Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale just the first of many exotic specials to come

The stunning Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale supercar will be just the first in a series of exotic new coach-built halo models the Italian car-maker will reveal every two to three years.

Speaking with Australian media this week, Alfa Romeo product boss Daniel Guzzafame said the 33 Stradale project saw the establishment of the ‘Bottega’ – the group of internal and external parties responsible for the development and production of the vehicle – “with the intent of starting a process, not… just doing one exercise”.

“We have what we called before this project, the Club 33, that will continue to live because we want to keep alive this kind of exchange of information, opinions, also criticisms sometimes, from all of these guys, with the idea also of defining together what is the next step,” he said.

Club 33 members were ultimately asked what they saw as the next step for Alfa Romeo in terms of a new limited-volume halo model to succeed the 33 Stradale and eventually follow it into the Alfa Romeo Museum as the next chapter of the brand’s storied heritage.

“There were some interesting feedbacks… I can tell you there are different options on the table,” Guzzafame said.

“Alfa Romeo has the luck of having a number of very iconic cars and supercars from the past.

“We have a number of possible inspirations that we can take from, and we will decide together with them [the Club].”

Guzzafame was quick to rule out the potential production of a 34th 33 Stradale, given the supercar is being strictly limited to 33 units, and said there would not be any sort of convertible, lightweight or track-only derivative out of respect for the model and what it signifies.

Instead, he said Alfa will focus primarily on its core business and blend day-to-day operations with the intermittent development of a low-volume special like the 33 Stradale – despite there being more than enough demand for a new limited-edition each year.

To this end, Guzzafame said the brand wasn’t interested in becoming an exotic low-volume specialist and that projects like the 33 Stradale were driven by passion as opposed to marketing or economics.

“It is not an operation to make money because at the end, of course, that’s not the scope of this kind of car,” he said.

An exact timeline of when the next Bottega product will emerge hasn’t been finalised yet, but Guzzafame said he anticipated it would be “two to three years” on the basis of production logistics, with the 33 Stradale expected to be built at the rate of two or three units per month.

An average of 2.5 vehicles per month extrapolates out to a production run of just over 13 months, which leaves up to 24 months of breathing room for the 33 Stradale at the top of the Alfa portfolio before the next special comes along.

Guzzafame said the key to the program will be the build quality of the finished products, which will likely be cross-shopped against the finest supercars, hypercars and ‘exoticars’ from brands like Bugatti, Lamborghini and Ferrari.

“We built a process together with a coachbuilder – we selected the coachbuilder solely on that parameter – so capability of build quality, and that drives to the possibility of building let’s say two to three cars per month,” Guzzafame said.

So how much will these projects cost their owners? Each vehicle is tailored to the desired specification of the client and while there is a consistent ‘base fee’ for both the petrol and electric 33 Stradales, Alfa has opted to keep that number a secret – reserved only for paying customers – you can expect each vehicle to be priced in the millions.

All 33 examples are being produced in left-hand-drive but that hasn’t stopped one lucky – and wealthy – Aussie netting an example for themselves, and there’s a chance you might even see it out in public one day because Alfa literally requires customers to drive their cars.

“We selected the customers in a way that they use the car – not people that keep their cars in the garage segregated where nobody will see them,” Guzzafame said.

“Of course it’s a car for a few, but it should be made accessible to many in terms of views and that was one of the criteria for the selections of the customers.”