Alfa 33

[colcol]

33 things to like about 33's,
1 You cannot confuse it with any other car, how may other cars have a moniker 33?
2 Except maybe a Golf R33, Skyline R33 or Daffodil 33, [Dutch car],
3 2nd largest selling Alfa Romeo,
4 Sold between 1983-1994, kept the lines humming at Pomigliarno De Arco,
5 Fabulous boxer motor lived on in the series 1, 145-146 versions,
6 Kept Alfa Romeo dealers going during the lean times of the late 80's - early 90's,
7 Named after a famous racing car that won the Le mans 24 hour, [when people cared],
8 Not a quality mark out of 100, [Alfa Romeo had no such programs in those days],
9 In 1983 had a very aerodynamic drag factor of .36,
10 Only thing you hear at 100 kph is my watch ticking,
11 Memo to self, have noisy watch looked at,
12 Only jellymould Ford Sierra and Audi 100 were more aero,
13 Styled by Cressoni at Central Style, [Alfa Romeo styling studio],
14 33 Station wagon styled by Pinin Farina,
15 33 Station wagon built by Pinin Farina,
16 33 Station wagon has a simple 4 wheel drive system,
17 33 Station wagon was an original soft roader, except 30 years earlier,
18 Boxer motor had low centre of gravity, [put a triangle on its base and try to tip it over],
19 Boxer motor was only 2 and a half cylinders long,
20 Boxer motor has a nice throb sound to it,
21 Boxer motor has 4 bolt main bearings, serrated bearing caps and conrods,
22 Boxer motor has forged crankshaft, all race car like engineering,
23 Boxer motor at one stage had the highest power per litre, carby engine in the world,
24 Boxer motor was the control engine in an Italian domestic open wheel series,
25 33 has 3 way adjustable steering column, up - normal - down,
26 33 has perfect pedal setup for heeling and towing and hitting 2 pedals at once!,
27 33 never had Selespeed,
28 33's handle like they are Mini's, see point 18,
29 Suspension has front built in negative camber as standard,
30 Rudolph Hruska designed the engine and suspension, [he came from Volkswagon's sports car division]
31 They are a ball of fun to drive, with no quirky handling,
32 They can carry a 48 inch flat screen television, with the back seat down,
33 See what you can add to this list.

[Thevak]

Hope to add likes after my first hit Out with a recently resurrected 1.7IE at the Rob Roy hill climb this weekend.

[Garibaldi]

Very informative post Col.

[DAMO1A]

34. The main instruments pod is separate to the dash and moved up and down with the steering wheel to maintain good driver visibility
35. The check control is like an all year round Christmas tree.
36. The sun roof glass was removeable and was stored in the boot with a special rubber strap.
37. The dash mounted stereo speakers were usually able to be heard.
38. The boot release was moved from the passenger side (al la Sud) to the driver side.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

33.1  The air-con and heater are both terrible, so the missus never wanted to ride in it, meaning I could thrash the living hell out of it EVERYWHERE.
33.2  But still never get a speeding ticket.

[lombardi]

http://www.alfaroma.it/alfa-roma-il-video-dei-30-anni-di-alfa-33/

COL, FOUND this great video on the alfaroma.it forum, all about the 30 year anniversary as it was celebrated in Terni umbria, hope the link works for you,if not go to alfaroma.it, enjoy,regards

[colcol]

Thanks Lombardi, very enjoyable, with one of my favourite songs, 'Danger Zone' by Kenny Loggins, that song always makes you drive the car a bit more in the way they were driving the cars in the filmclip.
I like the styling of the original 33 by Cressoni, except for the tail lights which are a bit oversize and stick out, the series 3, 16 valve facelift was i beleive done by the head of Central Style at the time Walter Da Silva, and made it a good looking car, with bits of 164 and 155 thrown in.
It is a shame that the 33 is known for its rubbish air conditioner, as they were fitted locally, to avoid import duties, it was about $1,800 fitted, but $3,000 for the imported Autoclima factory unit that worked much better, mine works as good or bad as the one in the 156.
I think, unlike Sheldon's experience that a lot of 33 owner would get caught for speeding, as the FRENCH speedo's were prone to failure, mine stopped working on the way to work the other day, but worked on the way home, French electrics, go figure.
The hatch release was relocated on the right side, but after years of driving a Alfasud, i still used to work around to the left side to click it!, learnt behaviour i think its called, i once had the hatch release cable seize, and had to put the back seat down and crawl into the boot and flick the catch to the open position, give the cable in the boot and on the floor a squirt of WD-40 to stop the cable rusting up.
Don't like sunroofs on 33's, always a source of rust, and thats the last thing you need on an older Alfa Romeo, and when you see a car thats been in a decent prang, the sunroof area always distorts a bit, which is not inspiring around the drivers head.
The dash mounted speakers were great and were able to be upgraded very easily to better ones.
There are a few good 33's for as good as they are are worth nothing, but you can have a lot of fun for not much money.
As bizzare as it seems, the 33 had quite a good crash rating, as the boxer engine was short and would slide under the car in a front ender, Colin.

[Alfapride]

Fantastic video thanks for sharing! I agree you can have a lot of fun in a 33 and a cheap way into Alfa ownership.