Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Production	November 1967 - March 1969
Assembly	Milan, Italy (Carrozzeria Marazzi)
Class	Sports car
Body style	2-door coupe
Layout	Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
Engine	2.0 L V8
Transmission	Colotti 6-speed manual
Wheelbase	2,350 mm (92.5 in)
Length	3,970 mm (156.3 in)
Width	1,710 mm (67.3 in)
Height	991 mm (39.0 in)
Curb weight	700 kg (1,543 lb)
Related	Racing car: Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Production car: Alfa Romeo Montreal
Designer	Franco Scaglione

The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is an extremely rare mid engined sports car built by Alfa Romeo of Italy. "Stradale" (Italian for "road-going") is a term often used by Italian car manufacturer to indicate a street-legal (usually heavily modified and/or underpowered) version of a sports car. The car was introduced at the Sport Car Show at Monza, Italy in September 1967.^[1] Only 18 have been made. The prototype (chassis No. 750.33.01) was sold to private Gallery Abarth, Japan^[2], a magnesium bodied Stradale replica (chassis No. 105.33.12) built in late 1970s and the five concept cars are now part of the Alfa Romeo Museum. In Top Gear's 100 Sexiest Cars list, the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale was featured as number 15.

A twin headlight 33 Stradale can be seen in the 1969 Italian movie Un bellissimo novembre.^[3]

Derivation

The 33 Stradale, first built in 1967, was based on the Autodelta Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 racing car. The car, designed by Franco Scaglione,^[4] and built by Carrozzeria Marazzi, made its debut at the 1967 Turin Motorshow.

Price

Built in an attempt by Alfa to make some of its racing technology available to the public, it was the most expensive automobile for sale to the public in 1968 at US$17,000^[5] (when the average cost of a new car in 1968 was $2,822).^[6] In 1968 in Italy, the price for a 33 Stradale was set to 9.750.000 lire. In the same year, the Lamborghini Miura was sold for "just" 7.700.000 lire.^[7]

Features

The 33 Stradale is believed to be the first production vehicle to feature dihedral doors, also known as butterfly doors. The 33 Stradale also features windows which seamlessly curve upward into the 'roof' of the vehicle. The car has aluminium body on aluminium tubular chassis. As a result of being built by hand, each model differs from the others for some details. For example, early models had twin headlights, replaced in the last ones by single lights. The position of the windscreen wiper, and even the number of them, is another thing that differentiates each example from the others. Also the late models have vents added behind both the front and rear wheels to allow hot air from the brakes to escape.^[8]

The race-bred engine bore no relation to the mass-produced units in Alfa's more mainstream vehicles. Race engineer Carlo Chiti designed an oversquare (78 mm (3.1 in) bore x 52.2 mm (2.1 in) stroke) dry-sump lubricated all aluminum 1,995 cc (121.7 cu in) V8 that featured SPICA fuel injection,^[9] four ignition coils and 16 spark plugs. The engine used four chain-driven camshafts to operate the valve train and had a rev-limit of 10,000 rpm.^[10] The engine produced 230 hp (172 kW) at 8,800 rpm in road trim and 270 bhp (201 kW) in race trim.^[11] The engine valves are operated via chain-driven double-overhead cams and has a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Because every Stradale is hand built and unigue the power levels can vary by car, used rpms etc., for example the first production Stradale (No. 750.33.101) has factory datasheet that claims 243 hp (181 kW) at 9,400 rpm with a "street" exhaust and 254 hp (189 kW) with open exhaust.^[12]

In another break from convention, Alfa used a six-speed transaxle gearbox by Valerio Colotti. The car has 13 inch Campagnolo made magnesium wheels and Girling disc brakes on all four corners,^[1] the rear ones are inboard type. Despite wheel diameter is just 13 inches the wheels are eight and nine inches wide, front and rear. Suspension is like in mid 1960s race car with upper and lower control arms in front and double trailing arms in the rear, along with substantial antiroll bars.^[13]

Although the Stradale is a road car, it has some limitations which may make the everyday use slighly hard, for example missing locks and the lack of ground clearance.^[1]

Early version with twin headlights.	Later version with single lights	Early version side profile.	Later version with side vents both the front and rear wheels

Performance

The car takes 5.5 seconds to reach 60 mph (96.6 km/h) from a standing start and has top speed of 260 km/h (160 mph).^[11] In 1968 it was the fastest commercially available car in the standing kilometer with time of 24.0 seconds measured by German Auto, Motor und Sport magazine.^[2] Similar performance cars on that time were all using twice the Stradale`s cylinder capacity, the Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari Daytona and Maserati Ghibli.^[2]

Value of today

The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale are hardly ever traded, so the value is very hard to estimate, anyway its successful participation at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in 2011 did not lower any of it.

Concept cars based on 33 Stradale

Five 33 Stradales were dressed with individual bodies, which all are unique:

Bertone

• Marcello Gandini designed a wedge-shaped coupe with gullwing doors the Carabo in 1968 for Bertone. The car was built on the chassis No. 750.33.109.^[14]

• In 1976 Bertone made the Navajo No. 750.33.117, a massively-acting closed coupe with angular contours and large roll bar.^[15]

Pininfarina

Pininfarina designed between 1969-1971 a total of three vehicles on two 33 Stradale chassis:

• The P 33 Sport Roadster of 1968 was an open vehicle with a lower windscreen and a striking, painted in dark color roll bar.^[16] The vehicle used in the chassis No. 750.33.108. It was at the Turin Motor Show, presented to the public in November 1968. His whereabouts are unclear. Partly it is considered that the body of the P 33 was removed after the public exhibition, the chassis and two years later with the body of the Cuneo had been provided.

• The Prototype Pininfarina Speciale 1969 was a rotund coupe with gullwing doors, pop-up headlights and heavily glazed cockpit that some design ideas later Ferrari anticipated models. Use the vehicle chassis No. 750.33.115. It bore a striking yellow paint.^[17]

• The Pininfarina Cuneo was an open, wedge-designed sports car that was presented at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1971 and probably also based on the chassis No. 750.33.108.^[18]

Italdesign

Italdesign, founded by Giorgio Giugiaro presented the Iguana at the Turin Motor Show in November 1969, it is a closed two-seater sports coupe with an unusually high hedge on the basis of the chassis No. 750.33.116. The design showed some new elements, that Giugiaro few years later introduced in production vehicle designs. Thus, the body of the Iguana was made ​​of brushed steel, this concept Giugiaro realized later when De Lorean DMC-12 . The front end of the Iguana Giugiaro quoted in his designs for Maserati models Bora and Merak, and the rear end with the high-mounted tail lights were put into production in the Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint. Allegedly, a serial production of the Iguana was planned, the intention never realized, however.^[19]

Name	Designer	Debut	Image
Alfa Romeo Carabo	Bertone	1968 Paris Motor Show
Alfa Romeo P33 Roadster G.S. (was later rebodied into the Cuneo)	Pininfarina	1968 Turin Auto Show
Alfa Romeo Iguana	Italdesign Giugiaro	1969 Turin Auto Show
Alfa Romeo 33.2	Pininfarina	1969 Paris Motor Show
Alfa Romeo Cuneo	Pininfarina	1971 Brussels Motor Show
Alfa Romeo Navajo	Bertone	1976 Geneva Motor Show

See also

• Alfa Romeo Montreal
• Ferrari Dino
• Lancia Stratos

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

• German article of Stradale with chassis numbers

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