A year later, when the tooling and drivetrain development was underway, the Italian Government, which owned Alfa Romeo at the time, cut back the funding which resulted in the shelving of the project.

Surace then engaged in talks with Lancia engineer Sergio Camuffo to discuss a joint venture in order to save development costs for a new model range.

However, early development mules of the car, now known as 164, utilized body panels made from the now cancelled Project 156 confusing spy photographers and journalists.

Ultimately unveiled at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show, the 164 was the last model to be developed while the Alfa Romeo was still a fully independent company, and was formally launched a few months after the takeover by Fiat.

[8] The 164 became the first Alfa Romeo to benefit from extensive use of computer aided design, used to calculate structural stresses that resulted in a very rigid but still relatively lightweight chassis.

Although sharing the same platform as that of the Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma and Saab 9000, by virtue of the fact that it was the last of the four to enter production, it featured unique front suspension geometry and the most distinctive styling of the lot.

Overall, the 164 also benefitted from improved build quality relative to previous Alfa Romeos, due to the extensive use of galvanised steel for the chassis and various body panels for the first time in the brand's history.

The dashboard continued the avantgarde design of the exterior with a centre console that was dominated by a large number of seemingly identical buttons arranged in rows.

Key differences on the outside consisted of chrome trimmings added to the upper edge of the bumpers bars and revised headlights now with a slimmer profile.

Inside, the QV featured sculpted sports seats whereas, mechanically, it was fitted with an up-rated version of the 3.0-litre V6 12-valve engine and adjustable damper settings.

[14] The added power, up from 184 to 200 hp (135 to 147 kW), was the result of sharper cams, an increased compression ratio, and polished inlets and exhaust.

In 1993, Alfa Romeo introduced a four-wheel drive variant called the Q4 (short for Quadrifoglio 4), which was equipped with the most powerful 3.0-Litre V6 engine fitted to the 164, featuring 24-valves.

Connected to the ABS and "Motronic" engine management modules, the power driven to the rear axle was continuously variable from 0 to 100% subject to road conditions.

Torque was distributed between axles depending on the speed, turning radius, engine rpm, throttle position and ABS parametrics.

The engine featured fuel injection, controlled by a Bosch Motronic system as well as a chain-driven DOHC cylinder head, a single cooling fan and generator belt, improved reliability and reduced parasitic friction.

A 2-door "Vigili del Fuoco" (Italian for fire brigade[19]) pick-up version now exhibited at the Alfa Romeo Museum, was produced as part of the brand's practice of supplying specially modified vehicles for use by rescue teams at racing tracks.