On Thursday evening the new Autodelta Brera J5 3.2 C was presented for its international public debut at the MPH06 Motor Show which opened at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London. Following its media preview in Monte Carlo in late September, the production version of the Brera J5 3.2 C has now been finalised by Autodelta and it is this car that is making its debut at MPH06. Pricing for the package has also been announced at the show. Advance orders have already been taken, however the order book officially opened yesterday and first deliveries will take place in January.

Speech by Mr Jano Djelalian at MPH06, Earls Court

I’m pleased to be here in front of you this evening to officially launch the new Autodelta Brera J5 3.2 C, our most exciting new model yet, and we’re especially pleased to be able to launch it at the MPH motor show, as this is where we launched a new chapter in our history three years ago with the introduction of our first bespoke model. That it comes on the eve of our 20th anniversary is really the icing on the cake.

That car, the Autodelta 147 GTA AM 3.7, was our first turn-key bespoke model, as we presented a completed package that covered all-round improvements to the engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, electronics and styling, rather than a bit-part approach.  Having said that, with most commissions we take the general format and individually tailor it to the customer’s own requirements – no two cars we complete are the same. The Autodelta 147 GTA AM 3.7 really set the world alight from the moment we finished it, refining Alfa Romeo’s fantastic GTA package and taking it to the performance edge. Its subsequent appearance on Top Gear surpassed all of our expectations. Many said we were going into the lion’s den by appearing on the programme, but we have faith in our abilities and the car’s performance in the hands of the Stig were awesome, blitzing rivals such as the BMW M3 and causing Jeremy Clarkson to call it the “hottest hatch – ever!”. In fact Top Gear kindly supplied us with the footage last week and you can see it on our plasma screens here.

MPH has really become a ‘home’ motor show for us, particularly as our base is just a few miles away. In 2004, we presented for the first time the Autodelta 156 GTA AM 3.7, which extended the “AM” theme, previously so successfully applied to the 147, to the other member of Alfa Romeo’s GTA family. Making it a highly significant day for us, we also unveiled the GT Super. Twelve months on, we debuted the GT Super Evo – an all-out performance version of the GT Super with more power and torque, created for our customers who demanded a raw edge to the refined “Gran Tourer” GT Super. It is therefore logical that we have chosen MPH06 to mark the international unveiling of the Brera J5, a model I believe signals the start of an exciting new chapter in the history of Autodelta. This event is of special significance, as we are rapidly approaching our twentieth anniversary year.

Since I founded Autodelta in 1987, we have always tried to be true to the core values of the famous Autodelta name, and this remains our mission – to take Alfa Romeo models to the performance and dynamic edge. Our tag line is “Ultimate Alfa Romeo Performance”, and we have continuously strived for two decades to set new benchmarks in this area. I think the new Brera J5 is a car our design and engineering team can be rightly proud of, and I look forward to the press and potential customers road-testing it within the next few weeks.
 

This has been our busiest-ever year, and while our engineering team have immersed themselves in developing the new generation of Alfa Romeo models, we have seen a number of significant events occurring as we immerse ourselves in a new era. This has included a revision of our operating structure, with the highlight being the opening of an Italian styling centre. This development will also serve as a ‘springboard’ for our entry into the Italian market, something that is well overdue. We have also increased our number of authorised overseas agents, as part of a new focus on our global operations and development of projects to satisfy individual market requirements, with several more set to be appointed next year. As part of our management overhaul, I’m delighted to welcome Andrew Smith as our new General Manager. Based in London, we look forward to him bringing his strengths and ideas to the Autodelta melting pot. We have also built up our strategies for brand development and increased focus on our press department. We have also welcomed on board several new development partners, including Dunlop tyres and OZ wheels, which join the likes of Raggazzon and Rotrex in being hooked into our burgeoning R&D programme. Probably the most visual event this year was the second edition of the “European Tour”, which was once again a resounding success. A real cream of exclusive high performance cars travelled across Europe to Monte Carlo, where the Brera J5 received its official press preview. In the luxurious surroundings of the Hotel Metropole, we presented the car, in a setting that perfectly suited our ambitions.

Next year we have a lot of exciting plans in store, including rolling out Autodelta versions of all the new models and covering all the engine options, plus we will tackle the weight issue with a number of options including carbon fibre components. Finally, we are going to present a range of performance enhancements for Alfa Romeo’s highly regarded turbodiesel range, which we have neglected thus far. Our testing has already thrown up impressive results, and in the Autodelta tradition, these will be ground-breaking concepts, which have not yet been seen on the market. On the subject of ground-breaking engineering, this year we also introduced the 156 Super and GT Super, which saw us supercharging the JTS engine. This makes us the first company to apply forced induction to this unit, and in fact, of all the major carmakers, only VW has put a forced induction direct injection petrol engine into production.

However it is now time to focus on our new model. The door is thus wide open to grasp the opportunities now presented by Alfa Romeo’s exciting “new breed” of sporty models, and we have taken up the challenge with relish. I believe that the Autodelta J5 Brera 3.2 C significantly enhances the base car’s overall performance and dynamic envelope, augmenting the Alfa Brera’s inherent values and creating a new all-round package that will be well received. By now, I think that most Alfa enthusiasts what we are trying to achieve, and I believe they will be quite pleasantly surprised by the improvements we have made. However, we have also been very impressed by the sum parts of the overall package which we found during our extensive development to form an excellent platform for us to build upon. We have also combined our knowledge of tuning Alfa Romeos to come up with innovative new solutions, based primarily around our long experience of supercharging, but also in the area of the transmission, brakes, suspension and styling.

With this project we have also had input from a number of technical partners, some new, who have each contributed in a different area, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them now: Dunlop, OZ Wheels, Rotrex and Ragazzon.