The Godfather Part Two: flat out in the gorgeous Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

As I circle the 33 Stradale bathed in Spring sunshine, in the courtyard of Alfa’s Balocco test track, I’m confused. My primal instinct is to sink to my knees and kiss its tyres while making grunting noises and flamboyant hand gestures.

This, after all, is a bright red Italian supercar with an Alfa badge on it, but I can’t stop thinking about those painfully glamorous fashion shows where models glide up and down the catwalk in artfully torn bin bags, the great wall of celebs watching on, enthralled by the genius of Jean-Paul Poopier’s winter collection. How much does the weight of a brand, or a designer, cloud your judgement?

We are programmed to believe Alfas are beautiful, and this is a modern take on arguably Alfa Romeo’s (and therefore the world’s) most beautiful car. Could it ever be anything other than knee quiveringly attractive? For that reason I’m on the fence, for now. Some context: the original 33 Stradale from the 1960s (designed by Franco Scaglione) was a road version of the Tipo 33 racer.

Photography: John Wycherley

Scaglione was a designer with such treats as the Alfa BAT cars and Lamborghini 350 GTV on his CV – but the 33 was his Mona Lisa and only 18 of them were ever made. In recent times we’ve had the rather lovely and very noisy 8C, and the rather less lovely 4C, but the 33 Stradale is the only proper, full-fat mid-engined supercar in Alfa’s back catalogue. You can see why a modern resurrection is kind of a big deal.

And like its forefather, vanishingly rare. Alfa will make 33 of this new version. That’s it. At launch it was offered with either a twin-turbo V6 (the one we’re driving) or a pure electric tri-motor powertrain. Like Maserati, who recently canned the electric MC20 Folgore because of the lack of demand, Alfa will be doing the same here – only a handful of customers were even interested in the EV version and in the end all 33 customers went for combustion.

In the business of electric sports cars? Might be time to pull the rip cord. Each can be customised to your heart’s desire of course – Alfa is classing all 33 as one-offs, and they will be manufactured by Italian coachbuilder Touring Superleggera, which immediately makes them 46 per cent cooler.

Sorry, did I mention they cost £1.7m each? No, not a typo, you can have one of these or eight Maserati MC20s, a car it shares a good chunk of its undercarriage with. Perhaps the greatest achievement here isn’t the styling, or the way it drives, but – for a company that doesn’t possess a book of ‘preferred’ customers, like Ferrari, Porsche and Lambo, who take one of everything – actually flogging 33 cars at such a hyper inflated price.

Cristiano Fiorio, Alfa’s global marketing boss and the driving force behind the 33 Stradale project, talks about the process of finding 33 signatures from a standing start. First port of call? Original 33 Stradale owners, then ticking off renowned car collectors, including Ralph Lauren, who he approached through the ‘Contact us’ link on Ralph’s website. Fiorio is one of us.

The car here is Alfa’s own development prototype, chassis zero if you like – one that’s within a whisker of production finish but not quite as polished as the 33 customer cars. It’s the one it’ll continue to update and keep forever, so expect to see it on every magazine test from now until the end of time, on the few occasions they let it out the stable. We had the entire day, Alfa’s test track (the car isn’t yet road registered), glorious Italian sunshine and the keys to ourselves. Tough day at the office.

To address the ‘just a Maserati MC20 in a fancy frock’ debate, yes, the two are deeply related – they share the same carbon tub (the lower half at least, the 33’s upper bits are all new) and aluminium subframes at either end. The engines are closely related 3.0-litre twin turbo V6s although the Alfa does away with Maserati’s clever, efficiency-enhancing pre-chamber ignition. The Alfa’s suspension is unique though – the multi-link with adaptive dampers setup from the hardcore Giulia GTAm. Beyond that the exterior and interior design is quite obviously all Alfa.

Are we bothered by the parts sharing? Not massively, the mechanical simplicity and use of proven components was always Alfa’s intention – it didn’t want to bite off some huge technical challenge like the Aston Valkyrie or AMG One, it wanted to focus on what Alfa does well – style, emotion and playing hard on the history and romance of the brand.

The twin-turbo V6 produces an identical 621bhp to the MC20 (and pushes along roughly the same 1,500kg kerbweight) while sending its power to the rear wheels via an eight-speed twin clutch gearbox. Top speed is a claimed 207mph (or 333kph, geddit?) a little higher than the MC20 and 0–62mph takes 3.0secs. It’s not slow, although I’m convinced that my internal gyrometer has been permanently ruined by gazillion-horsepower hypercars and face-contorting EVs, because my brain categorises it as ‘pleasingly rapid’ rather than violent or shocking. And you know what? It’s all the better for it – this is throttle travel you can actually use, often, both on the road and on track.

It has that same fizzy, infectious character as the MC20’s engine – minimal lag, elastic power band and an orchestra of noises ranging from guttural huff on throttle to the turbo whistling away in the background. The gearbox is smooth in Strada mode and gives you a kick in the back in Pista, while the carbon ceramic brakes need a firm push but offer decent feel even from cold, so no complaints.

Bury it and it can shift, it makes interesting noises, it feels like an event, but like the Ferrari F80, the question must be asked – is a twin-turbo V6 special enough for a car worth such an insane amount of money? In the £200k MC20 it’s a good match, but here I’m looking for a little more, especially when the much cheaper Alfa 8C’s V8 produced one of motoring’s great noises. The powertrain is characterful, effective and by no means a hindrance to the red-blooded Alfa experience, but we’re talking almost GMA T.50 money here, and look at the engine you get in that...

The steering is weightier than I expected but meshes nicely with the engine’s slightly grittier character, and I’m pleased to report there’s nothing gritty about the ride or general flow of guiding the 33 down the road. It’s something we loved about the Maserati MC20, its relaxed gait, its light tread on the road surface and just enough body roll to make it feel alive beneath you. That’s all here in spades, which means, yes, it’s a car you could drive on track, but why risk it? The 33 Stradale will give its best on an undulating B-road – elegant little slides out of tight corners and fast, flowing progress riding the torque from the engine fizzing away over your shoulder. It’s a joyous way to travel and deserves to be used regularly – save the Valkyrie for track days, take this one to the shops.

And prepare to get a lot of attention at Asda. It’s not a traditionally beautiful car, it’s more unusual than that, but it feels brave and confident and looks unlike anything else built in the last 50 years. The nods to the original are everywhere – the bulbous headlights (complete with 33 LED ‘lashes’), the windscreen surround, the way the doors cut so dramatically into the roof, creating an X-shaped carbon roll cage when viewed from above. The double-hinged doors are pure theatre, as are the forged and then milled aluminium wheels – I don’t even mind the gold. The side intakes ape the OG as do the cutouts on the rear flanks leading to the single round tail-lights. It references the past, but doesn’t cling to it.

The interior though, is the best bit – a million miles from the MC20’s plasticky, sparse cabin. The 33 feels expensive because the focus is on tactility before technology, which is a philosophy we all need right now. Note the intricate aluminium and leather three spoke wheel with zero buttons, the vents hidden within the sweeping dash, the ribbed leather and hunks of machined aluminium everywhere. The commitment to analogue is commendable on the knurled switches, levers and buttons above your head (instant Top Gun vibes) and on the centre console, one of which is dedicated entirely to answering your phone. Toggle another and a screen emerges from behind the dash and once your nav/climate/music is sorted you send it back from whence it came. A Quadrifoglio button shortcuts to exhaust flaps open for Maximum Antisocial in Strada, and activates launch control in Pista.

It's an utterly gorgeous bright red Alfa Romeo mid-engined supercar and I want to lick it

The doors aren’t just for showing off either. You’re surrounded almost totally by glass giving a sense of more space than there actually is, and a largely unimpeded view out. The rear window is polycarbonate in a nod to the 33’s racing roots, and offers a viewpoint to a sexy Alfa badge under there, but regrettably not the entire engine. There are two basic interior configurations – Tributo or Corse. The former, as we sampled, is biscuit leather and slate and the correct one to go for, the latter is slathered in carbon and Alcantara and veers dangerously into Ferrari territory. But if your pockets are deep enough, anything’s possible.

Let’s dismount the fence. I tried to fight it, I really did, but it’s an utterly gorgeous bright red Alfa Romeo mid-engined supercar and I want to lick it – the interior especially. That being said, limiting it to 33 cars at £1.7m a pop alienates the Alfa faithful and will make it harder to drive regularly in the manner it deserves to, because there’s nothing fragile or overly complicated beneath the haute couture shell. The sad truth is these days it’s easier to sell a handful of supercars to the mega rich than a whole load more, at a lower price point, to the merely very wealthy. You won’t be seeing one on every street corner, but the world’s always a better place with 33 new Alfa supercars in it.