At the 1964 Paris Salon de l’Automobile, the press and public were pleasantly surprised by a Bertone-bodied Alfa Romeo prototype which went under the name of Canguro, Italian for kangaroo. Although Bertone’s strong reputation had already been built around the 1954 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, it represented the first ever individual showing at the Paris Salon for this respected Italian design house.

Nuccio Bertone presented the Canguro after much personal consideration, as he knew that the international press, in particular members stemming from north of the Alps, often disfavoured designs that were viewed as being too extravagant. 

He had reason for worry, as in retrospect the Canguro design was very extreme for its day in terms of proportion. Luckily, for the sake of the Lamborghini Miura and car enthusiasts world-wide, Nuccio’s decision paid off.

Despite the fact that the Canguro borrowed a lot of its shape from the Bizzarrini prototype dating from the previous year's Turin Motor Show, it bridged the gap between this car and the Lamborghini Miura.
  

 
The Canguro project started after Carrozzeria Bertone received the opportunity to develop two extremely interesting prototype cars in 1964, which included the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sport Speciale. From these two projects, the Canguro symbolised the more ambitious and innovative prototype, and became a clear demonstration of how Bertone could reinterpret the styling elements of any model.

Alfa Romeo were interested in assessing the feasibility of producing a high-performance road car based on the mechanicals of their legendary Giulia Tubolare Zagato series. The design brief from Alfa Romeo consequently hinted towards a low-volume production model.

The Canguro therefore characterised an advanced styling exercise for Bertone, completely free from the prospect of mass-manufacture. The designer who was given responsibility to realise this project was the relatively unknown Giorgetto Giugiaro, who had been responsible for touching up the lines of the previous year's Bizzarrini prototype following a sketch from Giotto Bizzarrini himself.

Initially the Bertone design team looked at what their competing design house Zagato had made on the base of the same platform, the Tubolare Zagato 1. The TZ1 was formed around a tubular spaceframe construction (hence the Tubolare name), which was clad with light-weight aluminium bodywork. The total car weighed in at only 660 kg and was capable of a 233 km/h top speed from its 112 bhp, 1.570 cc twin cam engine. The TZ1 was strictly produced for competition purposes in rallies and GT races.

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