Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Big Boy's Toys (4 Wheeled Variety)

[Ian Harris]

I've just got back from collecting my car from being serviced, and I have seen (and experienced) the ultimate upgrade for this particular model.

The cars a 10 year old Alfa 164 24valve Cloverleaf...nice standard looking 4 door saloon, with a rather tasty 240 bhp V6 (as its front wheel drive, with no traction control, it can be a bit too tasty on occasion).

Anyway, Mike, the bloke who services it, is a real 164 nut...he races them, builds SERIOUSLY tasty engines for others that race them, and basically knows everything there is to know about these cars and these engines. It has obviously been playing on his mind, what the point of having a nice, comfy four seat, four door saloon is, when no one ever travels in the back. Well, the obvious answer is there isn't one, so you might as well bung another engine in the back...this doubles your horse power, gives the traction benefits of four wheel drive, near 50/50 weight distribution and sounds fricking awesome to boot.

Apparently, the rear suspension mounting points in a 164 are spookily similar to those at the front, so it is quite possible to stick a front subframe in the rear. If you weld up the steering rack it even allows you to use the track rods to fine-tune the rear alignment...cool!

Well, I had a blast round the lanes in this "Bimotore" monster this afternoon, and it is absolutely awesome..it uses standard 12 valve engines front and rear, which give about 400 bhp in a car that weights 1650 kg . I have never felt acceleration like it on 4 wheels...real punch in the kidneys stuff,,,and the sound from the rear engine as it nears the rev limiter defies description. The really scary thing is, Mike is planning another one in conjunction with a South African Alfa tuner...two 360bhp bored-out 3.5 engines ...720 bhp in a bog-standard looking 164. Get some chav-tastic tinted windows in the rear, and it would be the ultimate track-day Q car...Forget Ferraris and Porsches, if I win the lottery, this is what I want. definitely the most fun you can have on 4 wheels

[Edited on 11-12-2005 by Ian Harris]