Alfa Romeo 164 Pro-Car '1988

'The Ultimate Wolf Car'

Just saw amazing lines of Alfa 164 today and got inspired, as I do every time I see this beauty –unfortunately it happens seldom these days, least here in Finland. I had a plans to write about the 164 Quadrifoqlio, but remembered that Alfa made something much more brutal in the 1988. 

Alfa 164 Pro-Car looks to die for. Source: conceptcar.ee

Alfa decided to return on Formula 1 and started develop engine in 1985 for the French Ligier team. Created motor was one of the most technically advanced on its era and became the reference point for others. The technical masterpiece was lying some time in the corner of Alfa’s workshop before the managers of Fiat Group decided to use it in their Pro-Car project. The Pro-Car (Production Car) series was masterminded competitions for standard production car look a likes with Formula 1 chassis and engine. Sadly this series never started. It would be so much more interesting to see family cars blasting the racetrack in super speed than some aerodynamic shuttles that no one has any really contact point -hey look there’s daddy’s new Mondeo pushing 300km/h in a hands of Räikkönen! Actually a championship similar to planned Pro-Car series was held in 1987-88 under World Touring Car ITC –name, but FIA stopped it after only one year because the popularity over Formula one. Can you remember the sweet Texaco Cosworth and M3’s –screw you FIA!

Idea of the Pro-Car series was that big car companies would be involved to supply engines for F1, while they were showing off their hi-tech achievements and advertising their newest models, but Alfa was the only one brave enough to meet the challenge and developed the Pro-Car. Don’t be confused with the Procar Championship series of BMW M1’s; it was quite similar, but happened already in 1979-80. Anyway, the fantastic engine was paired with the lightweight chassis made by Brabham and the marriage was only tested couple of times where the combination was able to over shadow even F1 performance with its better CX value!

In my opinion this is the ultimate wolf car. There are other similar to Pro-Cars, like Ford Transit van and Renault Escape, but certainly Alfa has a heritage to die for and in most cases styling that matches the drama of the brand.

Skeleton of the mighty 164 Pro-Car. Source: conceptcar.

In details:

Engine
V10 (72º), 3495cc, 40-valve, Bosch –fuel injection (aluminum-silicon alloy block)

Titanium rods and valves
Numbers
605hp/12100rpm
373Nm/9500rpm
Top speed: 340km/h

0-402m: 9,7s

0-1000m: 17,5s
750kg
Transmission
Hewland 6 speed manual, RWD

Titanium flywheel
Chassis
Carbon fiber monocoque (carbon fiber panel covered Nomex aluminium)

Double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Rack-and-pinion steering

Ventilated disks
Exterior
Standard except rear wing and center exist exhaust
Interior
Standard dashboard

Alcantara steering wheel

Bucket seat
Other
Only one ever made –located in Museo Alfa Romeo in Arese

Lotus Omega/Lotus Carlton '1990-1992

'The Getaway Car'

This is one of the maddest wolf cars ever made: in 1990 GM took lame family sedan and asked Lotus to use their magic and create something to blast other German brands in wolf car segment. Rear wheel drive Opel Omega (type A) was a well selling D-segment class car with more up to date styling and modern accessories, like: ABS-brakes, one of the firsts self-diagnostic systems, on-board computer and LCD-dials! Car was launched in 1986 when it was nominated the Car of the Year in Europe.

The beast. Source: monza.ch

The side view. Source: imagejuicy.com

General Motors was doing strong in that time and they had just bought well-known sport and racing car manufacturer Lotus cars which was struggling with its out dated model line. The turn of the 90’s was a golden-age of wolf cars: BMW had just started the game by mixing the engine of the M1 super car and the chassis of E28 series family saloon and the very first M5 had born, next E34 M5 was in the pipeline, Mercedes had its E500, Ford introducing some masterpieces with Cosworth, and Audi showing already some interest with 5000, so Opel desperately needed something to stay in the king of the Autobahn competition. First medicine was to introduce Omega 3000 with 24V in-line six putting 204 hp and 270Nm and some exterior tweaks like wider arches. But soon guys in GM noticed that this was not enough and realized what kind of selection of goods they had in their back pocket.

Rear view. Source: silektrs.ru

First engineers at Opel strengthened the chassis of 3000 to handle power to be doubled and send them over to Lotus, who installed tweaked engine, chassis, and ZF’s 6-speed transmission from Corvette ZR-1.  Displacement of engine was increased from 2969cc to 3651cc, and paired with two Garrett T25 turbochargers with intercooler and Lotus Esprit’s injection and whole output was transformed in to rear wheels through Holden Commodores differential. Lotus Omega/Lotus Carlton in UK was introduced in Geneva car show in 1989 and instantly took the tittle of world fastest four-door car and hold the tittle for several years.  Each engine was built by one engineer and designed to racetracks use, but without any real success.

Exterior was equipped with wide wheel arches, front spoiler, rear wing and side skirts that reduced the cd-figure from 0.031/0.032 to 0.008/0.000. Interior was treated with traditional English style with Conolly-leather Recaro seats front and rear, suede door trim, Alcantara steering wheel and Wilton floor mats -of course all the panels where hardwood. Car gained great success as a getaway car… Damn, what a real wolf car –check this out.

In details:

Engine
In-line 6, 3651cc, 24-valve, Delco GMP4 multi-point injection, Garrett T25 twin turbo

Two water-cooled intercoolers

0,7 turbo pressure

Mahle –pistons (graphite coated)

Compression 8,6:1 (original 10:1)

Rochester injectors (4.75g/s)
Numbers
370hp/5200rpm
568Nm/5500rpm
Top speed: 286km/h
0-100km/h: 5,4s

0-200km/h: 17,3s

0-100-0km/h: 8,6s

0-402m: 13,5s
1650kg
Transmission
ZF 6 speed manual, RWD
Limited split differential (45%)

Sachs-clutch
4.3:1 -ratio rear differential
Chassis
Front: MacPherson struts with coil springs and triangle arms, anti-roll bars

Rear: Multi-link with coil springs, Gas shock absorbers with pneumatic self-leveling, anti-roll bars

Speed sensitive: 2,6 turns from lock-to-lock
330/300mm ventilated disks with racing calibers, ABS
Lotus 17x8,5/9,5" alloys

Soft Conolly leather. Source: bbs.scoobynet.com

Good Year special edition tires 235/45ZR17 (f) & 265/40ZR17 (r)
Exterior
Wide wheel arches

Front and rear spoiler

Side skirts

Lotus badges
Interior
Recaro seats (in Conolly leather)
Alcantara steering wheel
Hardwood panels
Other
Manufactured from October 1990 to October 1992

A total of 1100 cars were ordered, but only 950 was made

All in British racing green