KEEPING
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Lancia Delta Integrale specialists and enthusiasts
Alfa Romeo 155 Q4
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Many of us remember Gabriele Tarquini and the exciting times of the BTCC, the two wheeled antics of his Alfa Romeo were a great promotion for Alfa, and Italy too.
Gabriele is pictured here in more modern times, he's still a cheerful and exciting driver, and still very competitive.
There is however another exciting Alfa, which enjoys its excitement from a Lancia engine, and one is for sale on Pistonheads. It's an Alfa Romeo 155 Quadrifoglio 4.
This is basically an Alfa 155 with a Lancia Delta Evo2
engine and running gear.
The 1994 Q4 has a Lancia 16v engine with the Garrett T3 turbo, the last Evo2 had been produced some time earlier, but the Evo's tough 5 speed gearbox, front diff, Ferguson viscous coupling and the Torsen rear diff were used on the Q4.
Making it an Evo2 with a bigger, stiffer body.
1994 Alfa Romeo 155 Cloverleaf Q4
There were only nine of these cars sold in the UK.
Of course it's LHD.
This Cloverleaf 4 has done 98000 miles and has had many
items replaced, it's for sale at £19,995, it looks beautiful, and is a bargain at that price.
The spirited Lancia performance and the 4 wheel drive grip, gave the Alfa a magic touch which took the car into another league. The stiff body shell improved on the Evo's handling, although 200bhp is modest today, as we know power is nothing without balance and connection.
The heavier Q4's 0-60 time is a little down on the Evo, but I think you'd be a bit busy to notice! This Alfa has real balance with slight rear biased power delivery, this means the car can be finely balanced with throttle control, rally style.
A comfortable driving position, a roomy cabin with leather Recaros, and a good sized trunk, made the AlfaQ4 a true all rounder. It looks awesome too, and it's as red as can be.Looking at the engine bay, the Delta 16v engine has more room to wiggle about in. Removing the sizeable coolant header tank will reveal a luxurious amount of room for a cam belt change.
This particular 155 has recently refurbished Compomotive
MO 17x7 alloy wheels, a Silverstone splitter and spoiler
and Cloverleaf sideskirts
The Alfa Romeo racing team driver Ugo Sivocci
was fed up with his bad luck, so for the
1923 Targa Florio he painted a four leafed clover
on his racing Alfa. He won the race that year,
so the four leafed clover has been the
Alfa Romeo symbol ever since.
Luxury interior, with generous sized
leather Recaros
You'll recognise the Lancia 16v engine, the dizzy, log manifold and cam cover layout being familiar to us.
There's more room around it though!
In 1993 a development of the 155 was created under the supervision of Sergio Limone, to celebrate the 155's success in touring car racing, the Stradale. Only one of these cars was ever made, it had carbon fibre bodywork and aerodynamic attachments. The car retained the Evo2 running gear, but had brakes from the 1985 F1 Alfa Romeo racing car.
The 16v engine was developed to give 400bhp, and the car had a 6 speed gearbox. The Stradale was displayed at the 1994 Bologna motor show, and was a great hit with the press and the public, but it was deemed too expensive to produce.
So this single car still survives, it's been bought and sold a few times, but is now too valuable to be used very much.
After many wins in the Italian CIVT championship, Alfa Romeo decided to start the production of a "Stradale" version, to be manufactured at Abarth workshop. Due to the high production costs only one unit of this car was made. The car was displayed at Bologna Motor Show and was used at Monza GP d'Italia as safety car.
Good friend of Integrales, Davide Cironi, found the single survivor Stradale somewhere in Italy, in a barn find condition. As usual this Cironi vid is interesting and atmospheric, Davide starts the engine, as you listen it's unmistakably an Integrale engine, I would have
checked the oil first though.
This video is from 2016, one of the youtube viewers has written
'Ma io non capisco' etc., the writer does not understand, why Davide Cironi doesn't have his own Italian version of 'Top Gear' . Hmmm!
Here's Davide's youtube vid,
listen to the 16v singing!
