Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3

Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 was a sports car racing prototype raced by the Alfa Romeo factory team between 1967 and 1977.

A small number of road going cars were derived from it in 1967, called Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale The number was also used in the 1980s for the unrelated road car, Alfa Romeo 33 (road car).

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33

Alfa Romeo started development of Tipo 33 in early 1960s, first car being built in 1965. First version was sent to 1963 established Autodelta to be finished and for additional changes. First car was using Alfa Romeo TZ2 straight-4 engine. But soon Autodelta finished its 2.0 litre V8. The 2000 cc (122ci) Tipo 33 mid-engined prototype debuted on 12 March 1967 at the Belgian hillclimbing event at Fléron, with Teodoro Zeccoli winning. The first version was named as “periscope” because it had very characteristic air inlet. It was powered by a 1995 cc (122ci) 90° V8 of 270 hp (201 kW), with a large-diameter tube frame. The original T33 proved unreliable and uncompetitive in the World Sportscar Championship, its best result a 5th at the Nürburgring 1000, co-driven by Zeccoli and Roberto Bussinello.

Alfa Romeo 33/2

Alfa Romeo 33/2
Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Production	1967-1968
Class	Racing car
Layout	RMR layout
Engine	1995 cc V8 270 bhp @ 9600 rpm 2500 cc V8 315 bhp
Weight	580 kg (1278 lb)
Designer	Autodelta

In 1968, Alfa Romeo's subsidiary, Autodelta, created an evolution model called 33/2. A road version, dubbed Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, was also introduced. At the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Porsche 907 with 2.2L engines were dominating the overall race, but Alfa took the 2-Litre class win, with Udo Schütz and Nino Vaccarella, a win repeated at the Targa Florio, where Nanni Galli and Ignazio Giunti also took second place overall, followed by teammates Lucien Bianchi and Mario Casoni. Galli and Giunti then won the class at the 1000km Nürburgring, where the 2.5 L version finished for the first time, 4th place in the 3.0 L class with Schütz and Bianchi. However, in most races, the Alfa drivers were outclassed by their Porsche rivals which used bigger engines. In 1968, the car was used mainly by privateers, winning its class in the 1000km Monza, Targa Florio and Nürburgring.

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  1968 Alfa Romeo T33 Daytona

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Alfa Romeo 33/3

Alfa Romeo 33/3 Alfa Romeo 33TT3
Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Production	1967-1968
Class	Racing car
Layout	RMR layout
Engine	2998 cc V8 400 bhp @ 9000 rpm 440 bhp
Weight	700 kg/650 kg (1971) (1543 lb)/(1433 lb) (1971)
Designer	Autodelta

In 1969 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Alfa Romeo 33/3 made its debut. The engine was enlarged to 2998cc with 400 hp, which put the 33/3 in the same class as the Porsche 908 and the Ferrari 312P. The chassis was now built as a monocoque. After a dismal 1969, in 1970, the bigger 5.0 L Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 dominated, yet Toine Hezemans and Masten Gregory took third overall at Sebring, and Andrea De Adamich and Henri Pescarolo won the 1000km Zeltweg in their class, with a second place overall. Also in 1970, Alfa T 33/3 was one of the "actors" of Steve McQueen's movie "Le Mans", released in 1971.

In 1971, the Alfa Romeo racing effort was finally successful. Rolf Stommelen and Nanni Galli won their class at the 1000km Buenos Aires (followed by De Adamich and Pescarolo), before taking another class win (and second overall) at Sebring. De Adamich and Pescarolo later won outright at the 1000km Brands Hatch, a significant against the "invincible" Porsche 917. They were then taking a class win at Monza (where Alfa Romeo took the three podium slots in the prototype class) and another one at Spa. At the Targa Florio, Vaccarella and Hezemans won outright, followed by teammates De Adamich and Gijs Van Lennep. Hezemans and Vaccarella won their class at Zeltweg, and De Adamich and Ronnie Peterson won overall at Watkins Glen.

Alfa Romeo 33/3 Full Story

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 2.jpg

  Nastasi's T33/3 was built in late 1969, and according to Ed McDonough, was entered at the Osterreichrng in Austria and driven by de Adamich/Vaccarella

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 3.jpg

  When Nastasi purchased it in 1985, the car had been updated to 1971 specs. Here it is in the livery of Nino Vaccarella's Targa Florio winning T33/3, although it is unknown if this is the actual chassis used by Vaccarella

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 4.jpg

  For most of its life, the T33/3 had to compete with the Group 5 (Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s) cars for the Championship--but in 1971 the T33 won three Championship overall victories and placed second to Porsche in the World's Manufacturers Championship

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 5.jpg

  Henri Pescaralo, Rolf Stommelen, Nanni Galli, Nino Vaccarella, Andrea de Adamich, and many others raced the T33/3 and all were impressed by the car's handling and strength

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 6.jpg

  The DOHC four valve (gear driven) 2998cc V8 was powerful and reliable, and by 1971 was producing over 430 bhp. The 6 speed "long" transmission was used on the early 33's. Later when upgraded part of the upgrade package was the "short" 5 gear transmission

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 7.jpg

  The monocoque chassis was described as "monocoque parallelled in aluminum and titanium." Of course, there were also the huge gas tanks on both sides of the driver

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 8.jpg

  The early T33 had rear oil cooler and front radiator cooling. On upgrading it was reverses the oil cooler was in front and the 2 radiator coolers were in the front

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 9.jpg

  The Tipo 33/3 was almost a perfect race car. In 1972, the huge Group 5 cars would disappear; Autodelta thought it had the Championship locked up. But the new Ferrari 312PB would prove them wrong

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 10.jpg

  Engineers were just beginning to understand downforce as applied to the entire design. Once understood in terms of the sports car

• Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 11.jpg

  For the new Sportscar Championship in 1972, the T33/3 would be replaced by a new car, the spaceframe T33/TT/3. Eventually, the Alfa T33 would win the sought after Championship in 1975 and again in 1977 with a flat twelve installed in both tubular and monocoque chassis

Alfa Romeo 33/3 Full Story

1972 and 1973

In these years, the 5L sports car were banned. The 3L cars of Alfa, the Ferrari 312PB and the Matra challanged for outright victories now. See Ferrari_312#1971-1973_312PB_sports_car for a report.

Alfa Romeo 33 TT

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  1971 Alfa Romeo TT33

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Alfa Romeo T33/4

A 4 litre version was entered to 1972 and 1974 CanAm series by Otto Zipper, driver was Scooter Patrick. Autodelta was also one of entrants with T33/4 in season 1974. T33/3 version was also used in CanAm series earlier.

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT 12

Alfa Romeo 33 TT 12

Alfa Romeo 33TT12
Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Production	1973-1976
Class	Racing car
Layout	RMR layout
Engine	2995 cc F12 500 bhp @ 11000 rpm
Weight	670 kg (1477 lb)
Designer	Autodelta

1973 was introduced 33 TT 12 (Telaio Tubolare, tubular chassis) which had Carlo Chiti-designed 12 cylinder 3.0L flat engine (500 bhp). Season 1973 was more or less development time and in 1974 the car took win at Monza 1000 km and finished the season with second place in the championship. It wasn’t until 1975 when after years of trying Alfa Romeo won sport cars world championship. The season was almost total domination, seven wins in eight races. Winning drivers were: Arturo Merzario, Vittorio Brambilla, Jacques Laffite, Henri Pescarolo, Derek Bell and Jochen Mass. For 1976 Autodelta was concentrating other things and the car was rarely used in competitions.

Alfa Romeo 33SC12

Alfa Romeo 33 SC 12 Turbo

Alfa Romeo 33SC12
Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Production	1976-1977
Class	Racing car
Layout	RMR layout
Engine	2993 cc F12 520 bhp @ 12000 rpm 2134 cc F12 640 bhp @ 11000 rpm
Weight	720 kg (1587 lb)
Designer	Autodelta

As a successor of the 33TT12 1976 appeared the 33SC12, SC referring for SCatolato a boxed chassis. 3.0 L flat-12 engine had now 520 bhp (390 kW). With this car Alfa Romeo won again the sports car world championship in 1977. The SC12 won every race on that season, winning drivers were: Arturo Merzario, Jean-Pierre Jarier and Vittorio Brambilla. On the Salzburg ring the car reached an average speed of 203.82 km/h (126.6 mph), on that same race was also tested 2134 cc turbocharged SC12 producing 640 bhp, Arturo Merzario finished second with that car. The SC12 Turbo was Alfa's first twin turbocharged V12-engine and it was introduced around same time as Renault's Formula One turbo engine. In Alfa Romeo engine both engine rows were fed with own turbocharger, that feature was followed by many racecar makers in the following years.

The flat-12 engine was later used on Brabham-Alfa BT45, BT46 and Alfa Romeo 177 F1 cars.

Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

In 1967 Autodelta made a street version of the 33 race car, the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. Stradale is Italian for "street".

See also

• Alfa Romeo 33 (road car)

External links

• Alfa Romeo T33, striking example for the use of Rosso Corsa
• Alfa Website also with Racing with History
• World Sportscar Championship 1968 results
• World Sportscar Championship 1977 results
• World Sportscar Championship 1975 results
• 1972 Racing season Alfa vs. Ferrari
• Can-Am Championship results