2024 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale
Alfa Romeo has managed to merge both past and future into a contemporary package with the unveiling of its newest sports car, the 33 Stradale.
Inspired by the legendary 33 Stradale from 1967, the new car’s design is an undoubted homage to its forebear, but the impressiveness does not stop there.
Powering the new 33 Stradale is a choice of two powertrains: a turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine or battery power.
The petrol engine has been modified slightly over its application in the Alfa Romeo Stelvio QV and Guilia QV, now producing 460kW versus the electric version’s 560kW. Performance figures for the 33 Stradale are rated at under three seconds (0-100km/h), while the top speed is a claimed 333km/h.
Jean-Philippe Imparato, Alfa Romeo’s CEO, said: “With the new 33 Stradale, we wanted to create something that lived up to our past, to serve the brand and to make the Alfisti fandom proud.
“This is the brand’s first fuoriserie (custom-built) car since 1969, and I promise it won’t be the last.”
They say it drives well
According to Alfa Romeo, the new 33 Stradale features double-arm suspension with active shock absorbers. Together with the front axle lift, it gifts the sports car impressive dynamism, while being as comfortable as possible. The Brake-by-Wire and Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes add to the heightened performance.
Like the 4C and 8C in recent years, the 33 Stradale is made of a carbon-fibre monocoque that, with the aluminium H-frame, adds to the car’s rigidity and lightness. Butterfly doors are hinged to the roof that’s been structured from carbon-fibre and aluminium.
It all adds to a low weight and higher centre of gravity.
Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas will aid Alfa Romeo in making the 33 Stradale the best driver’s car it possibly can be.
33 Stradale history
The 1967 33 Stradale was derived directly from the Tipo 33, the monarch of world motorsport in that era. Project 33 marked the return of Alfa Romeo to racing, and on 12 March 1967, the 33 entered the world of competition.
It scored an immediate victory, the first in a long line of successes on the most prestigious circuits that would take it to the top of the world, with victories in the Championship for Makes in 1975 and ’77.
On the wave of sporting enthusiasm, Alfa Romeo decided to produce the 33 in a very limited edition for private individuals, as a “fuoriserie” (custom-built) car that combined the performance of the Tipo 33 racing car with comfort and drivability suitable for everyday use.
The design was entrusted to Franco Scaglione, who put all his technical expertise and creative daring into the design of the 33 Stradale, resulting in a masterpiece where innovation in style blends with the quest for aerodynamics and functionality.
The design of the 1967 33 Stradale, the quintessence of beauty in a car, is almost impossible to describe: its expressions were the balance of its forms, the purity of its lines, the elegance of its every detail.
Between 1967 and 1969, only 18 specimens were produced, one of which is kept today at the Museum in Arese, making it an extremely rare piece much coveted by collectors.
Six of these chassis were used to make prototypes, which anticipated two decades of automotive design: the Carabo (1968), the P33 Roadster GS (1968), the 33/2 Coupé Speciale (1969), the Cuneo (1971), the Iguana (1969), and the Navajo (1976).
