Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale First Look: A Gorgeous Sports Car Remastered

In introducing its new 33 Stradale, Alfa Romeo sets the bar high, declaring the sports car "follows in the footsteps of an icon of the 1960s and one of the most beautiful cars of all time—the Tipo 33." Does the 33 Stradale live up to that heady comparison? It's certainly pretty, but then so are most Italian sports cars bathed in blood red paint. Where the 33 Stradale truly stands out—beyond its show-stopping looks, of course—is its general audacity.

The Alfa Romeo brand has had its fair share of enticing sports cars over the years, but their ranks have thinned; the 8C of the 2000s was among the last exotic-class in-house examples. (There have been a few one-off coachbuilt things here and there.) More recently, Alfa sold the small 4C with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine and relatively attainable pricing. Its carbon-fiber monocoque was saucy for the price point, but it was hardly born of the same pedigree as Alfa's historic 20th-century racing machines (and sold alongside the sporty and premium but otherwise entirely conventional Giulia sedan and Stelvio crossover in U.S. dealerships). The new 33 Stradale attempts to impart the same "wow" factor and prestige as Alfa's past icons, particularly the road-going ones derived directly from racing models.

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Some Tipo 33

Best we can tell, the 33 Stradale's racing heritage lift is handled by its hints of the original '60s-era Tipo 33, from the bubble roof to the gaping glassed-in lights and those undulating body curves. These days it's much harder to draw straight lines between upper-level racing sports cars and road machines, what with the various clashing regulations for motorsports and production vehicles, so this isn't meant as a dig against the Alfa. More of a reality check.

Alfa Romeo is instead leaning hard on the 33's customization, which will apparently give would-be owners wide latitude to make their cars their own, to hit the reset button on its perception as a top-tier sports car maker. Each of the 33 examples will be entirely custom-built, and right off the bat customers will be faced with the biggest choice of all: Gas or electric? Much like modern clothes dryers, the 33 Stradale will offer two entirely different powertrains. The gas option is a 620-hp twin-turbo V-6, which will power the rear wheels via an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. The all-electric variant will deliver "more than" 750 hp and a range of 280 miles on the optimistic European WLTP test cycle. Expect less from the EPA's more stringent range test.

Without specifying which powertrain these figures apply to, Alfa Romeo says the 33 can accelerate to 62 mph in "less than three seconds" and achieves a top speed of 206 mph.

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Build Your Own

Those powertrains are installed in a carbon-fiber monocoque with aluminum bracing that we assume shares some lineage with the new Maserati MC20's similar bones. (Both Alfa and Maserati live beneath the Stellantis corporate umbrella, and Maserati's new Gran Turismo sports car also offers gas and electric power choices. The MC20 specifically also offers a twin-turbo V-6 and eight-speed DCT combo.) Draped over those bones is curvy styling evocative of the original Tipo 33, right down to the inset windows on each gullwing door as well as the clamshell nose and tail sections.

Alfa Romeo keeps things minimalist inside, with a bank of switchgear on the center console, a digital gauge cluster, and little else aside from the seats and steering wheel. The 33 manages to avoid looking austere thanks to eye-catching materials and a grooved theme that matches that of the exterior lighting. The side glass that wraps around into the roof and the thin bank of overhead switches where the two panels meet add appropriate drama, as well. And kudos to Alfa's interior designers for finding a way to make the touchscreen ahead of the shifter controls practically invisible—it's probably not great for line of sight from the driver, but the subtle integration down low is welcome in today's age of tombstone-like displays that perch like pigeons atop dashboards.

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More details are likely to come next year, when the 33 Stradale officially enters production. No model year has been assigned as of yet, at least not for the U.S. market, but we should point out that if you don't already have a spot in line, you're not getting a 33—at least not new. Alfa says all 33 examples are sold already, having been shopped to customers as far back as last year. Each one is likely to be different, built to its owners exacting specifications by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera.