Alfa Romeo 164
Have you ever been to a dinner of four, but only ordered one big value pack and split the bill because no one can afford a full meal? Well that’s exactly the case for the ‘Tipo 4’ (lit: type 4) platform… Developed throughout the 1980s, three broke companies; Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and Saab, worked with Fiat’s project to build a full size saloon. The basic formula had front-wheel drive with MacPherson struts in all four wheels.
But this was by no means fully standard. Behind the scenes, much bickering led to many variations between the four marques. Top Gear mentioned the story of Saab being dissatisfied with the crash tests, while Lancia disagreed and described the test results as perfect. Apparently this struck a nerve as the two were never seen together again. Saab therefore went their way and modified their Tipo 4 with thicker steel and heavier side protection, Saab engines, and their specialized, rear wheel steering capable beam axle suspension.
Similarly, the Tipo 4 was heavily altered under the Alfa Romeo 164 name — in fact the only thing that remains identical is the floor pan. This stems from classification; Alfa Romeo has been a part of Fiat since 1986, along with Lancia. But where Lancia focuses on luxury and comfort, Alfa mainly makes sports cars.
Hence the need to adjust the platform is obvious. It’s simple; they believe an Alfa needs to drive like, well, an Alfa. They needed to find a way to turn the tame Tipo 4 into a hooligan worthy of the clover badge. This explains the powerful range of engines, the Twinspark Inline 4’s, the legendary Busso V6. The perfect 50/50 balance, despite the inherently front heavy FWD layout. Even, allegedly, the downgraded interior, done to prevent it from competing with the more luxurious Tipo 4 stablemate of the Lancia Thema.
Between the tech, specs, and chequered development, there’s just so much more to tell about the Alfa Romeo 164.
How the car happened
In the early 80s, the car that was to be the Alfa Romeo 164 was a rear-wheel drive full-size sedan — successor to the Alfa 6 — codenamed Project №156. The design development was done in-house by Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile, led by Ermano Cressoni and influenced by Alberto Bertelli’s proposals that were radical with high tails and Citroen-esque designs. The avant-garde looking body prototypes later are used to cover road going test mules.
While many modern cars use modular platforms, Alfa have used shared underpinnings since the 70s through the Alfetta platform. But by the 80s, as this became increasingly outdated, Filipo Surace proposed the 164 as a new platform for the future. As such, the Project 156 test-mules were built with this in mind.
The resulting product, far into development, was an engineering symphony of computer aided chassis design, high quality rust-proofed materials, topped with a 6-speed manual. Brilliant, if not for the climate; Alfa Romeo was deep in financial trouble. A brand new, advanced 156 platform for production quickly became more dream than reality. It was more than what Alfa’s government backing could stomach and they cut finances. However, Alfa Romeo’s partnership with FIAT offered a solution, if rather imperfect; use their front-wheel drive Tipo 4 platform, already in development.
At first, Alfa Romeo’s chief engineer, Fillipo Surace, worked with Lancia’s engineer Sergio Camuffo so the front-wheel Tipo 4 could fit Cressoni’s previous bodywork. But then, this work came to a halt as FIAT vetoed it in favor of a Pininfarina proposal. This fresh Enrico Fumia design finally became what the Alfa Romeo 164 is today. The first 1:1 scale model of Fumia’s design was finished in 1982, even with coupe, convertible, and estate variants, though unfortunately none of these ever saw production. The old Cressoni and Bertelli designs, however, still lived on; influences can be seen in the later Alfa 33 facelift.
Aesthetic Sophistication
Sharing a platform across brands can be bad for design, as certain shapes couldn’t be altered. However, while the other Tipo 4 cars shared an identical central section, the Alfa Romeo 164 recycled only the floor pan. As such, major tweaks were possible such as the greenhouse shape, a lower bonnet, and defined character lines. In the hands of Pininfarina, the Tipo 4 Alfa became a classy car that aged well.
The 164 has sophisticated and clean graphics. It can be summed up as broken conservatism, with regular shapes accented by very distinct features. Take the front, which is almost boring, if not for the proud Trilobe grille. The rear is also quite barren, bar the unmistakable mono lens tail light strip, far removed from the multicolor units of its competitors (Such as the Mercedes 300E, Volvo 760 Turbo, and BMW E34 530i).
Sport trims (the S, QV, and Q4) had some tweaks from base and luxury (Lusso) trims. More aggressive parts were used, such as more cooling, fog lights, side skirts, and bumper effects for aerodynamics. Sportier rims were also fitted, with either 5-spokes or Cromodora two-piece wheels.
The interior is also clean, sophisticated, and when combined with the boxy grey dash, is nearly brutalist in feel. The (rather complex) switches are a neat cluster of squares, and the audio player is hidden under a panel. Strangely, the driver-hugging central stack is later echoed in the BMW E36 3 years on.
As a full size luxury car, the Alfa 164 seats five comfortably with good space and plush seats wrapped either in premium cloth or leather. Ergonomics is actually quite good, despite the generally bad Italian track record. It even has power seats, rare in the 80s.
It wasn’t all good though — the interior bears strange stories of Alfa’s past. Alfa’s financial issues led to a merger under Fiat with Lancia in 1984. As such concerns of cannibalizing sales off Lancia’s own full size luxury, the Thema, arose. And so, Fiat allegedly made Alfa cheapen the 164’s interior, downgrading the materials from the original proposal. This served to split the market more, yet it still makes one wonder what might have been.
Chassis
Alfa Romeos are known to be a delight to drive. They are famous for driving machines such as the Alfetta GTV6, Giulia 105A, and 33 Stradale that are rear wheel driven. This characteristic is followed by the Alfa Romeo 75, the compact family sedan which shares its suspension system with the Alfetta GTV6. However the Alfa 164 is based on the Tipo 4, a front-wheel drive platform which means Alfa Romeo needs to do readjustments to the platform.
The Tipo 4 platform of the 164 has nothing left un-modified except its center floor pan. The front struts are mounted lower to accommodate the lower yet sleeker front end and the rear struts have longitudinal linkage which changes the characteristics of the car.
Although it’s front-wheel drive, has its gearbox at the front, and no DeDion suspension, Alfa Romeo also made it to have a near 50:50 front to rear weight distribution for consistent handling. Its engineering heavily relied on computer aided design and engineering which resulted in a very rigid yet lightweight chassis. For such a large car, the lightest Alfa Romeo 164 weighs only 1200kg for 164 TwinSpark, 1300kg for well-equipped 3.0 V6 models, and 1510kg for the all-wheel drive Q4. To put this in comparison… the BMW 3-Series E36, which is a compact-saloon of its time, weighs at least 1300kg. The facelifted ‘Super’ models tend to be heavier… The TwinSpark model weighs at 1380kg, and the V6 front-wheel drive model weigh at around 1430kg
Alfa Romeo offered electronically controlled dampers that enhances ride quality and handling by adjusting its ride height and damper hardness on the run standard for Quadrifoglio Verde, 164S, and Q4 models and optional for other models since the ‘164 Super’ was introduced.
Powertrain
When you hear the word ‘Alfa Romeo’, you’d be thinking of cars that accelerate quickly whilst singing down the road beautifully. The Alfa Romeo 164 was offered to be powered by a range of engines.
Inline 4: The Alfa Romeo 164 had a variety of Inline 4s. Initially, it was only offered with the 2.0 litre Twin Spark 8V Alfa Romeo engine that is equipped with variable-valve timing which produces 146hp and 187Nm of torque and is able to propel the midsize saloon from 0–100km/h in 9.2 seconds and reach a 215km/h top speed.
A year later a 2.0 litre Turbo Fiat Twincam engine borrowed from the Lancia Thema joined the lineup (2.0i Turbo) which produces 173hp and 265Nm of torque, allowing the 164 2.0i Turbo to launch from 0–100km/h in 7.2 seconds and reach a 225km/h top speed. The 2.0i Turbo model however was replaced in 1991 by the 2.0 V6 TB and both models available to dodge the Italian 18% tax for cars that have displacement more than 2.0 litre.
V6: Based from the iconic Busso V6, the engine received the iconic chrome intake manifold to accommodate the sleek-front end. Initially, the 164 was only offered to be powered by a 12-valve SOHC version of the 3.0 litre Busso that produces 189hp and 261Nm of torque which allows the 164 3.0 V6 to launch from standstill to 100km/h in 8.1 — nearly a second slower than the 2.0 litre Fiat Twincam Turbo engined 164. However, it reaches 230km/h as its top speed — 5km/h faster than the 2.0i Turbo.
Later, the 2.0 V6TB replaced what the 2.0i Turbo is — a tax dodger variant. It produces 207hp and 302Nm of torque which makes the 164TB launch from 0–100km/h in 7.2 second and reach a 247km/h top speed. However the Super 2.0 V6 TB is a bit slower — 0–100km/h time is 8.0 seconds and only could reach a 237km/h top speed.
The Super model also introduces 24-valve DOHC Busso V6 motors, which are able to produce 207hp — 266Nm for the Super model and 229hp — 276Nm of torque for Quadrifoglio Verde and Q4 models.
Diesel: The Alfa Romeo 164 was also offered to be powered by Sofim Inline 4 2.5 litre turbo diesel engines. Early models only had 115hp and 260 Nm of torque which propels the 164 from 0–100km/h in 11 seconds and reaches a 200km/h top speed. As per the Super model was introduced, the output was raised to 123hp and 288 Nm — which enhances its 0–100km/h time to 10.8 seconds and raised its top speed by 2 km/h. However, the diesel models weren’t made for acceleration and high speed since back then diesel models were mileage savers. The diesel Alfa Romeo 164 consumption is rated at 6.5l/100km (or ~15.4km/l, 43.46 MPG, 36.19 US-MPG) .
Q4
Among all the Alfa Romeo 164 trims, the Q4 trim is the highest performance spec. While the look didn’t change much — looking very similar to the QV or S trim — under the body it’s quite different. It is the only 164 to actually receive the 6 speed gearbox the original P155 proposal intended to have, courtesy of Getrag (all other trims had either a 5MT or a ZF 4AT). The single unaltered Tipo 4 part, the floor pan, was modified in the Q4, creating something essentially distinct. Between this and the revised fuel tank position, this means a normal 164 couldn’t be converted into a 164 Q4.
Performance-wise, the Q4 doesn’t actually have mind blowing numbers. It packs the same 229 hp Busso V6 as the QV trim, but being heavier the Q4 only manages an 0–100 time of 7.4 seconds, while retaining the 245 km/h top speed. Instead, the main trick in the Q4 is none other than the performance drivetrain advancement of the late 80s: Torque vectoring all wheel drive.
As Alfa likes to call it, “Viscomatic” AWD is Alfa Romeo’s own torque vectoring AWD system, equipped with electronic torque split capability similar to the ones found in the R32 Nissan GT-R and Porsche 959. On the surface, the tech is quite similar between the three, employing a clutch pack transfer case to introduce torque vectoring. However, the 164 Q4 takes it up a notch by combining this with an epicyclic (planetary geared) differential.
Like the GT-R’s ATTESA ET-S system, the Viscomatic module takes torque, driving speed, independent wheel speed, and driver input, and channels variable power split to front and/or rear wheels to optimize traction. But unlike the GT-R, the Q4 system runs 20x faster and has the ability to send 100% of the torque anywhere, as opposed to the GT-R’s 50%. In practice, this means Viscomatic is far more helpful in extreme understeer/oversteer conditions, able to become completely FWD to neutralize oversteer and vice versa. This makes the 164 Q4 a far stabler car to drive at the limit, which translates to more fun on the road.
Verdict
Concluding our regrettably long-running series, we believe the Alfa Romeo 164 is quite a sight to see. If it were a person we’d call her Halle Berry, as in our eyes it has aged like fine wine. A car with sophisticated style, equal parts conventional and bold.
Not to mention its fine assets, with well crafted proportions and exceptional performance. These keep the 164 low key relevant to this day.
But despite this civilized stature, the 164 is surprisingly at home on twisty roads, thanks to the qualities it has. The Q4 especially, in the right hands would be a force to be reckoned with. With its modified platform and highly advanced torque vectoring AWD, you’d think twice to challenge one through the bends.
The story of the 164 is that of perseverance and overcoming flaws. From turning the Tipo 4 base into a performer worthy of the clover leaf. To challenge the technical issues of a perfectly balanced FWD machine. Even to exist whatsoever, fighting through the troubled times of its creator. If anything is to be looked back upon in the 164, it is what it represents.