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Autodelta are flat out at the moment preparing for next week's prestigious MPH04 Motor Show in London, where they will showcase their two newest models, the 328bhp Autodelta 156 GTA AM 3.7 and the 320bhp Autodelta GT Super.

While the new Autodelta 156 GTA AM 3.7 continues with theme kicked off a year ago at MPH03, when the London based design and tuning house introduced their 147 GTA AM 3.7, the new GT Super will thrust supercharging into the public eye as yet another weapon in Autodelta's armoury in their on going quest to squeeze the very last drop of horsepower out of Alfa Romeo engines.

Last week company boss, the ever enthusiastic Jano Djelalian, invited us round for a quick peek at the Autodelta GT Super.

Although interest will be keenly focused around the exciting new GT Super when it makes its public debut in a few days time, this week has seen a slightly lower key debut for the firm's new supercharged SZ conversion, and while in their workshops, this controversial sportscar couldn't help but catch our eye.

Supercharging has a particularly special place in Alfa Romeo's rich and fabulous sporting history, a tradition which must be considered with the imminent launch of Autodelta's latest supercharged creation, the GT Super, and their 'Evo 2' supercharger conversion for the SZ.

The first supercharged Alfa Romeo was introduced in 1924, after Giuseppe Merosi’s Gran Premio Romeo project was handed over to a young and gifted engineer called Vittorio Jano.

Jano had attracted the attention of Alfa Romeo’s directors through the recommendation of Enzo Ferrari, who was at that time a factory racing driver and had become familiar with Jano’s successful Fiat 805.

Racing success came with the legendary 'P2', for which Jano chose an eight-cylinder in-line engine made from four two-cylinder blocks; a design which increased the engine’s reliability. The crankshaft was fabricated from two pieces, coupled together in the middle, and supported by ten roller bearings along the same principle as Merosi’s previous design. The compressor was a Roots-type, and was more compact than those of the competition.

As a result of the car’s brilliant engineering, the P2 delivered 140bhp at 5,500 rpm, which together with great reliability, resulted in tremendous racing success. In 1925 the P2 won Alfa Romeo their first World Championship, helped by the fantastic efforts of gentleman-racer Count Brilli-Peri. From that period forward, Alfa Romeo enshrouded their logo with a silver laurel wreath.

This is the stuff of legends, and Autodelta themselves are only too aware of Alfa Romeo's fabulous place in history. Jano Djelalian, who founded the modern-day Autodelta in 1987, has immersed his young company in these proud traditions, so it is unsurprising that they have embraced the potential of supercharging, understanding its historically important place.

The modern story of Autodelta's supercharging begins around three years ago when customer demand to transform the underperforming characteristics of the 2.0-litre Alfa 166, saw the benefits of this forced induction technology applied. A string of 166 conversions led to an even more popular use of their supercharging techniques, transforming the much smaller 1.6-litre Alfa 147 cost-effectively into a 'pocket rocket'.

These were two models, with their widely differing characteristics, were both enhanced by the addition of supercharging. Next to come was the SZ.

This modern day icon, considered as the last of the 'true' rear wheel drive Alfa Romeos, is synonymous with the London firm, and the power junkies at Autodelta, after boring-out no less than nine SZ's to 3.5-litres, first introduced a supercharged conversion in 2002.

Now two year's on, Autodelta have revised the whole package and introduced a definitive supercharger upgrade. The Roterx centrifugal supercharger conversion (which is fully reversible) boosts the engine via a chargecooler to produce 250bhp (against 207bhp for the 'standard' SZ). The Danish firm, whose superchargers are used on well-received aftermarket Mini and Nissan 350Z conversions, developed a unit to Autodelta's exacting requirements.

All this adds up to massive mid-range torque while 1.2 seconds is sliced off the 0-100km/h acceleration time, cutting it down to 5.8 seconds.

The first car to be converted to this second generation specification is lurking in the Autodelta workshop when we visit. Saverio Fusco, who has been one of the firm's key engineers for more than a decade, offers us some insight on their progression from intercooler to chargecooler. "The chargecooler offers great compactness, the one we are now using on the SZ has been manufactured to both our specificational and dimensional requirements, both reached after an intensive test programme.

"The additional advantage is that during town driving, which involves stationary periods, the chargecooling system, which is powered by an electric pump, continues to circulate water." He concludes with plenty of graphic am waving, in true Italian style.

The SZ is fired up, its screams into life. It is squeezed out from among the ranks of fire breathing Alfa Romeo's that are squashed into their storage area. All cars that bear testimony to Autodelta engineer's dedication to horsepower, it is their calling.

In fact even a slightly battered Alfa 146, which seems to be their equivalent of a 'delivery van', turns out to be fitted with a potent-sounding turbocharger! There's no compromising at Autodelta, no room for limited ambitions.

Jano is keen to stress that integrated nature of the SZ supercharger. "The factory ECU is remapped to specific new requirements, unlike some 'bolt-on' conversions in circulation and which use a separate ECU arrangement. The SZ owner can still hook his car into any dealer's diagnostic equipment."

Another engineer, the very youthful looking Chris Leck, takes me for a quick blast around a huge, virtually deserted local car park, that would appear to double up as their private test track. The SZ is fast, its howls, and at less than five grand it seems like a bargain, that's if I had an SZ in the first place!

Back at the workshop the Autodelta boy's fire up their new Alfa GT Super, which is set to take supercharging back to the centre stage next week. It sounds truly amazing, it feels like raw power is just pumping straight from the exhaust. The sound is quite unlike any other car! The right exhaust note is always vital on an Alfa Romeo, and on this car it is stunning.

We all stand round grinning. Quite a lot of Italian is being shouted around, and it's seems a somehow important detail that there are excitable Italian engineers within this firm. You just can't help warming to these guys!

Something you instantly notice with their workshop and the cars is the amazing attention to detail. You just know in the back of your mind that Jano and his team are utter perfectionists, and that any deviation from this standard is going to result in a Italian-style 'wobbler' being thrown!

Anyway back to the SZ theme. Jano mentions that they created the world's only right hand drive SZ, almost a decade ago. "We had a very demanding customer who wanted no compromises in the exact replication of all components. It turned from a job into a labour of love, and eventually racked up more than 1,000 man hours."

"The customer was from New Zealand, but during the course of the project he moved to Zimbabwe. We shipped the SZ out there, but contact was then lost with the owner. Earlier this year we got a phone call from the car's new owner, apparently it's in South Africa now. It's all very exciting, that particular car became part of us, it's great to hear about it again!"

We leave them to their buzzing around, safely assured that Autodelta's proud traditions and philosophy of success is safe and very much alive in the hands of this bunch of these unconstrained engineers.

by Edd Ellison

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