Autodelta
The Italian company Autodelta was founded on March 5, 1963 by Carlo Chiti, together with his former partner Lodovico Chizzola in Feletto Umberto, a district of Tavagnacco (UD ). Corporate purpose was the development, construction and tuning of vehicles for racing. As the company name you can also see the spellings "Auto - Delta " and " Autodelta ".
History
Chiti had already worked in the 1950s for Alfa Romeo, had then gone to Ferrari, but there resigned due to disagreements with Enzo Ferrari in 1961. His partner was Chizzola Alfa dealer in Udine. Thus arose from the very beginning a very close collaboration with Alfa Romeo.
First, we dealt with the Alfa Romeo TZ 1 and developed as the successor to the much more successful TZ 2 Also in rallying dedicated one with the Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super. 1964, the office of the company from Udine to Settimo Milanese was moved near Milan, at the urging of Alfa Romeo. The newly opened Alfa Romeo proving ground in Balocco in the province of Vercelli was also located nearby. The Autodelta co-founder Chizzola decided against a move to Milan and stayed in Udine. In 1966, Alfa Romeo took over the small and innovative businesses, where Autodelta remained a still legally independent subsidiary under the leadership of Chiti. The vehicles occurred under the manufacturer's name and the logo of Autodelta. This also played a role that Alfa Romeo at that time was a state enterprise and one preferred an indirect form of involvement in motorsport.
Now began the heyday of Autodelta. After the TZ 2 of the 1960s and in the 1970s most successful cars were developed for motorsport in the second half. Foundation for numerous variants were the Giulia GTA and the Tipo 33 /3 System. Motor sports enthusiasts or anyone who wanted to appear like so, could leave her at Autodelta Alfa upgrade individually on. The racing car Autodelta and their riders dominated for about two decades, the circuits in Europe.
Autodelta Alfa Romeo accompanied in Formula 1 since the mid- 1970s put forth Autodelta Formula 1 engines that were delivered exclusively to the British Brabham team. The Brabham BT 46, with Niki Lauda won two Grand Prix victories in 1978, was powered by a twelve-cylinder boxer engine from Autodelta. 1979 Alfa Romeo rose with a car in the Formula 1 and denied in part a season. The Alfa Romeo Formula 1 involvement was headed until 1982 by Autodelta. Here the vehicles and engines have been developed and organized the Autodelta racing stakes. Between 1980 and 1982 some small respect successes have been achieved, but a great victory was denied. Defect susceptibility and heavy and thirsty engines prevented a better performance of Alfa Romeo in F1. At the end of the Formula 1 season 1982 Alfa Romeo finished the factory involvement in Formula 1 Autodelta was withdrawn from the racing area. The Formula 1 equipment was sold to the independent Italian team Euro Racing, which autonomously participated between 1983 and 1985 at the Formula 1 and it took the name of Alfa Romeo. Organizationally, however, neither Autodelta Alfa Romeo still had something to do with this project.
In Settimo Milanese Alfa Romeo directed a few years later a renewed racing division one - Alfa Corse. Autodelta itself, however, was dead after all following, occurring under the name Autodelta activities, except the name had nothing in common with the original company.
Beginning of 2000 was reactivated the traditional department again by Alfa Romeo. The first great successes of the present were obtained with the Alfa 156 GTA, as Gabriele Tarquini 2002 and 2003 won the European Touring Car Championship.