Allitalia Alfa 147 S1600 at Chatsworth Rally Show 2010

Our second outing in the Alfa 147 S1600 at the 2010 Chatsworth Rally show.



A non competitive event for us that we used as a shake down for the car. A pretty succesfull weekend with no major dramas and just a small oil leak to the cam seal that we will have to investigate.

Engine is very revvy and it is hard to keep it from hitting the 9500 rpm limit set on Motec.



Next step is to have it set up on a dyno before our first competitive event at the Rally of the Midlands on 18/18th June

Allitalia Alfa 147 S1600 Kit Rally Car

The 2002 Alfa 147 S1600 kit is finally running after a lot of long hours rebuilding the engine.
Spec as follows'
Steel crank with short stroke
Arrow Conrods with ARP bolts
Accaralite slipper pistons
Ferrea nimonic valves
Ferrea special alloy valve springs with titanium caps
Piper billet custom camshafts
Motec M4 ECU
Hewland Sequential 6 speed gearbox with flat shift

Rockingham Rally Stages 2009

Our last event of 2009 in the Alfa 147 Diesel rally car
Things didnt really go very well although we did have a lot of fun. The stages on Saturday were extremely slippy and we should have fitted some super soft tyres, after cutting the slicks some more we gained some more grip but it was still entertaining handling and we made up over 20 places in 2 stages. An unfortunate mistake on a split in the dark meant we took a maximum and dropped back down on the leaderboard.
Sunday, the track started to dry out and we managed to exploit the BTCC 147 chassis handling, driving flat out on parts but this all came to an end on stage 9 when the gearbox decided to destroy itself, we limped back to service but after a quick check found that it was terminal.
Well, we will now be concentrating on the S1600 for next year, a lot of work to do to get it ready, hopefully the first event will be D'Isis rally in April 2010.
We will post up some photos from Rockingham when we have some available. In Car video attached has good footage but no sound, problems with mic all weekend
If anyone sees us out, come and say hello or give us a wave! And thanks for the support of everyone who came to Rockingham.

Alfa 147 S1600 Kit car

Our new purchase for the 2010 tarmac rally season, another rare rally car.
An Alfa Romeo 147 Super 1600 kit car, originally built by Steve Hill Motorsport to run in the BRC. Seen here in 2004, probably the last time it used.
Very high spec car with 1600 16v engine producing approx 220 BHP mated to a Hewland 6 speed sequential gearbox.
We have just bought this car in bits and are hoping to rebuild it at Allitalia to have some fun on the tarmac events during 2010.
We will post the progress of this project over next couple of months.

Welcome to the Allitalia Blog

Welcome to the Allitalia Blog
We are an independent Italian Auto specialist based in Wrexham UK, specialising in repair of Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Fiat cars, check out our website at www.italianspecialist.com
Also available is an on line shop at www.italianspares.com which is still under construction but will offer both performance parts and general spares for Italian cars at a discounted price.

This Blog has been set up to inform anyone who may be interested in our rallying activities.
For the last 12 months we have been competing in Tarmac rallies around the uk in a unique Alfa 147 that has been prepared by us.

Originally the rolling bodyshell started life as a BTCC raced by Tim Harvey, since then it was used as an Endurance racer with an Alfa JTD Cup Diesel engine fitted by Brunswick Motorsport until it was bought by us in 2008.
We spent time converting this to Tarmac rally spec strenghtening and protecting the underside as well as fitting necessary extra seat and equipment for the navigator.
We decided to leave the diesel engine fitted as no-one rallies a Diesel in clubman tarmac rallying in UK and although it is usually outclassed it has had a few good finishes, is a lot quicker than anyone expects and has turned out to be very reliable.

Our very last event in the 147 Diesel will be Rockingham Stages on 5th/6th December 2009 and we will have a report on this soon after

HOWEVER .......... we have just bought another toy to use for 2010 and will be reporting on this soon, another very unique Alfa!