Designers
The Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 / Visione was created by a team of creative people working together in their free time after work: Andrea Castiglione (automotive designer) Steffen Hess (CGI visualisation), Marco Zafferana (interior design/ CAD), Christian Schutz (exterior design/ CAD), and Sergio La Gattuta (UX design).
Project
As you can guess from the title, this project is an homage to the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale (1967).
This race-bred limited production supercar is considered one of the most beautiful cars in the world thanks to its amazing proportions, sexy curves and form-follows-function design penned by Franco Scaglione.
Learn more about the source of inspiration in our detailed Design Review here.
The team’s goal was to celebrate the 33 Stradale and its era, “not by restyling the past with the useless task to reinvent what is already good”, but by “emphasising what makes this car so special”.
We start at the face of the car, which bears a close resemblance to the original without copying its lines. The headlights retain a similar position on the heavily bulged fenders – although they are smaller and sit higher.
Their softly-squared outer shape (instead of oval) is defined by a thin LED line enclosing body-coloured panels and a thin stripe for the projectors at the flat base.
The designers were inspired by Pininfarina’s Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale (1969), one of the six concept cars based on the 33 Stradale’s underpinnings.
The low-positioned scudetto grille is a pentagon with rounded edges and a beautiful graphite finish. It is visually connected with two elongated air intakes, with round LED fog lights looking like jewels.
A carbon-fibre splitter appears below the integrated bumper for a sharp look. The clamshell bonnet includes the whole front end – something evident from the lack of panel gaps.
A very important task for the team was to keep the proportions as close to the original as possible. From the side, the soft curves of the front and rear fenders do justice to Franco Scaglione’s design, putting emphasis on the wheels with simplified and almost completely round wheel arches.
The wheels have significantly grown in diameter, with a custom design reminiscent of the phone-dial originals shod in relatively high profile tires.
The large quadrifoglio emblem proudly sits on the front fenders above the inclined bonnet line, close to the discreet rear view cameras that allow the absence of mirrors.
The characteristic side intake behind the gullwing doors revealing the mid-engined nature of the supercar has also grown in size, reaching closer to the ground.
The interesting pattern on the intakes follows the shape of the bodywork which recesses below the waistline for added lightness and slightly protrudes above the soft arch of the side sills with carbon-fibre extensions.
The curved canopy is entirely made of glass – including the double-bubble roof, with only an elongated body-coloured roof panel between the gull wing doors and thin black pillars separating the front and rear windshield from the side windows.
This glass dome brings more light in the cabin and provides great visibility for the driver, while showcasing the beautiful mid-mounted V8 engine.
Moving over to the back, the ultimate highlight is the central inlet with rounded edges, surrounded by LED taillights. This shape can also be found in the original but here it is further emphasised due to the recessed part from carbon-fibre in the middle, which also houses the licence plate.
There is also a small boot bearing the Alfa Romeo Logo. The inlets for engine cooling are beautifully integrated on the outline of the rear windscreen / glass engine cover, sharing their pattern with the side air intakes. This way, the rear deck looks like an additional part covering the mechanical components.
The rear bumper has a very steep angle, with four circular exhaust pipes protruding from the double carbon-fibre diffuser.
By the time of writing, the interior of the Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 / Visione wasn’t finished, but the team has plans to unveil it in the form of a detailed CAD model at a later date.
Verdict
The Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 / Visione had a very difficult mission – to honour the beautiful original without committing sacrilege to an automotive icon, while at the same time modernising the design details.
In my eyes it did exactly that, with an 100 per cent success rate.
Some might say the designers played it safe by staying close to the original, but it’s extremely hard to justify even the slightest change to a masterpiece. In the Stradale 33 / Visione everything looks in the right place and that was the biggest challenge.
This concept car has a character of its own, carrying the spirit – and the undeniably sexy curves and petite proportions – of this great Alfa Romeo from the past into the future.
The passion, talent and hard work of the team behind this concept car is evident in every single detail, and we wish they would continue their great work with more projects like that.
We would also love to see the Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 / Visione in flesh as a one-off, because this car deserves to be driven.
You can follow the Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 / Visione project on Instagram and Behance.
Disclaimer: The Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 / Visione was independently designed as a free-time project and is not associated with Stellantis
