ALFA ROMEO

Alfa’s contribution to the Type Four family has been quietly gaining in value for some time, now. Here’s how to separate the stallions from the mules

he 164 has been described by some as the best car Alfa ever built while it was still an independent company, but this was far from an independent effort from Alfa.

The car was based on the transverse engine/front-wheel drive ‘Type Four’ platform shared with the Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma and Saab 9000. As the last of the Type Four cars to be developed, however, the 164 is the most differentiated of the four, not least because of its Pininfarina styling, which did well to mask the familial resemblance (in fact, it looked more like another Pininfarina work, the Peugeot 405). Of course, only the Alfa received Alfa engines, too, which included Alfa Romeo’s sonorous ‘Busso’ 3.0-litre V6.

Alfa eventually turned up the heat on the V6 further with the Quadrifoglio arriving in 1990 with a 20bhp boost, and then a 24-valve version of the V6 in 1993 (also available in a hotted up Quadrifoglio spec). Finally, the Q4 attended to the main ill of the V6 164 – its tendency to understeer, by adding a four-wheel drive system, again in 1993.

While the V6 is the one that everyone remembers – and, indeed,

T‘The 1990-on Quadrifoglio turned up the V6 heat with a 20bhp boost’

covets – the 164 was also available with

Alfa’s high-tech

Twin- Spark fourcylinder, which while not offering blistering performance in such a large car, actually proved to be the best handling of all the 164s and the easiest to maintain, too. A 2.0 Turbo V6 and 2.5 turbodiesel were also offered, though both are exceedingly rare in the UK, in both cases being primarily designed to navigate Italian complicated taxation rules.