After much rumour and anticipation renown Milanese coachbuilder Zagato has officially announced its new Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa project and revealed a first teaser above-view image.

Alfa Romeo and Zagato both share the long-link of coming from the Italy's style capital, and Zagato's project is an unashamed and timely homage to the carmaker's century-long and fabulous racing history and in particular two of the brand's most storied racing cars, cars that evoke emotions in all Alfisti, the TZ1 and TZ2, machines which proudly carry Zagato's iconic "Z" initial.

In the early 1960s Zagato was commissioned by Alfa Romeo to sculpture its trademark lightweight bodies for the carmaker's exciting new tubular-chassis racers and once they hit the race tracks in anger the rest simply become history. Only Zagato has the authority and position in Alfa Romeo's history to reinterpret the "TZ" initials, and it has finally done so, half a century later, with the TZ3 Corsa project.

The TZ3 Corsa adds Zagato's full weight to the celebration of the centenary of the Alfa Romeo brand, and while its Italian design rivals, Pininfarina and Bertone, showed off their road-aimed showcar homages to the Milanese brand's 100th anniversary in Geneva last month (the '2uettotanta' and 'Pandion' respectively), Zagato, has chosen to reflect Alfa Romeo's racing history and picked the refined and elegant location of the prestigious Concorso d'Eleganza Ville d'Este on the tranquil banks of Lake Como to present its latest coachbuilt creation, building on a tradition that its projects are presented fully ready-to-use and can be admired ideal settings.

Zagato is clear that this new work is a racing car, going beyond the use of the two names, "TZ3" and "Corsa", famed words in the track-winning history of Alfa Romeo. The design house says that "the TZ3 Corsa is not a design exercise; it doesn’t take inspiration only from the 90 year collaboration between the two brands, neither only from the Milanese link between Alfa Romeo and Zagato. The TZ3 Corsa is a race car, honouring the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo’s racing heritage. It celebrates the men and machines of the Alfa Romeo Zagato common tradition."

Zagato adds that there was a huge breadth of racing tradition and inspiration for the bold new project to draw upon, with much of this tradition embedding the histories of Alfa Romeo and Zagato together: "Scuderia Ferrari of 20’s and 30’s, Alfa Corse of 40’s and 50’s, Autodelta of 60’s and 70’s up to the latest Scuderia Zagato of 80’s and 90’s."

The project was commissioned by a German enthusiast and gentleman driver. Giving little visual detail away apart from an overhead "teaser" image, the TZ3 Corsa, says Zagato, "is based on a mono shell carbon fibre tubular chassis, coupled with a tubular frame and a lightweight aluminium body." This choice of tubular framework immediately creates a tangible, direct link for the project with its iconic predecessors. Meanwhile technical partners in the project were OMP and Pirelli.