The Italians may prize themselves on their super-expensive exotic cars, like the Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the world, but those serve rich masters rather than the creative types who build truly memorable automobiles. When’s the last time somebody bought a brand new Ferrari, chopped it up, and turned it into something completely different? But with American cars, power is affordable, making them the perfect platform for a limited run of special edition cars.

The Dodge Viper is the perfect candidate, and coach builder Zagato has taken the Viper and turned it into what they are calling the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale. Beautiful, ain’t it?

The TZ3 Stradale is a street legal version of the TZ3 Corsa, unveiled last year. Whereas that car used a one-off body and frame though, this Alfa has been built on an old Viper chassis, complete with the 8.4 liter V10 engine (designed with help from Lamborghini). Just nine of these Italian-American masterpieces will be built, and three are already spoken for, leaving a half-dozen still up for grabs.

The TZ3 Stradale will certainly fuel rumors of an Italian-American Viper collaboration, now that Fiat (which owns Alfa Romeo and Ferrari) owns a majority stake in Chrysler. Alfra is celebrating its 100th anniversary and the TZ3 Stradale is part of that celebration. The “necessary beauty” of the body of this Zagato-designed wondercar is really breathtaking, and it is amazing to think that there is still the heart and soul of a Viper underneath that sheetmetal. Like we said, you don’t see people doing that with Ferraris and Lambo’s for a reason. American cars are just more versatile, and that’s the way we like ‘em.