Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale Perla Nera Wears Hand Laid Carbon and Nothing Else

Alfa Romeo’s Bottegafuoriserie division finished a single 33 Stradale for a collector who wanted the car finished in bare carbon and little else. He named it Perla Nera, Italian for black pearl, and stayed involved through the build. Cristiano Fiorio, who runs the division for both Alfa Romeo and Maserati, said every detail was worked out with the owner. The car sits on chassis 03 of the 33-car run and will stay at the Museo Alfa Romeo in Arese until October 18 before it leaves for delivery.

Body panels are put into the mold with hand-placed carbon sheets to ensure that the weave wraps nicely around the curves rather than clashing with them. The hood features a V-shape design. A herringbone weave extends from the nose all the way around the roof and down the flanks, with no paint to conceal it. The matte surface is merely the fiber itself, and by omitting the paint layer, they were able to save approximately 22 pounds, which is a significant savings when compared to the painted cars in the same lineup. The wheels are black, three-spoke alloys, and the brake calipers match them well. The majority of the badges have been removed, with the exception of the front emblem and the rear Alfa Romeo writing, which are both black and gray to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

After a few fitting sessions, the seats were remade to fit the owner’s build exactly. Alcantara takes over the cabin, and where the owner desired it, the carbon gets to stay exposed. The door cards and sills feature a lovely cannelloni motif. The Quadrifoglio and Autodelta appear in their normal locations, and the sole splash of color in the car is a four-leaf clover placed into the launch button and a door panel. Of course, the owner’s initials are centrally displayed on the rotary selector. Perla Nera lettering appears on the doors, seats, and the rear-wall storage compartment, which also has the 03/33 plate. A matching Alcantara luggage set has the same serial number.





Power comes from the same twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 found in the Maserati MC20 and the rest of the 33 Stradale series, with this one producing 620 horsepower and 538 pound-feet. A quick eight-speed dual-clutch transmission delivers it all to the rear wheels. Alfa claims you can reach 62 mph in under three seconds and a top speed of over 207 mph. The engine is mounted in a carbon monocoque with an aluminum H-frame, the same configuration as the other 32 cars, all of which sold for more than $2 million. Perla Nera, on the other hand, is the first one-of-a-kind to emerge from Bottega Alfa Romeo, and on the inside, it was built using the same architecture as the 1967 original that the present car obviously references, finished to a very particular brief that left the carbon visible from front to rear.