5 Things You Didn’t Know About The Alfa Romeo 164
The Alfa 164 occupies a unique spot in the Milanese marque’s history. While it’s the last ever model Alfa Romeo developed as an independent company, it is also the first designed on a platform shared with Fiat.
It can also be considered the first and, so far, the last, large Alfa Romeo saloon to achieve relative market success, selling just under 270.000 units over ten years. However, that was long ago, and now even the newest 164s are old enough to enjoy classic car status, with prices for the very best survivors gently rising.
But are you sure you know it all about this seminal Alfa Romeo model? Here are five things you probably didn’t know about the Alfa 164.
One: Losing balance
Italy imposed hefty tax penalties on engines over two liters of displacement, which created a healthy market for turbocharged two liters cars. Between 1988 and 1991, the Alfa 164 Turbo was equipped with the same turbo inline-four used in the Lancia Thema… Well, almost!
Part of the quoted 10 HP advantage (175 vs. 165) the Alfa 164 had over the Lancia Thema was due to the deletion of the engine’s two counter-rotating balancing…
