Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale
Manufacturer	Alfa Romeo
Parent company
Aka
Production	1967–1971
Assembly	Carrozzeria Marazzi
Predecessor
Successor
Class	Sports car
Body style	2-door coupe
Layout	Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
Platform
Engine	2.0 L V8
Transmission	Colotti 6-speed manual
Wheelbase	2350mm
Length	3970mm
Width	1710mm
Height	991mm
Weight	700kg
Fuel capacity	94.7L
Electric range
Related	Racing car: Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Concept cars: Alfa Romeo 33.2 Alfa Romeo Iguana Alfa Romeo Carabo
Designer	Franco Scaglione

Rear view of 33 Stradale

This article is about the road going version of Tipo 33 racing car. For the racing car, see Alfa Romeo Tipo 33. For family car, see Alfa Romeo 33 Series.

The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is an extremely rare road car built by Alfa Romeo of Italy. Only 18 are reported to have been made, plus three design studies based on the 33 Stradale the 33.2, Iguana and Carabo.

The Stradale, first built in 1967, was based on the Autodelta Alfa Romeo T33 racing car. The car, designed by Franco Scaglione, and built by Carrozzeria Marazzi, made its debut at the 1967 Turin Motorshow.

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 (when the average cost of a new car in 1968 was $2,822).

The Stradale is believed to be the first production vehicle to feature dihedral doors, also known as butterfly doors. Other vehicles which feature doors of this nature include the Toyota Sera, McLaren F1, Ferrari Enzo and the Saleen S7. The Stradale also features windows which seamlessly curve upward into the 'roof' of the vehicle.

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 bore x 52,2 mm stroke) dry-sump lubricated 1995cc V8 that featured SPICA fuel injection, 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 10000 rpm. The engine produced 230 bhp (172 kW) at 8800 rpm in road trim and 270 bhp in race trim.

In another break from convention, Alfa used a six-speed transaxle gearbox by Valerio Colotti.

The car took 5.5 seconds to reach 60 mph (96.56 km/h) from a standing start and has top speed of 260km/h (160mph).

Appearances in media

• Appeared in Sega GT 2002
• "Un bellissimo novembre" (That Splendid November - 1969) [Movie]

See also

• Ferrari Dino
• Lancia Stratos

External Links

• Chassis numbers and Race stats