Driving the £2m Alfa Romeo: 33 Stradale is a V6 masterclass

The steering wheel, too, is an aluminium three-spoker devoid of any buttons on its front. Wondrous. And do I detect the 33 team taking a certain pleasure in the fact that the wider industry is now following the trend of this tiny-volume sports car?

Read Also

2 day ago

First look at Alfa Romeo Tonale replacement due in 2028

12 autotech

And a sports car it is. Perhaps a supercar: it can do 207mph (333kph), after all, and 0-62mph in 3.0sec. But does supercar horsepower have to start with a seven or more these days? The 33 has ‘only’ six cylinders, there’s no electrical assistance, it has luggage space front (thin) and rear (hot), torque is spread broadly and weight is around 1600kg. Aerodynamic addenda serve only to make the 33 lift/downforce-neutral. It’s not a hardcore, super-fast or aero-heavy car, then, as most supercars are.

There’s more. Buyers have been coming to Alfa – they know them all well, of course – to say how surprised they are, pleasantly, to find the 33 is easy, unintimidating and refined to drive.

I find the same. My drive is on one of Balocco’s handling tracks: it’s smooth, hot and dusty and the kind of place where the clumsy-in-the-UK Alfa 4C probably felt really good. So some caveats, then. But generally the 33 Stradale is terrific. I’d describe it as MC20-adjacent, which I mean as a compliment: Maserati’s (junior?) supercar has an old-school, perhaps old-fashioned feel to it, with an honesty and straightforwardness that isn’t evident in every new sports car or supercar. And the 33 moves that theme gently onwards.