Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale
Overview
Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Production	November 1967–March 1969
Assembly	Milan, Italy (Carrozzeria Marazzi)
Designer	Franco Scaglione
Body and chassis
Class	Sports car
Body style	2-door coupé
Layout	Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
Related	Alfa Romeo Tipo 33
Powertrain
Engine	2.0 L V8
Transmission	6-speed Colotti manual
Dimensions
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)
Kerb weight	700 kg (1,543 lb)

The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is a mid-engined sports car built by Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo in 18 examples between 1967 and 1969. "Stradale" (Italian for "road-going") is a term often used by Italian car manufacturers to indicate a street-legal version of a racing car; indeed the 33 Stradale was derived from the Tipo 33 sports prototype.

A twin headlight 33 Stradale can be seen in the 1969 Italian movie Un bellissimo novembre.^[1][2]

History

The 33 Stradale, first built in 1967, was based on the Autodelta Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 racing car. The car, designed by Franco Scaglione,^[3] and built by Carrozzeria Marazzi, made its debut at the 1967 Turin Motorshow.

The car was introduced at the Sport Car Show at Monza, Italy in September 1967.^[4] Only 18 have been made. The prototype (chassis No. 750.33.01) was sold to private Gallery Abarth, Japan,^[5] 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.

Specifications

Body and chassis

The 33 Stradale is the first production vehicle to feature dihedral doors, also known as butterfly doors.^[6] 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.^[7] The car has 13-inch Campagnolo magnesium wheels, the fronts eight and rears nine inches wide; there are Girling disc brakes on all four corners,^[4] the rear ones are inboard. 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.^[8]

Engine and transmission

The race-bred engine bore no relation to the mass-produced units in Alfa's more mainstream vehicles. The engine is closely related to the V8 of the Alfa Montreal, albeit with smaller capacity and in a much higher state of tune. Both engines were derived from the 33 racers‘ but differed in many details. Both engines had chain driven camshafts as opposed to the racers‘ gear driven ones, but the Stradale kept the racing engine’s flat plane crankshaft, whereas the Montreal engine had a cross plane crank. 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 unique 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]

Like on the racing car the transmission was a six-speed Colotti transaxle gearbox.

Although the Stradale is a road car, it has some limitations which may make the everyday use slightly hard, for example missing locks and the lack of ground clearance.^[4]

Early version with twin headlights.
(Alfa Romeo museum replica)

Later version with single lights.

Early version side profile.
(Alfa Romeo museum replica).

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 a 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.^[5] Similar performance cars on that time were all using twice the Stradale`s cylinder capacity, the Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari Daytona and Maserati Ghibli.^[5]

Price and value

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^[13] (when the average cost of a new car in 1968 was $2,822).^[14] In the same year, in Italy, the retail price for a 33 Stradale was 9,750,000 lire.^[15] Just to make a comparison, the Lamborghini Miura was sold for 7,700,000 lire,^[16] while the average worker's wage was about 150.000 lire.^[17] The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale are hardly ever traded; thus their value is very hard to estimate. At the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, while presenting the Alfa 4C Spider, Alfa's Head of North America estimated the current market value of the 33 Stradale at "well over $10 million".

Concept cars

Five 33 Stradales were dressed with individual bodies by Italian coachbuilders:

Name	Designer	Debut	Image	Dimensions
Alfa Romeo Carabo	Bertone	1968 Paris Motor Show
Alfa Romeo P33 Roadster[lower-alpha 1]	Pininfarina	1968 Turin Auto Show
Alfa Romeo Iguana	Italdesign Giugiaro	1969 Turin Auto Show
Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale	Pininfarina	1969 Paris Motor Show		wheelbase: 2,350 mm (92.5 in)
				length x width: 4,000 mm × 1,800 mm (157.5 in × 70.9 in)
				height: n/a
				weight: 720 kg (1,587 lb)
Alfa Romeo P33 Cuneo	Pininfarina	1971 Brussels Motor Show
Alfa Romeo Navajo	Bertone	1976 Geneva Motor Show		wheelbase: 2,430 mm (95.7 in)[18]
				length x width: 3,800 mm × 1,860 mm (149.6 in × 73.2 in)[18]
				height: 1,050 mm (41.3 in)[18]
				weight: 870 kg (1,918 lb)[18]

Bertone

Alfa Romeo Carabo

Marcello Gandini designed the Carabo, a wedge-shaped coupé with scissor doors, in 1968 for Bertone. The car was built on the chassis No. 750.33.109.^[19]

Alfa Romeo Navajo

The Alfa Romeo Navajo concept car was unveiled at the March 1976 Geneva Motor Show. The Navajo is based on the 33 Stradale^[20] chassis No. 750.33.11.^[21] It was given a full fibreglass coupé body.^[22] The car is equipped with 2 litre fuel injected (SPICA) V8 engine producing around 233 PS (171 kW; 230 hp) at 8800 rpm.^[18]

Pininfarina

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

Alfa Romeo P33 Roadster

The Alfa Romeo P33 Roadster of 1968 was an open vehicle with a lower windscreen and a striking, painted in dark colour roll bar.^[23] The vehicle used in the chassis No. 750.33.108. It was at the Turin Motor Show, presented to the public in November 1968. Its 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.

Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale

The Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale of 1969, also known as Alfa Romeo 33.2, is a Pininfarina designed concept car, first presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1969. This 2-door coupé was designed by Leonardo Fioravanti, then working at Pininfarina; the design was influenced by the Ferrari 250 P5 concept shown a year earlier at Geneva.^[24] The 33.2 featured hydraulically working butterfly doors and pop-up headlights.^[25]

It is based on the 33 Stradale chassis No. 750.33.115. It bore a striking yellow paint.^[26]

Alfa Romeo P33 Cuneo

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.^[27]

Italdesign

Alfa Romeo Iguana

Italdesign, founded by Giorgio Giugiaro presented the Iguana at the Turin Motor Show in November 1969, it is a closed two-seater sports coupé 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.^[28]

See also

• Alfa Romeo Montreal
• Ferrari Dino
• Lancia Stratos

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.

• German article of Stradale with chassis numbers
• Brief story and original pictures about the 33 Stradale and five of the derived concepts

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