Alfa Romeo 164
The Alfa Romeo 164 was unveiled at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show — and it bore, simultaneously, two distinctions that defined its historical position: it was the last model whose development had been completed entirely under Alfa Romeo’s independent ownership (the Fiat acquisition of 1986 occurred while it was being prepared for production), and it was described by contemporaries as perhaps the most elegantly resolved executive car of its year. Enrico Fumia at Pininfarina was the designer; the project had begun in 1980 as “Project 156” (unrelated to the later Alfa Romeo Tipo 932) — a proposal by engineer Filippo Surace for a modular platform that could replace both the Alfetta and the Alfa 6.
The 164 shared its Type Four platform with the Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma, and Saab 9000 — a collaborative development programme between the Italian and Swedish manufacturers. That this platform-sharing left the 164 looking entirely distinctive from its siblings was the achievement of Pininfarina’s design: a flowing wedge with a drag coefficient of 0.30, diagonally-mounted front shock absorbers to permit a lower bonnet line, and a coherent aerodynamic envelope that influenced the subsequent Alfa Romeo 33 facelift (1990) and the 155. Observers noted that the Peugeot 405, styled by the same Pininfarina studio in the same period, shared a design language — two European executive cars that stood apart from the square-shouldered German competition of the era.
Technically the 164 was a significant step forward for Alfa Romeo: it was the first model in which galvanised steel was used throughout the body (a major improvement in durability and corrosion resistance), and the first in which CAD (Computer-Aided Design) was employed to calculate structural stresses, yielding a body more rigid and lighter than could be achieved by conventional calculation alone. The electronics were the most complex fitted to any Alfa Romeo to that point — automatic climate control and electronically variable-damping suspension on the top-line Cloverleaf variants.
Engine options included the 2.0-litre Twin Spark, the 2.5-litre Busso V6 (166 hp), and the 3.0-litre Busso V6 — first in SOHC form (192 hp) and later updated to DOHC 24-valve specification producing 230 hp in the Cloverleaf and Q4 all-wheel-drive variants. The V6’s acoustic character — the “Violin of Arese” — gave the 164 a quality that its platform-sharing did not suggest from outside. A 164 Pro Car was prepared for British Touring Car Competition with Nicola Larini and Gabriele Tarquini driving — the same combination that would appear later in the DTM programme.
Production ran from 1988 to 1997 — 273,857 units. The 164 was replaced by the Alfa Romeo 166 in 1998. It is now recognised as a transitional car: the last great expression of pre-Fiat Alfa Romeo engineering ambition in the executive class, and the first to establish the quality baseline that the later 156 would build upon.
Connections
- Alfa Romeo — manufactured_by, 1988–1997, source: wikipedia.org
- Pininfarina — designed by Enrico Fumia of Pininfarina; design approved 1984, source: wikipedia.org
- Fiat — Fiat acquired Alfa Romeo in 1986 during the 164’s development; the 164 launched under Fiat ownership, source: wikipedia.org
- Alfa Romeo 156 — the 156 (1997) succeeded the 164’s executive positioning and vindicated Fiat-era Alfa, source: wikipedia.org
- Alfa Romeo Alfetta — 164 replaced the Alfetta series in the executive segment (also replaced the Alfa 6), source: wikipedia.org
- Giuseppe Busso — Busso V6 (2.5L and 3.0L) was the 164’s prestige engine, source: wikipedia.org