After months of intense planning and hard work the Autodelta European Tour 2006 finally got underway early this morning, when the cavalcade of high-performance cars snaked out of London on what was a damp and drizzling September morning. The assembly time was scheduled for a very early 05:30AM at Autodelta's London headquarters, "Forza House" in located in Park Royal, the stillness of the deserted streets shattered intermittently as the scream of highly-tuned Italian engines wafted through the darkness. Ten cars would start the first leg of the 1,400 km route from here, with a number of other scheduled to join the Tour later that morning in Harwich, as well as during its overnight stops in Holland, Germany and finally Switzerland.

Each car on the Tour is a high-performance thoroughbred sports car, many individually tailored to their owners' exacting demands. The impressive line-up was naturally dotted with many bespoke Autodelta models, as the bond between customer and company - forged by an overriding desire to achieve ultimate Alfa Romeo performance - is never broken as their philosophies go forward welded together. The Autodelta cars' enhanced features gave them a truly menacing and aggressive look in the breaking early morning gloom.

Italian technology and innovation in general is very well represented on the Tour with a Ferrari 348 TB, featuring with luminous 'snowflakes' that chased up the car's bright yellow bodywork, complementing the array of Autodelta and Alfa Romeo models. Other cars to stand out in the glare of headlights this morning included an Alfa 159 1.9 JTDM entered by Tour 'official partner' Mangoletsi; the Knutsford, Cheshire-based Alfa Romeo dealership having also branded their entry with the famous 'arching M' logo positioned alongside the official Tour insignia. And just to top it off, the car had a huge red snake splayed across its silver roof.

With final checks made to the cars, the convoy departed Autodelta HQ at just after 06:00AM led out by the brand new Autodelta J5 3.2 C, with Autodelta owner Jano Djelalian behind the wheel. Founder of the company almost 20 years ago, Jano is the visionary driving force behind behind this latest dramatic project. Am extreme "petrol head" who lives to make Alfa Romeos go faster in a straight line and round bends, no one else was going to get near his new "baby". Stickered as No 18, the Autodelta J5 3.2 C is the first exclusive new bespoke model to be created by Autodelta, based on the new-generation of Alfa Romeo models.
 

Only officially announced in a media release less than 24 hours previously, its jet-black colours lurking in the dark London morning gave it a mean, brooding presence, this new 348 bhp sportscar already straining at the leash, waiting impatiently to eat up the roads ahead of it. In front of it is a long, hard European journey before it is officially presented at the Hotel Metropole on Casino Square in Monte Carlo next Wednesday. Autodelta-created machines are always meant to be driven hard and fast everyday, and this latest generation monster will arrive for its presentation in some style. They never hide their cars away from the most public of tests and this one is no different.

First stop of the day would be at the Tower Hotel on the main street in Harwich, the rendezvous point where further cars would join the Tour cavalcade before the nine-hour long North Sea ferry crossing beckoned and a short drive from the Hook of Holland to the overnight hotel stop at Haarlem near Zandvoort. As the day dawned, the skies brightened by the minute, and a after dash round the North Circular the cars peeled off onto the M11 heading for the busy East Anglian ferry port. If any residents of Harwich were planning on a lie in this morning the their ideas were to be rudely shattered by the arrival of Roger Coates - and his awesome DeTomaso Pantera. The bright orange supercar - literally - thundered into Harwich, stopping the townsfolk dead in their tracks.

Having hooked up with the cars cars joining the Tour at Harwich it was onto the ferry, the cars lined-up neatly below decks as the Stena Line ferry chugged out of the harbour and headed for Holland. On arrival at the Hook of Holland after the the and a half hour trip the weather was very hot and sunny, the cars gleaming in the bright Dutch sunshine as a final hour's drive brought them to the overnight stop in Haarlem.