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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale - beauty and speed in perfection

Name: Alfa Romeo 33 1968
Brand: Alfa Romeo

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Created on May 31, 2011

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

Daniel Reinhard

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

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The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale from 1968 rightly won the "Best of Show" prize at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2011

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2011

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - one of the most beautiful cars in the world - the prototype can be recognized by the double headlights and the top-mounted windscreen wiper

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - attractive rear view of the prototype

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - Access through upward-opening doors

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - forward-opening butterfly doors as a characteristic design attribute

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - functional curves without frills

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - Perfectly shaped elegance, Franco Scaglione had done a great job

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - from the rear you can see directly into the gearbox mechanism

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale prototype from 1967 - one of the most beautiful cars ever built

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Techno Classica 2011 - Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (prototype) at the Alfa Romeo stand - it is interesting that the windshield wiper is not (or no longer?) mounted at the top

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Techno Classica 2011 - Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale steals the show from its modern descendant

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - at an exhibition in the eighties

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - shown at a sports car exhibition

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2011 - race-proven eight-cylinder engine with dual ignition

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Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1968) - this model has hardly any chrome trim

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Alfa Romeo 33/2 (1968) - Open sports prototype in action

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Alfa Romeo 33/2 Daytona (1968) - at the AVD Oldtimer Grand Prix 2011

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Alfa Romeo 33 (1969) - Michel Weber on the sports prototype at Rossfeld (European Hillclimb Championship), second fastest time of the day and faster than the Abarths

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Alfa Romeo 33/2 (1968) at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2011

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Alfa Romeo 33 TT 3 (1972) at the 1000km Nürburgringring in 1972 with Helmut Marko

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo P 33 Roadster G.S. (1968) - sensational details such as headlights and wings on the open-top sports car on an Alfa Romeo 33 chassis

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo P 33 Roadster G.S. (1968) - Pininfarina's design was certainly not based on what people of the time considered beautiful

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo P 33 Roadster G.S. (1968) - Pininfarina's design was extremely wedge-shaped for the time and definitely took some getting used to

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo P 33 Roadster G.S. (1968) - sensational shape of the open-top sports car on Alfa Romeo 33 chassis

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Bertone Carabo (1968) - Bertone Coupé on the Alfa Romeo 33 chassis - designed by Marcellon Gandini

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Bertone Carabo (1968) - the extreme design on Alfa Romeo 33 chassis at the "Cultura e Progetto" exhibition in Turin in 1978

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Prototipo Speziale (1969) - Studio photo of the exciting design by Pininfarina with open gullwing doors only

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Prototipo Speziale (1969) - the beautiful silhouette of Pininfarina's exciting design on the Alfa Romeo 33 chassis

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Prototipo Speziale (1969) - here at an exhibition

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Prototipo Speziale (1969) - Studio photo of the exciting design by Pininfarina

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Prototipo Speziale (1969) - View of the interior of the Prototipo Speziale

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Ital Design Iguana (1969) - Giugiaro's design based on the Alfa Romeo 33 chassis

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Ital Design Iguana (1969) - sketch of Giugiaro's design based on the Alfa Romeo 33 chassis

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Spyder Prototipo Speciale (1971) - consistent wedge shape, lack of curves

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Spyder Prototipo Speciale (1971) - from this perspective, it almost looks like a spaceship from another planet

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Spyder Prototipo Speciale (1971) - it comes across as angular and boxy

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Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33 Spyder Prototipo Speciale (1971) - minimalist interior designed by Pininfarina

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - wedge-shaped design built on the basis of an Alfa 33 chassis

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - despite the lack of curves, the prototype based on an Alfa 33 chassis certainly has elegant lines

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - built on the basis of an Alfa 33 chassis

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - Interior of the prototype, which was built on the basis of an Alfa 33 chassis

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - innovative display in the prototype based on Alfa Romeo 33

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - Interior of the Navajo

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Bertone Navajo (1976) - some people today would probably prefer a standard Radale on the same chassis, but this prototype had revolutionary lines for the time

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Summary

The absolute hit in a quartet of sports cars in 1968 was the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, because it was lighter than its competitors, more expensive and faster to accelerate from a standstill. However, it failed on the market and was only built in small numbers. It was not until many years later that this almost unearthly beautiful sports car received the appreciation it deserved. It won the coveted "Best in Show" trophy at this year's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este (2011). This report tells the story of the rare Milanese's origins, its brothers on the racetrack and on the designer stands at the motor shows, and recalls past experiences and adventures with the vehicle, richly illustrated and even supplemented with sound recordings.

This article contains the following chapters

Chassis numbers and information on individual vehicles
The most beautiful coupé of the sixties?
Almost unearthly performance
Actually a racing car with almost no compromises
The fast siblings from the racetrack
Not really suitable for everyday use?
The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale as a movie star
Blurred production history
The chassis as a basis for design prototypes
Difficult to assess in terms of value
Further information

Estimated reading time: 7min

Preview (beginning of the article)

At this year's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este ( 2011), the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale won the coveted "Best in Show" trophy. It was entered in the category "the birth of the supercar". This classification characterizes the flat Italian as what it was: super-fast, super-exotic and super-expensive. Franco Scaglione created a monument to himself with the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. The design is probably one of the most beautiful vehicles in automotive history and still impresses today with its balanced proportions and the clever combination of body curves and glass surfaces. The vehicle was not built by Alfa Romeo itself, but by Autodelta, a small factory set up by Carlo Chiti in the suburb of Settimo Milanese, which employed just 85 people in 1968. Autodelta's main business was building sports cars and supporting racing cars, especially GTAs and similar racing cars, around the world.

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