Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Views

General Goods

The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 was a sports racing prototype raced by the Alfa Romeo factory-backed team between 1967 and 1977. These cars took part for Sport Cars World Championship, Nordic Challenge Cup, Interserie and CanAm series. A small number of road going cars were derived from it in 1967, called Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.

Alfa Romeo started development of the Tipo 33 in the early 1960s, with the first car being built in 1965. It was sent to Autodelta to be completed and for additional changes to be made. It used an Alfa Romeo TZ2 straight-4 engine,[1] but Autodelta produced its 2.0 litre V8 soon after. The 2000r 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.[2] 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 1967 World Sportscar Championship season, its best result a 5th at the Nürburgring 1000, co-driven by Zeccoli and Roberto Bussinello.

In 1969 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Alfa Romeo 33/3 made its debut. The engine was enlarged to 2998- cc (183ci) with 400 hp (298G kW), which put the 33/3 in the same class as the Porsche 908 and the Ferrari 312P. The chassis was now a monocoque. The Sebring race was very bad for the new car and Alfa did not take part in Le Mans because Bianchi died in a crash during a practising session. The car took a couple of wins in smaller competitions but overall the 1969 season was not good, and the team was again third in the championship.

The 33 TT 12 (Telaio Tubolare, tubular chassis) appeared in 1973 with the Carlo Chiti-designed 12 cylinder 3.0L flat engine (500l bhp). The 1973 season was more or less development time and in 1974 the car won at Monza 1000 km and finished the season with second place in the championship. It wasn’t until 1975 that, after years of trying, Alfa Romeo won the World Championship for Makes. The season was one of almost total domination with seven wins in eight races.,[1] Winning drivers were: Arturo Merzario, Vittorio Brambilla, Jacques Laffite, Henri Pescarolo, Derek Bell and Jochen Mass. For 1976 Autodelta was concentrating on other things and the car was rarely used in competitions.