Autodelta's official Moscow-based, Russian agents,
Alfa-Racing, have just completed the first
supercharger conversion to be undertaken on an Alfa
Romeo 156 GTA in Russia.
The project, which involved fitting Autodelta's
compact and innovative Rotrex
supercharger system, to a very individual and highly modified Alfa Romeo 156 GTA, was overseen by Autodelta's boss Jano Djelalian,
who flew to Moscow for the occasion, and to further train AlfaRacing's
engineers, as well as gather data to assist the firm's rapidly-gaining-pace
expansion in Russia.
ALFARACING
AlfaRacing was originally founded as Alfa156.RU in
Moscow during mid-2001 by a small group of Russian-based,
passionate Alfa Romeo enthusiasts, led by Anatoly Kolochkov. Two years later, as they closely focused
on the areas of performance enhancement, the company became Autodelta's official agents in Russia. Last year the
firm was re-named AlfaRacing and it moved into the
premises of ARM-Auto, the largest and
longest-standing Fiat and Alfa Romeo importer in
Russia.
Today AlfaRacing operates, not only in the Moscow
area, but has appointed representatives in five of Russia's
largest cities, as well as shipping parts and
expertise to several neighbouring countries. AlfaRacing can
now offer a broad package of
modifications, from engine to suspension, from
transmission to brakes, as well as stocking the
'Autodelta Sportline' and 'Autodelta GTA Racing' product
lines.
Growing quickly under the tutelage of Autodelta's
engineers, who always operate under the philosophy
of maximising every area of performance gain that
it's possible to squeeze out of Alfa Romeo engines
and chassis', AlfaRacing have, in just the last two years, carried out
upwards of ten Autodelta turbocharging conversions
to 2.0-litre TwinSpark-powered Alfa 156 models,
while last month the first of Autodelta's 'new
generation' supercharging conversions has been
undertaken, on the car which featured here.
"it's been an exciting first four years for us," says AlfaRacing's General Manager Anatoly
Kolochkov, "the Alfa Romeo brand is highly regarded
and its history surprisingly well known in Russia.
With consumers here now demanding prestige,
high-performance products, we are gaining from this
interest. Working closely with Autodelta, the
foremost Alfa Romeo tuning company, is allowing our
engineers to receive the best training and tap into
an unrivalled bank of knowledge."
A
UNIQUE ALFA ROMEO 156 GTA
AlfaRacing were
charged by a customer, who had previously fallen for the Alfa
Romeo 'spell' after purchasing an Alfa 164 3.0-litre
V6, to create the ultimate Alfa Romeo 156 GTA 3.2,
modified and enhanced in all possible areas.
Initially attention to the car - which already
featured styling revisions - over a six month
period, was focused around an interior upgrade, a
new and powerful in-car entertainment system, and a
highly unusual new paintwork, while at the same time
attention was paid to the area of weight-saving to
offset gains made by the addition of this new
equipment. The handling package was tailored to the
car's new characteristics by the fitting of 'coil
over' dampers with sport springs and polyurethane
bushes to the suspension arms and anti-roll bars.
Braking was
also enhanced, although the car is currently receiving an
additional braking 'step' as the meaty 330mm 'Autodelta GTA
Racing' drilled and vented discs are now being fitted.
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Autodelta's highly-regarded Alfa 156 GTA-specific LSD has
been fitted, as has their uprated clutch
kit, first seen on the Autodelta 147 GTA AM. Other modifications
to the car include Autodelta's double 156 GTA
90mm exhaust system.
AUTODELTA - REVIVING THE ALFA ROMEO TRADITION OF
SUPERCHARGING
Last November,
on the occasion of the MPH04 Motor Show at Earls Court in
London, Autodelta revealed the Alfa GT 'Super',
which boasted an amazing 320bhp, and reintroduced the concept supercharging to
the Alfa Romeo brand,
building on a tradition that harks back to the days when Enzo Ferrari was a
factory Alfa driver, and the engineering genius of Vittorio Jano was propelling
the Milanese carmarker towards immortality.
And if anyone is
aware of Alfa Romeo's decade upon decade of tradition, it is
London-based design and tuning firm Autodelta. To revive
this famous application they developed a very compact and
innovative supercharging system, which is also
fully-reversible. Autodelta's engineers, after development
testing, chose the leading-technology Rotrex C30 compressor,
which recently shot to prominence as it was used on the Koenisegg CCR that in February 2005 swept its way
straight to the top
of the supercar speed stakes after setting a speed of
387.87km/h at the Nardo test track in Italy.
Since the
arrival of the 320bhp Autodelta GT 3.2 Super eight months
ago, Autodelta supercharging enhancement packages have been
swiftly developed across the Alfa range, starting with the
Alfa 166, Alfa
147 and Alfa 156, while the Alfa GTV and Spider are now
being added, and even an Alfa 146
has recently received the treatment to great effect. The GTA
AM range of bespoke Autodelta cars also now have the option
of a compressor, and an Autodelta 147 GTA AM most recently
received this treatment - giving a breathtaking 400bhp - just
prior to the departure of the well publicised 'Autodelta European Tour 2005'.
“We now have quite a number of our tubocharged cars running
on Russian roads,” reported Autodelta's boss Jano Djelalian
on arriving back from Moscow from overseeing the
maiden installation, “some of which have now passed the 40,000km
mark since the conversions were carried out. With the
demanding nature of many of the country's roads, the
extremes of climatic conditions which can see temperatures
drop as low as minus thirty degrees centigrade in the
winter, coupled with the challenging nature of the ‘local'
petrol, we are able to gather invaluable feedback and data
from our local agent.”
"For us Russia is an exciting, and growing area of
opportunity. Not only is it a country which fuses great
beauty with rich traditions, but Italian values and styles
are highly regarded by consumers," Jano adds, before
concluding, "The Alfa Romeo brand,
which epitomises everything that Italy stands for, is very much
in demand from Russian consumers, who are looking for
individual, performance-orientated products."
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