Every now and then, cars come along and seemingly break the boundaries of what they were originally intended for. The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 is a good example of such a thing, a car built from a relentless desire to dominate the highest level of competition, but also a car that has found itself tugging on the heartstrings of concours jurors and award-givers for decades. While all Tipo 33’s are special in their own way, it is this specific example from the ever-impressive Schaltkulisse that leads the way, being the most success of the marque’s history, claiming class wins in 1968 at the Targa Florio, 1000 km Nürburgring and Le Mans 24 hour. Talk about the holy trinity.
While it was developed from 1965, the first year of competition produced many changes for the 1968 model such as this one, which would become known as the Tipo 33/2. Afer intense development, it boasted improved road holding, slicker aerodynamics and mechanical durability unseen before, resulting in a much better engineered car. Further testing at Mugello led a new coupé body, whilst retaining the original ‘H’ layout chassis of the first development cars. Two variants, a long and short tail were developed, with the longer often called ‘Le Mans’ and shorter, ‘Daytona’, although these bodies were designed to be interchangeable.
The incredible amount of testing allowed Alfa Romeo to learn everything there was to know about the car they’d developed, and ultimately resulted in a more balanced and competitive version of the Tipo 33, a car destined to take the fight to Porsche in the 1969 season. While the race outfit running the cars, Autodelta, had a flurry of Tipo 33s to choose from, as well as an impressive line-up of drivers at their disposal, all eyes were on Le Mans, which saw six short tail ‘Daytona’ configuration cars entered, four were Autodelta cars. This very car, chassis 17, car was allocated to the ever-successful pairing of Galli & Giunti, who despite coming up fierce competition from Elford in Porsche’s 907, the duo secured one of the greatest victories for the T33/2, and also securing second overall and first in classis at the Targa Florio. Only two weeks later, Galli and Giunti took the car to the Nurburgring, securing 5th and another 1st in the under 2-litre class, giving this car the holy trinity of race wins under its belt.
Since its glory days, the car has naturally been maintained to the highest standard imaginable, and lived with the famed French collector Antoine Raffaelli, where it was displayed for 35 years in the Musée de l’Automobile in Mougins. The car subsequently passed to Greg Whitten, who embarked on a complete lasting two years, before remaining with the current owner for over 10 years. Of all the Alfa Romeo T33/2 ‘Daytona’s’ built, it is chassis 017 that can claim to be the most important and impressive in the variant’s history, and is a car that is incredibly as beautiful as it is successful, something rarely found in competition cars!
