The brilliant racing car for the road that never went into production
For me, Giorgetto Giugiaro is arguably the most original and versatile Italian designer ever. He created cars like the Fiat Panda, the Volkswagen Golf, the Maserati Ghibli, the Fiat Dino coupé and the ISO Grifo. And, of course, his work for Alfa Romeo is unforgettable, as is the 2600 Sprint coupé and the timelessly beautiful coupé in the 105 series, which became famous as "the Bertone." One of his lesser-known designs is the Canguro for Alfa Romeo, based on a TZ2 chassis. It was highly experimental with a fibreglass body instead of the in 1964 more usual aluminium. And it had one of the first glued windscreens in the business. The idea was to make a street version in a small series of the successful TZ2, which was essentially a racing car. Pininfarina made an attempt too, but Giugiaro's design for Bertone was well-received and generally accepted as the best. However, as in so many cases in the history of the automobile, the Alfa Romeo management regretfully decided not to produce it. Perhaps because of the innovative fibreglass body, maybe because they were too busy building 105s in Giulia, Spider, coupé and Berlina form. Or maybe it was because Autodelta, who built the TZ, could not deliver enough chassis' to market the Canguro. Who knows? The fact is that the Canguro, after some appearances at exhibitions, was involved in an accident with the Chevrolet Testudo (another Bertone design) while shooting a promotion film for Shell at Monza. Nuccio Bertone was very disappointed, both with the decision of Alfa Romeo not to produce the car and the accident, which damaged the front of the vehicle significantly. The Canguro was reckoned to be beyond repair and was written off. For many years, it lay in Bertone's outside backyard. German journalist Gary Schmidt found it there in the seventies and succeeded in buying it with the intention of restoring it. But he found it especially complicated to fix the front end of the body to its original form. After some time, he sold the project to Japanese collector Shiro Kosaka, who went where Gary had left off. 2005, it appeared fully restored at the Villa d'Este concourse and won the "Best of Show" award. Regretfully, Gary passed away in 2003 and never saw the fully restored car.
The Canguro is nothing less than a masterpiece. Its low, fluent line and Kamm tail make it a stunning sportscar. It was very light, so its performance was spectacular. We can only agree with Nuccio Bertone that Alfa Romeo's decision not to produce it was a missed chance.
