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| www.QV500.com - Alfa Romeo TZ2 Part 2: World Manufacturers Championship 1965 - 67 |
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Despite a brief international career that saw these cars contest a mere 11 rounds of the World Manufacturers Championship, the TZ2 quickly managed to establish an enviable reputation. With seven class wins including an unbeaten year in 1966, Alfa Romeo must have been suitably happy with the performance of their official racing department. Run solely by the works until 1967, it was with a team of three Autodelta entries that the TZ2 made its debut at 1965's Le Mans 24 Hours. All three qualified well amid Porsche and Ferrari prototypes, but apart from their early pace, it was a pretty unfortunate weekend. |
| The first to retire was Teodoro Zeccoli who put his #43 car into the Mulsanne sandbacks within a couple of hours, the Italian stripping down to his underpants and digging frantically in blazing sunshine, all of which was to no avail as his car remained beached. Next to go was the #42 car of Carlo Zuccoli and 'Geki', the latter retiring with transmission problems before his teammate had a chance to drive. With 22 hours still to run, Autodelta were down to their last TZ2 which mercifully lasted into Sunday morning before bearing trouble forced Roberto Bussinello to withdraw at 9:30am. Despite a triple retitrement, it hadn't been an unmitigated disaster for the Milanese cars and they would be back for 1966's Sebring 12 Hours. However, despite the TZ2 taking its maiden win in Florida, the race was overshadowed by the death of four spectators and GT40 racer, Bob McLean. Four cars had been entered by Autodelta, one of which was run under the banner of Filippo Theodoli. Just the 'Geki' / Gaston Andrey #63 machine finished, this in a creditable 14th position overall after gearbox problems, a dodgy head gasket and an oil leak had sidelined the other three cars. At Monza's 1000km race, Andrea de Adamich put in a storming performance during the early stages, the Italian admirably holding his own against drastically more powerful prototypes and being rewarded with a fine 11th overall, the TZ2's second class win. |
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Sicily's 1966 Targa Florio saw the TZ2 have arguably its finest hour as despite torrential rain throughout much of the weekend leading to certain parts of the track resembling a farmyard, the #126 Alfa of Enrico Pinto and Nino Todaro came home fourth overall - beaten only by a pair of factory Porsche 906's and a works 206 S Dino. Moreover, tenth and 13th place finishes for Bianchi / Bussinello and 'Geki' / Zeccoli meant a marketable 1-2-3 in class. Alfa's Targa triumph was followed up by a win at the Nurburgring 1000kms for Lucien Bianchi and Herbert Schultze, this event normally being treated as a warm-up for Le Mans. |
| However, with no TZ2's entered for the years biggest endurance race, it seemed the factories support for their GT programme was beginning to wane. There was still time for one more three-car works assault on a round of the World Manufacturers Championship, this coming at the annual Mugello road race where another class 1-2-3 was spearheaded by Alessandro Federico and the mysterious 'Shangri-La'. They finished fourth overall in what was an under 2-litre race. The Bianci / Stefanelli and Capra / Lado entries were further back in 15th and 16th overall, just one car subsequently heading to the Coppa Citta di Enna at Lake Pergusa's 4.8km circuit where 'Shangri-La' qualified seventh for what was another under 2-litre race. Eventually finishing fourth behind a trio of prototypes, the #38 TZ2 was the first GT car across the line. Autodelta's works programme was officially brought to an end after the Enna race, some cars being sold off and a handful of new ones getting built up for special customers like the Jolly Club, Jean Rolland, Alan Day and Count van der Straten whose Racing Team VDS actually won the TZ2's last international endurance race, 1967's Nurburgring 1000kms. Many subsequently went onto do well in national events as well as hillclimbing, further cementing this little cars big reputation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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