Guide: Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale Ital Design Iguana - a Historical & Technical Appraisal
/ Ben Tyer
BACKGROUND
Plans for a production run of 50 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradales proved overly optimistic and only 13 street cars were eventually completed.
Too expensive to build and sell, Alfa Romeo were left with around half a dozen unused rolling chassis.
Rather than store or destroy them, Alfa decided on a course of action that would generate considerable publicity.
The leftover rolling chassis were periodically supplied to Italy’s top coachbuilders who then had free reign to create futuristic design concepts. The completed styling exercises would be displayed at the most important motor shows over the next couple of years.
1968 saw the Bertone Carabo and Pininfarina P33 Roadster debut in Paris and Turin respectively.
For the same shows in 1969, Pininfarina would receive their second chassis while another was allocated to the new Ital Design agency headed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Established in 1968, Ital Design burst onto the scene with the Manta, a stunning one-off based on the Bizzarrini P538. Giugiaro, of course, had good form; during spells at Bertone (1960 to 1965) and Ghia (1966 to 1968) he had been the architect of several exceptional autombiles.
The Tipo 33 commission would be Ital Design’s third creation and Alfa Romeo wanted the car to debut in late October at the Turin Motor Show.
BODYWORK
Built on chassis 750.33.116, Giugiaro’s ‘Iguana’ was a more practical proposition than the aforementioned efforts by Bertone and Pininfarina.
At its leading edge the nose incorporated a full width opening and traditional Alfa Romeo grille. The upper surface housed retractable headlights and a discrete integrated spoiler was positioned at the base of the windscreen.
Large glass panels were used, including for the roof and rear quarters, which lent an unusually airy feel to the cockpit. A second spoiler was located above the base of the rear window and formed part of an unconventionally high tail.
The rear deck, tail fascia and wings were all heavily vented to improve cooling.
Like the Lamborghini Miura and Ford GT40, single piece front and rear clams were hinged at either end of the body.
The Iguana was given an unpainted brushed steel finish, a trick Giugiaro would later repeat on his DeLorean DMC-12.
INTERIOR
As per the exterior, Giugiaro designed the cockpit with style and functionality in mind.
The interior was upholstered in a mix of black leather and matching vinyl, grey velour and red carpet.
Directly behind the two spoke steering wheel was a well laid out rectangular binnacle that housed all the instrumentation. The switchgear was located on a central control panel that linked the dash to the transmission tunnel.
Visibility was excellent and it would not have taken much to turn the Iguana into a production-ready machine.
Like nearly all Tipo 33 concepts, once its show career was over, the Iguana was retained by Alfa Romeo for their Museo Storico.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Alfa Romeo - https://www.alfaromeo.com
Unlike most attempts at retro-themed automotive designs, Alfa Romeo’s spectacular 8C produced between 2007 and 2010 ranks among the most beautiful motor cars of the modern era. Styled by…
For 1993, organisers of the DTM elected to adopt arguably the most radical regularity framework for production-based machinery since the Group 5 Silhouette era. Dubbed Class 1, the new rules…
Having debuted the gorgeous Pininfarina-styled Tipo 105 Spider in 1570cc trim at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966, Alfa Romeo unveiled a more potent 1779cc version a little under two years later.
Of the myriad 4C special editions produced by Alfa Romeo, arguably the best came last: the 33 Stradale Tributo. In total, 98 copies of this modern day homage to the iconic 33 Stradale from the…
Within a few months of the Tipo 33 Stradale’s September 1967 launch, Alfa Romeo knew the model was not going to hit the 50-car homologation requirement for the Group 4 Sport category. Rather…
Cars aren’t just metal: we believe they’re of a place, a time and the people who brought them to life. This is the untold story of one of the most beautiful sports cars ever made, and its journey back home to relive its youth.
Although perhaps best known for iconic top class muscle cars, the early days of Trans-Am racing also catered for under two-litre production-based Group 2 Touring Cars. For 1971, new rules allowed…
For 1970, the existing Group 2 Touring Car regulations were revamped to permit a considerable degree of additional modification than had been the case during the prior era. Manufacturers would…
At the 1997 Geneva Motor Show, Ital Design unveiled a fully operational concept in conjunction with Alfa Romeo. Dubbed Scighera after a Milanese mist, this latest high end sports car creation…
After Zagato had successfully re-bodied a small run of Giulietta Sprint Veloces into ‘SVZ’ trim (making them the most competitive under 1300cc GT racers around), Alfa Romeo commissioned…
After a disappointing debut campaign with the first generation Tipo 33 in 1967 during which the car showed a formidable turn of speed but poor reliability, Alfa Romeo commissioned Autodelta to…
During its first 100 years of car manufacturing, Alfa Romeo collaborated with nearly all the best Italian styling houses to include Bertone, Pininfarina, Touring, Ghia and Ital Design. In addition, the Milan…
40 years after the original company was wound up, the renowned Italian coachbuilding outfit Touring of Milan was revived by a group of investors. The first products to emerge under new…
Although Alfa Romeo’s model line-up from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s had garnered critical acclaim on account of its styling and engineering, there had been little to excite the kind of buyer…
Launched in production-ready form at the Geneva Salon in March 1970, the Alfa Romeo Montreal perhaps most famously combined an advanced fuel-injected Tipo 33-derived V8 engine with…
17 months after the Bertone-bodied Tipo 105 Giulia Sprint GT Coupe was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Alfa Romeo released a tricked-out hot rod conceived to pave the way for the most…
Following the spectacular success of the TZ and TZ2 GT racing cars, Alfa Romeo commissioned their official competition department, Autodelta, to work its magic on something with more mainstream…
In the midst of a two-year campaign that yielded eight class wins for the TZ2 at World Sportscar Championship level, Alfa Romeo gave the order for a rolling chassis to be dispatched from Autodelta…
While most governing bodies adopted Class 2 Super Touring regulations for their national touring car championships during the 1990s, organisers for the German series briefly elected to go with the…
Off the back of an extremely successful debut campaign with the TZ which had most notably garnered class wins at the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours, the Targa Florio and the…
As a consequence of its sensational Pininfarina styling and starring role in 1967’s hit movie movie ‘The Graduate’, Alfa Romeo’s Tipo 105 Spider became an automotive icon that stayed in production…
Produced between 2007 and 2010, the gorgeous 8C was Alfa Romeo’s most exciting road car since the legendary but comparatively tiny run of Tipo 33 Stradales manufactured during the late 1960s.
Having produced the stunning and heavily over-subscribed 8C Competizione and Spider between 2007 and 2010, Alfa Romeo decided to create a less expensive iteration of the modern sports car…
Alfa Romeo’s inaugural 1967 campaign with the Autodelta-developed Tipo 33 two-litre Group 6 Prototype was a mixed affair; while the Tipo 33 clearly had the speed to match its rivals from…
Having won the inaugural 1950 and ‘51 Formula 1 World Championship, Alfa Romeo quit single seater racing owing to the cost of building a new car for 1952 when a two-litre engine limit came into effect.
Alfa Romeo created the iconic second generation SZ to cash-in on the late 1980s collector car boom and add a little stardust to an otherwise rather pedestrian range. A production run of 1000…
At the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2001, Alfa Romeo revived the iconic GTA moniker first seen in the mid 1960s when the Giulia-based Gran Turismo Allegerita began its illustrious racing…
Produced between 1974 and 1987, the Alfetta GT (which later evolved into the GTV) was Alfa Romeo’s two-door version of their Alfetta sedan which had been around in one shape of another since 1972.
Around 18 months after its inception, Carlo Chiti’s Autodelta concern became Alfa Romeo’s official competition department. Autodelta’s first new car for Alfa Romeo was the Giulia-based Tubolare…
The beautiful but very expensive 8C manufactured between 2007 and 2010 had a transformative effect on Alfa Romeo's image. Although the company had built a couple of high performance GTA…