Bernie Ecclestone came up with a brilliant idea in 1987 to lure more car manufacturers into Formula 1 and to help Alfa Romeo get rid of its superfluous V10 engine: the Pro Car series. They are F1 cars with bodywork like that of road cars. Alfa Romeo builds such a silhouette racer of the 164, but unfortunately other manufacturers are failing.
329 km / h: at that speed something red shoots through the ‘speed trap’ on the Monza circuit on Friday 9 September 1988. Nothing special in itself; after all, it is the Grand Prix weekend and Ferraris also participate. Except that this time it is not an F1 car that comes rushing by. The spectators rub their eyes in confusion. Was that really an Alfa 164? Yes that was it. At least, sort of. Behind the wheel, Riccardo Patrese has his hands full with the device that has only made a few laps on Alfa’s test track Balocco, and that already a while ago. In the poorly tested disguised Formula 1 car with hardly any downforce and on outdated Michelin slicks, Patrese thinks it was nice after two laps. Although the Italian driver drives for Williams that year, he still has warm ties with Alfa Romeo, the team he is under contract with in 1984 and 1985. And also with Brabham, Bernie Ecclestone’s racing stable, where he finds shelter for the seasons before and after. The Ecclestone-Alfa Romeo-Brabham triangle is responsible for the creation of the utterly spectacular 164 Pro Car.
Unused V10
In 1984, Alfa Romeo Project 1035 starts the development of a 3.5-liter V10 Formula 1 engine. The block was completed in 1986 and a development program with Ligier is in the pipeline. That radically ends when Alfa Romeo is incorporated by Fiat at the end of 1986, which sees nothing at all in the racing ambitions of the brand. Leave that to Ferrari, is the idea. Kind of the bill: a brand new, unused V10, the very first for Formula 1. The ever-commercial Ecclestone promptly comes up with the plan for Formula S, with the S for ‘silhouette’. In 1987, Fiat briefly became the owner of its former Brabham racing stable, which was commissioned to build a chassis for Alfa’s 600 hp ten-cylinder. The bodywork that comes on top is very similar to that of the Alfa 164: the sizes almost match. But the Pro Car is a true silhouette racer, with the composite shell only serving to cover technique and driver. And to serve the public with something recognizable.
Alfa Romeo 164 Pro Car
Support act for the F1
The idea is to have the Pro Cars, with F1 drivers behind the wheel, as the support act for Formula 1, as BMW did successfully with the M1 a decade earlier. In this way, Ecclestone wants to attract more car manufacturers to Formula 1. But while Alfa Romeo is setting a good example and racing fans are already looking forward to spectacular races with these Formula 1 cars disguised as road cars, other manufacturers, including Ford, Honda and Renault, are failing. And so the whole project goes out like a candle. Only two of the 164 Pro Car were built and are now in the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese. Whoever was there on September 9, 1988, saw something unique.
This story appeared in Techzle Classics 6-2020