad Proud owner of a Dauphine Alfa Romeo replica among other things. :-) -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
