‘A modern homage to an icon’ – behold the PPW R33

Plenty of Italian supercar classics have had their time in their reimagination, recreation or restomod limelight: Lamborghini made another Countach, Ferrari mined its considerable heritage for the Icona series, new Paganis look an awful lot like old Paganis and all manner of companies are endeavouring to make Lancia great again. But Alfa Romeo has been absent from that list. Oh sure, Alfaholics will make you a lovely little GT Junior, if nothing more exotic than that. Step forward, then, PPW, and its R33 – ‘a breathtaking tribute to the legendary 1967 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale.’ 

60 years ago, just 11 roadgoing Tipo 33s were made, which would probably explain why it’s taken a while for a 21st-century celebration to happen – it was always going to take someone really dedicated to get the project off the ground. There will be fewer of those for the Tipo 33, surely, than for something made in greater numbers. But PHer David Hutchinson was that person; he emailed last week to say that his ‘five-year obsession has finally come to fruition’, asked whether we’d be interested in writing about it and also whether it should be at Annual Service next month. You can guess the answers to those questions. 

Originally this was to be a one-off for David, built with PPW, but now the decision has been made to produce 33 of these incredible machines. The spec sounds as good as the car looks, with almost 400hp provided from the dry-sumped, Ferrari-Maserati 4.2-litre F176 V8; it’ll snort through throttle bodies, because that’s what a ’60s 33 had, and drive power to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual. The R33 will weigh 1,000kg dry. 

Partly it’s so light because it’s so small – the joy of paying homage to a classic means this is less than four metres long. But also that’s attributable to the new chassis, which mirrors the dimensions of the original Alfa but with more modern materials. This is no mere rebody of an existing sports car – the R33 by PPW is a whole new thing. And that’s hugely exciting. The body is handcrafted aluminium ‘complemented by state-of-the-art construction techniques.’ Butterfly doors ought to ensure your ingress and egress is almost as graceful. But no guarantees…

Without ABS, traction control or power steering, the R33 is described by its maker as a ‘purist’s dream’; the brakes feature Wilwood calipers, the Gaz dampers are bespoke to this project and there isn’t even any servo for the middle pedal – so best bring your A-game. Which is exactly the point; the R33 celebrates a time when driving was visceral, demanding, and immensely rewarding, an era that many are desperate to create now in an increasingly sanitised and synthetic fast car world. Only this one is road legal with IVA approval, and there’ll be rather more than Alfa ever produced in period. 

Still not very many, though. There will be 33 R33s, and each will cost from £540,000 plus taxes. This colour is Alfa Rosso Corsa, and you’ll be able to see PPW’s glorious work in person at the PH Annual Service. Perfect time to commission your build, in fact…