Canguro

The Alfa Romeo Canguro is a concept car built by Bertone coachworks in 1964 as a one-off. The car was developed on the tubular-frame chassis of the "TZ," with a longitudinal inline-four-cylinder engine rated at 170 hp. It was rear-wheel drive, while the transmission was a five-speed manual. It was executed on behalf of Alfa Romeo who wanted to assess a road-going version's feasibility of the TZ.

Giorgetto Giugiaro produced one of the most extraordinarily curvaceous designs of the sixties for this car. Covered headlights, doors curving into the roofline and a wraparound rear windscreen were the most striking details. The bodywork was fabricated entirely from aluminum. Particularly innovative was the solution adopted for the glazed surfaces, which were glued to the bodywork frames. This system, borrowed from aviation technology, made it possible to reduce the height of the car to only 105 cm.

The prototype was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1964, but a few months later it was destroyed during a test for the trade press on the Monza track. Judged too sporty and expensive for mass production, the project was abandoned and Bertone began work on its stylistic evolution, which would later give rise to the "Montreal" model prototypes.

After remaining in pieces for nearly 30 years, a Japanese collector finished a restoration which began in the early seventies. The Canguro made a triumphant return to show circuits at 2005 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.