Italiaspeed is pleased to announce today that we have been invited to participate in Autodelta's 'European Tour 2005' which takes place next week.

London-based design and tuning house Autodelta will take three examples of their current high-performance range across Europe, on a demanding and exhaustive dash, to take up an invitation to appear at the 'My Car Show' in Rimini from 1st-3rd April.

The route will see the cars leave Autodelta's London HQ at 6am on Tuesday, crossing the English Channel, and then heading through France, Belgium and Germany before winding up that evening at Basle in Switzerland, at the base of the company's newest agent, B+K Automobil AG. An evening reception will also give their customers the chance to view and test the cars.

Wednesday morning will see the convoy head off towards Zurich, and then up onto the legendary high roads of the Alps, including the legendary Stelvio Pass, and the equally breathtaking Tonale Pass. From there the cars will drop down into Northern Italy, travelling through some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe, before chasing along the side of the famous Lake Garda, with an early afternoon stop in Brescia scheduled.

From Brescia, the Autodelta tour will retrace the legendary route of the Mille Miglia, stepping straight in the footsteps of an immoral roll-call of motor racing greats, these modern day high-performance, pretenders paying humble homage to an historic race that is now embedded global folklaw. Wednesday evening will be spent in Modena, another Italian town name synonymous with high-performance sportscars, before Thursday morning sees the final run into Rimini.

The convoy will be led out by Autodelta's new 'jewel in the crown', their 320bhp supercharged GT Super, a sportscar fresh from a high-profile appearance earlier this month on the world stage, at the 75th Geneva Salon.

The GT Super will be joined by two examples of the Autodelta 147 GTA AM 3.7, the first of the 'bespoke' Autodelta range that burst onto the scene in December 2003. However, while one of the pair will be the 328bhp version, which Jeremy Clarkson bestowed with the title of the 'world's hottest hatch' when he tested it for BBC TV's Top Gear programme, the other will once again see the engineering boundaries pushed forward by the passionate technicians from Autodelta.

Autodelta's boss Jano Djelalian reveals all. "Taking our tuned Alfa Romeo's to Italy is an immensely proud moment for us all. While our cars have spread out across Europe, and the world, we really wanted to present them in Italy to the Italian public, and the Rimini Show represents the ideal platform.

"However, we are always striving to move our engineering forward, in true Alfa Romeo tradition, and we really wanted to present something new for the visit to Italy. We have had hugely positive feedback about the GT Super, and so we have decided to supercharge the 3.7-litre 147 GTA AM model.
 

Pushing the barriers forward they certainly do, as Autodelta have also re-worked the engine and fuelling, to achieve an astounding 400bhp! Once again this power is all going through the front wheels, and once again they are defying convention. Will it work? Autodelta's team it seems have no understanding of the meaning of convention? "The critics laughed when we announced 328bhp in the first 147 GTA AM, but it worked. Alfa have provided an excellent chassis and package to build on, and we just took every area, engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, electronics and styling, to the maximum."

And it worked, on prime time BBC TV the Autodelta 147 GTA AM impressed Jeremy Clarkson, the most demanding of taskmasters, and blew much fancied rivals, including the BMW M3, into the weeds when it went against the clock, as the cameras rolled, and with nowhere to hide.

The new car, which has been quickly dubbed the 147 GTA AM Super, also features a further suspension upgrade, as well as new frontal spoiler revisions that have had to be made to allow an increased airflow, to feed a hungry new intercooler.

Jano is very excited about this new model, and you just have to trust him. He, and his enthusiastic team, embody the Alfa Romeo dream, building cars that are worthy of the Autodelta name, and so next week they will take them to Italy, and the sense of excitement is now palpable. "To trace a section of the Mille Miglia route, will be just exhilarating," concludes Jano, "these guys were my hero's as a kid, and it will be an honour to take our cars there."

And, in true Autodelta tradition, these cars will not arrive in Rimini tucked away on the back of a transporter like a spotlessly polished show car usual does, but instead, after having been driven flat-out down the long Autobahns of Germany, and having been raced across the twists and turns of legendary Alpine passes, along the steepest of precipices and plunging ravines, they will arrive breathing fiery horses and stating their case to be taken seriously.

Joining the tour will be highly respected AutoItalia magazine, while tour partners include B+K Automobil AG in Switzerland, and Autodelta's exhaust development partner Ragazzon, who will present their car during the Rimini 'My Car Show'.