From 1983 to 1984, Alfa and Osella achieved a total of 33 championship points with the 890T; in the remaining years the engine was unsuccessful.

With this in mind, BMW began developing its own turbocharged engines as early as 1978 and Ferrari a year later; Porsche and Honda followed suit in 1980 and 1981 respectively.

After eight months of development, Autodelta unveiled the turbo engine prototype to the public at the Italian Grand Prix.

The lack of effective control of the mixture led to a high number of turbo and engine failures in 1982–84.

They achieved an output of less than 600 hp (441 kW), so they were only slightly more powerful than a Cosworth DFV naturally aspirated engine.

Gianni Tonti, Chiti's successor at Autodelta since September 1984, replaced the vulnerable Avio turbochargers with units from KKK, which had already been used on the first prototypes in 1981.

Two races later, at the San Marino Grand Prix, the factory Alfa team's 890T engines received Bosch electronic fuel injection, which conceptually corresponded to the system used by BMW, but was two generations older in comparison.

According to Eddie Cheever, these developments reduced gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 1985 compared to the previous year; at the same time, the performance in racing trim increased by 130 hp (96 kW).

The individual development steps were passed on to the Osella customer team with a delay of several months, sometimes even years.

Technical specifications: Engine: Alfa Romeo 890T Engine type: Eight-cylinder V-engine (four-stroke), light-alloy Displacement: 1496.7cc Bore × Stroke: 74 × 43.5mm Compression: 7.0:1 Mixture preparation: Mechanical petrol injection Spica / Electronic petrol injection Bosch Valve control: Four overhead camshafts Cooling: Water-cooling Weight: 180 kg Races: 1983-1988