1967 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale
Widely considered to be one of the sexiest automobiles ever made, the car was not just a looker. Alfa produced the 33 as a roadgoing version of the racing Tipo 33 and introduced Alfa’s racing technology to the world. It clocked 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and topped out at a blistering 160 mph. Sadly, only 18 were made. If it looks familiar, it inspired the modern Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. A beauty in its own right.
The race-bred engine bore no relation to the mass-produced units in Alfa's more mainstream vehicles. The engine is closely related to the V8 of the Alfa Montreal, albeit with smaller capacity and in a much higher state of tune. Both engines were derived from the 33 racers‘ but differed in many details. Both engines had chain driven camshafts as opposed to the racers‘ gear driven ones, but the Stradale kept the racing engine’s flat plane crankshaft, whereas the Montreal engine had a cross plane crank. Race engineer Carlo Chiti designed an over square (78 mm (3.1 in) bore x 52.2 mm (2.1 in) stroke) dry-sump lubricated all aluminum 1,995 cc (121.7 cu in) 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 10,000 rpm. The engine produced 230 hp (172 kW) at 8,800 rpm in road trim and 270 bhp (201 kW) in race trim. The engine valves are operated via chain-driven double-overhead cams and has a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Because every Stradale is hand built and unique the power levels can vary by car, used rpms etc., for example the first production Stradale (No. 750.33.101) has factory datasheet that claims 243 hp (181 kW) at 9,400 rpm with a "street" exhaust and 254 hp (189 kW) with open exhaust.
The 33 Stradale, first built in 1967, was based on the Autodelta Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 racing car. The car, designed by Franco Scaglione, and built by Carrozzeria Marazzi, made its debut at the 1967 Turin Motor show.
The car was introduced at the Sport Car Show at Monza, Italy in September 1967. Only 18 have been made. The prototype (chassis No. 750.33.01) was sold to private Gallery Abarth, Japan, a magnesium bodied Stradale replica (chassis No. 105.33.12) built in late 1970s and the five concept cars are now part of the Alfa Romeo Museum.
The 33 Stradale is the first production vehicle to feature dihedral doors, also known as butterfly doors. The 33 Stradale also features windows which seamlessly curve upward into the 'roof' of the vehicle. The car has aluminium body on aluminium tubular chassis. As a result of being built by hand, each model differs from the others for some details. For example, early models had twin headlights, replaced in the last ones by single lights. The position of the windscreen wiper, and even the number of them, is another thing that differentiates each example from the others. Also the late models have vents added behind both the front and rear wheels to allow hot air from the brakes to escape. The car has 13-inch Campagnolo magnesium wheels, the fronts eight and rears nine inches wide; there are Girling disc brakes on all four corners, the rear ones are inboard. Suspension is like in mid-1960s race car with upper and lower control arms in front and double trailing arms in the rear, along with substantial anti-roll bars.
The car takes 5.5 seconds to reach 60 mph (96.6 km/h) from a standing start and has a top speed of 260 km/h (160 mph). In 1968 it was the fastest commercially available car in the standing kilometer with time of 24.0 seconds measured by German Auto, Motor und Sport magazine. Similar performance cars on that time were all using twice the Stradale`s cylinder capacity, the Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari Daytona and Maserati Ghibli.
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). In the same year, in Italy, the retail price for a 33 Stradale was 9,750,000 lire. Just to make a comparison, the Lamborghini Miura was sold for 7,700,000 lire, while the average worker's wage was about 150.000 lire. The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale are hardly ever traded; thus their value is very hard to estimate. At the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, while presenting the Alfa 4C Spider, Alfa's Head of North America estimated the current market value of the 33 Stradale at "well over $10 million".
Source:Wikipedia
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