1986 Alfa Romeo 33 Gold Leaf review from Australia and New Zealand

Distributor cap corroded where the leads plug into it.

Idle jets on carbs got a bit blocked.

Annoying squeek from somewhere, could never find source.

CVs starting to go.

The engine was rebuilt when I got it, and the car had been resprayed so rust was not an issue.

In general the car was in good condition, clean interior, all the electrics worked (although the c/locking was a bit temperamental), good radiator and good tyres.

The engine proved to be reliable while I had it, and it really did get up and go when you wanted it to. The flat four 1.5 with twin webers goes hard, a lot of torque from about 3000 and revs out well, I only used to take it to about 6000 because by then the sound is just amazing and you don't want to push it to the extreme.

However, the engine is really the only thing I give this car credit for. The drivetrain is average, the suspension average, and the gearbox is weak. You will be hard pressed to find an alfa 33 without a dodgy second gear synchromesh, and mine was no exception.

Handling was terrible, this car was not even fitted with a front swaybar. Talk about understeer. The front end is unstable, You can feel the front wheels slipping laterally on a wet gas plate in the road on a drizzly night. Also when you take off fast there is a massive torque reaction and the front wheels try and jump off the road. Then you are slowed down by the second gear synchro, and you are changing gear already due to a very tall 1st gear ratio.

Overall the car is a poor example of engineering in my opinion. There is no simplicity or elegance to the design of things.

With regard to the handling, apparently fitting a swaybar will improve it a fair bit, but I doubt itd be anything special still.