European reviews of Alfa Romeo's mid-range line-up invariably yield the same conclusion: the Brera, Spider and 159 are impossibly beautiful (take our word for it if you haven't seen one in the flesh), but the performance just isn't there. That's where Autodelta comes in. The British tuning house specializes in dialing up the performance quotient on Alfas, and after pumping up the Brera and Spider with its top-of-the-line J-series packages, Autodelta has turned its attention to the 159 sedan.
The result of a year and a half of development, the 159 J4 2.2 C promises to fill the dynamic void of the standard saloon. Rather than starting with the heavier 3.2-liter V6 (which is coupled to Alfa's Q4 all-wheel-drive system), Autodelta takes the 185hp 2.2-liter JTS direct-injection inline-four and bolts on a Rotrex C30-74 supercharger to boost output by 60 horses up to 245. Autodelta has also replaced the stock plastic intake manifold with a new aluminum one to cope with the extra power and fitted new NGK Iridium IX spark plugs, a new electronic limited slip differential, new springs and dampers, bigger brakes, a quad-tipped stainless exhaust, 19-inch OZ Botticelli HLT rims with custom Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT rubber, and a full aero kit, along with trimming out some unnecessary weight and tinkering with the ECU.
Check out the press release after the jump for more details, and the images in the gallery below for all the angles.