Press Release - 10 January 2010

London, England – Autodelta will get the ball rolling on Alfa Romeo’s centenary year in some style with an exhibition of some of the Italian marque’s most significant historic-to-modern cars at PistonHeads: The Performance Car Show which will take place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, 14-17 January 2010, alongside the world’s biggest racing car show, Autosport International. It will be a double celebration, as moulded into a swage of significant Alfa Romeos will be exhibited key models from Autodelta’s own rich history. The two will be indivisibly bound together in a timeline that graphically emphasizes the enduring bond that has always existed between Autodelta and Alfa Romeo and demonstrates how the modern-day Autodelta ceaselessly strives to live up to the legendary ideals of the historic Alfa Romeo tuning division. The Alfa Romeo collection to be shown has been specially curated through the unrivalled expertise of Auto Italia magazine.

Today Autodelta is the leading aftermarket Alfa Romeo design and tuning house, setting the worldwide standard for redefining Alfa Romeo’s evocative models, creating bespoke masterpieces that fuse optimized performance and dynamic capability, turning them into the unrivalled products that Alfisti demand. Our almost quarter of a century of refining Alfa Romeos has always been driven by passion expressed in the pursuit of innovation and technical excellence. Today Autodelta’s supercharging systems bring to life the Italian sports cars in a way that few can imagine before they take a test drive, and our engineers continue to think outside the box, resolving automotive taboos whenever they stand in our way, such as creating perfectly driver-friendly front wheel drive cars more than 400 bhp available or applying forced induction to Alfa Romeo’s range of direct injection petrol engines.

Headlining the exhibition of cars at the NEC next month will be the two brand-new models from Autodelta: the Autodelta J4 3.2 C and the Autodelta Brera S 3.2 “Compressore”; these cars received their world preview last month and are set to join our product range in January. Alongside these high performance sports cars that fuse the core values of Autodelta, Alfa Romeo’s historic tradition, and the requirements of Alfisti, will be a very special car: the world’s first tuned Alfa 8C Competizione. Autodelta has already refined one of these breathtaking machines that have galvanized the marque in the minds of the public and media alike with their retro-looks and powerful 4.7 V8-litre engines.

Not available as part of our upgrade options, this specific car has been reworked by our engineers to allow them to begin our future development phase of the new 4.7 V8 engine, and included intensive testing on leading European race tracks where the Alfa 8C Competizione was born to stretch its agile legs. The car we will present at the PistonHeads: The Performance Car Show has had the ECU software remapped to optimize response. There is a small rise in power output after the changes (17 bhp) and torque (20 Nm). We are also working on chassis and suspension upgrades that will be presented at a later date.

Other significant Autodelta models to be displayed in Birmingham will include the recent one-off coachbuilt Autodelta Spider Superflow, the Autodelta 147 GTA AM 3.7 Super which Jeremy Clarkson test drove on Top Gear and commented that: “Mad amount of power and astounding grip make this the hottest hatch ever”, as well as the supercharged Alfa Romeo SZ coupé, a staple high-performance product of Autodelta’s workshops throughout the 1990s.

For the exhibition of illustrious Alfa Romeos that will be shown alongside the Autodelta models, we have chosen around two dozen significant iconic cars that overlap with the history of Carlo Chiti’s legendary Autodelta racing division and then the later years of the design and tuning house of the same name, creating a tangible timeline, that will allow the visitor to chase their way through a fascinating history, and see and feel the bonds that becomes one. Many of the cars to be shown were in fact taken by these tuning companies through the years and reworked into the ultimate expression of Alfa Romeo sports tradition.

This exotic collection, which has been brought to life through the knowledge, passion and curating skills of Auto Italia magazine, will include the pretty Junior Zagato which given a skin-stretched-tight body by the famous Milanese design house and inspired the racing Giulietta Sprint Zagato, the muscular Montreal with its race-bred 2.6 litre V8 engine, the pretty little Alfasud which took the marque into a whole new territory and reshaped its values, the Giulia GTA which brought so much touring car racing glory to Milan, with its amazing on-track success, and bringing the display up-to-date, the new MiTo.

Full details of all the exhibits will be released in January prior to the show. All the cars mentioned are provisional and maybe subject to change.

About PistonHeads: The Performance Car show
If you're serious about cars, then don't miss PistonHeads: The Performance Car Show. Featuring a stunning array of exotic supercars, rare and historic models, and displays from top-end manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Porsche and Lamborghini, PistonHeads is the leading UK exhibition dedicated to enthusiasts of sports and performance cars.

The PistonHeads Show is an extension of the web magazine PistonHeads.com, which is one of the world's biggest online communities in the automotive sector, with over 2 million unique visitors per month. At the Show you'll be able to meet other like-minded enthusiasts and get advice from the experts. Plus, we've got everything you need for your dream machine - from tyres and exhausts to in-car accessories.

Taking place alongside the world's biggest motorsport show, Autosport International, PistonHeads is the ideal place to see the very best high-performance machines in their full glory. All visitors to PistonHeads show get free access to Autosport International as well as a seat in the Live Action Arena, the UK's largest indoor race track, where race and stunt drivers show off their skills in some of the fastest and most expensive cars around.

To book tickets for the PistonHeads: The Performance Car Show visit http://www.pistonheads.com/show/ or call 0844 579 3187.

About Autodelta
Autodelta is the acknowledged leading global aftermarket Alfa Romeo design and tuning firm. In 2007, Autodelta celebrated its 20th anniversary. Autodelta has built a reputation for its range of exclusive, bespoke, high-performance models which maximise Alfa Romeo engine capabilities and optimise chassis dynamics. As well as these Autodelta-branded cars, Autodelta offers engine, chassis, braking, electronic, suspension and styling upgrades for most current and recent Alfa Romeo models, and offers a range of Autodelta-branded performance products through its Autodelta Sportline and GTA Racing parts programmes. Autodelta operates internationally through its world headquarters and factory located in Park Royal, London, and through a series of authorised agents worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.autodelta.co.uk

For more information on Auto Italia magazine visit: http://www.auto-italia.co.uk or phone: 0208 655 6400.