The Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale... A supersport built to celebrate
100 years of Alfa Romeo and pay homage to their legendary TZ series..
Zagato styling at it's finest!
Ah, the Alfa TZ3. It's one of two supercars I could never justify buying, alongside the Aston Martin One-77. Sure, I love the 8C Competizone, and I love the V12 Vantage, but I never really felt the need to upgrade. The 8C sounds beautiful, goes well and is beautiful. the same with the V12 Vantage.
The TZ3 looks like an 8C that's been trapped in the thick of a rugby scrum. And after doing a bit of reading about it, I found out it's got the engine, drivetrain, chassis, even the interior of a Viper ACR...
That will explain why this ACR's been glaring at my TZ3 for the past half hour... They're brothers! Or cousins. Or... Fifth cousins, twice removed? Whatever. They're definately related, one way or another.
The first thing to note is you can't visually customise it. Neither parts nor paint, you can't lay a finger on it. So straight away, anyone who wishes to slap on a coat of pearl black and some five spoke rims on it must shrug and accept that they can't.
I missed the Tuesday races due to being tied up a production I was in, so I took it to Grand Valley Speedway when I finished up.
The hearty 8.4 V10 will cause eargasms, just a word of warning..
For what it is, the TZ3 is amazing! 640bhp is a lot of horsepower for a road car! 500bhp is impressive, 550bhp is playing with fire, 600bhp is borderline mental. but
640bhp, holy crap Alfa Romeo, you're just asking for trouble!
At 1300kgs, it's no KTM X-Bow, but it's still light enough to give a fearsome power to weight ratio. The only let down for it in its standard form is the sport hard tyres. It's not impossible to drive with SHs, but it's enough to be a challenge on some circuits. Luckily, Grand Valley Speedway isn't one of those circuits. I could wrestle the car around the circuit with relative ease, and could let the rear slide out round corners, in a stylish yet clean drift.
Another thing to note is the price. The TZ3 is in the
$600,000 price bracket, which is way higher than its base model, the Viper ACR, which costs a nice clean figure of
$100,000. Some may argue that the price difference is due to the fact that there's only 9 in existence, and they're a masterpiece of Zagato, which is actually understandable. For once, an insane price difference is perfectly justified and not unreasonable at all.
On Saturday, I started off duelling with Savage787BR92CP, a newcomer who's keen to give COTW a go. And judging by his performance at Eiger Nordwand, he'd be cometitive against our regulars!
(Jumping intensifies)
Eventually drivers began trickling in, until we had a decent sized field. In competition, the TZ3 remains relatively on point. It does have the tendancy to step out violently if you push it too hard through corners, but that's just because it's got so much torque. People seem to forget that they're hammering an
8.4 V10, from a Viper, a detail which seems to slip one's mind while in the heat of battle. Naturally, being a supercar on sport hard tyres, our resident slider
@Vic Reign93 couldn't resist a drift or two...
A graceful slide around Grand Valley's first right hander
Might want to consider changing your gamertag to "Sideways_Sam"... (BTW This image is my entry into the photo comp.)
The TZ3 feels beautiful drive. It's not the most refined, but it's tame, to a degree of course. Also, it sounds
beautiful! It sounds more like a Viper than a Viper... which is weird...
Cizeta V16 can't keep up despite having 6 more cylinders...
...probably because it lacks in the handling department? Also, no hard feelings bout hitting me, @Cowboy!
In all honesty, I was thinking of naming the TZ3 a beater. Solely because of the sport hard tyres. the setup is alright, though the suspension is a tad on the soft side, but otherwise it's alright. But since the point of COTW is to review cars in stock form, the TZ3 is therefore a beater. 👎
BUT.....
(That was a big but, wasn't it..)
I wasn't about to get rid of a car I paid $600,000 for. I had to try it with racing tyres. So we did.
You can't see it, but these Alfas are practically glued to the road!
With the stickies on, the TZ3 is a whole new car. It no longer steps out through corners, can be precisely manouvered through tight traffic, and it gains a comfortable feel to it, and it doesn't feel like you're ice skating, instead, you're nailing each and every apex, and squeezing the maximum performance out of your car. With one alteration, it goes from beater to sleeper. 👍
The wrap up...
Buy the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale if you...
-Want the ultimate Alfa Romeo
-Like American performance, but not the styling
-Like Italian styling, but not the performance
-Are collecting rare exotics
-Desire a modern take on the TZ2
-Feel like the Alfa 8C is too 'tame'
-Want possibly the best sounding V10 in the game
So, as I said, in standard form it's a beater. 👎
But
surely you can spare an extra $38,000 to get it some racing softs, which will boost it's performance up to sleeper status 👍
Boo-yah! Getting a bit sideways to welcome the TZ3 to my garage.