Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3

From WOI Encyclopedia Italia

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).

Contents

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33

The 2000cc Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 mid-engined prototype debuted on 12 March 1967 at the Belgian hillclimbing event at Fléron, with Teodoro Zeccoli winning. It was powered by a 90° V8 with 1995 cc and 270 hp, and built with a large diameter tube frame. The original T33 proved unreliable and uncompetitive in the World Sportscar Championship, its best result a 5th place at the 1000km Nürburgring, with Zeccoli and Roberto Bussinello.

Alfa Romeo 33/2

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.

Alfa Romeo 33/3

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT 12

Versions of the late 1970s called 33 TT 12 have a 12 cylinder boxer engine as used in the Brabham-Alfa BT45 F1 car.

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

External link



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