Explanation Alpha design
With the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, the famous brand wants to make a statement: we are still here, and how! This supercar is not only the successor to the unforgettable 8C Competizione and a tribute to the even more indelible 33 Stradale from 1967, but also the start of a new course for Alfa Romeo. A nod to the past and a hand to the future in one. Dutch chief designer Bob Romkes explains how this works.
Bob Romkes learned to draw at the prestigious Royal College of Art and put what he learned into practice at Yamaha, Toyota, Citroën and DS before he started working at Alfa Romeo more than a year ago. Now, as a newcomer you are often tested with less interesting jobs, but Bob was at a loss: whether he wanted to come up with a successor to the 8C Competizione that was retired in 2010. But, he puts things into perspective, as we walk around the first mock-up in a Turin photo studio: “I am responsible for all Alfa Romeo exterior designs, not just exclusive supercars. But you’re right, it was of course a fantastic dream project to start with. And also to be able to present this as the first car that I have fully worked on.”
Franco Scaglione
The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is a reincarnation of an iconic sports car from 1967, which was designed by the equally iconic Franco Scaglione. That must feel like you’re being asked to write a new, modern Hemingway. Bob agrees: “That was indeed very difficult in this project, finding the right balance between what we bring with us and how far we look into the future, how progressive we can be in the design. We also tried to go very extreme by changing everything, but we felt that that was not exactly what we wanted. It had to be a car that you immediately recognize as a 33, a Stradale. When you start with a blank sheet of paper, things can go either way. That is always a special experience, but once it is there, it seems logical. We quickly moved away from those extreme lines to look at the qualities of the old design. We wanted to stay close to the soul of that car.”
Anyway, there are of course many more Alfisti than the 33 lucky ones who have been chosen to be able to buy a 33 Stradale, and Bob wears out one pencil after another for that. This is quite a challenge to ensure that an Alfa remains an Alfa in the electric future, Bob acknowledges: “Aerodynamics is playing an increasingly important role. We will have to preserve our sculpture in a smart way. Aerodynamics require a fuller, flatter front end. Parts that need to pick up air detract from this and these are difficult matters that we study every day to ensure they are presented in a nice way.”
It is therefore undeniable that EVs in particular are strictly dictated by the wind tunnel, resulting in great similarities. Bob: “That is what we absolutely do not want with Alfa Romeo. We don’t follow that trend, we make Alfas. Those Chinese cars all look very similar and we want to prevent that.”
Alfa Romeo is a brand for everyone
The 33 Stradale is, Romkes concludes, also a statement to put Alfa Romeo back on a pedestal after some bad years: “We hope to put ourselves back on the map with this, but this is also an announcement that we will not stop here. Before the end of this year we will be talking about the next special project. We will continue with this, in addition to the normal line-up of course. We will of course continue to do so, because Alfa Romeo is a brand for everyone, not just for the elite.”
You can read the more extensive interview with Bob Romkes in GTO 4, which is now in stores.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl