Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo - innovative coupé convertible

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo - innovative coupé convertible

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Created on December 21, 2024

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Stellantis/Werk

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Alfa Romeo / Werk

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BLakerman (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - steadily rising waistline

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - wedge-shaped and also attractive open

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - Elipsoid headlights

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - at full speed

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - the car was certainly rarely driven with a helmet on

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - the rear looks rather less characteristic

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - silhouette, demonstration of the folding roof mechanism

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - front view

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - View of the interior

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - Transparency drawing

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - at the Geneva Motor Show 1991

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - with closed roof

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Alfa Romeo 164 Protéo (1991) - rear view

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Audi Quartz - styling study/prototype by Pininfarina - dedicated to AR on its 75th birthday

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Alfa Romeo GTV 6 (1981) - elegant coupé with V6 engine

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Alfa Romeo 164 (1987) - Series 1, designed by Pininfarina

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Alfa Romeo GTV (1994) - the production coupé

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Summary

Hardly anyone had expected this in 1991! At the Geneva Motor Show, Alfa Romeo presented the 164 Protéo coupé-cabriolet study with a four-valve three-liter V6, all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering. Despite a positive response, the prototype did not go into series production; Fiat and Alfa Romeo had other plans. This report describes the one-off, shows it in many historical photographs and reproduces the press release of the time.

This article contains the following chapters

The big surprise
Technology package
Between Quartz and GTV
To build in series or not?

Estimated reading time: 5min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Coupés were part of Alfa Romeo's repertoire for many decades. The 6C 2500 was already available in coupé configurations, while the two-door and sporty versions of the 1900 and Giulietta were among the particularly popular variations on the basic theme. And the fact that the "Bertone", i.e. the Giulia Sprint Coupé, was one of the highlights of the first Alfa century certainly needs no explanation. The coupé variants of the 2000/2600 series and the Montreal are also famous. The Alfa GT/GTV of the seventies and eighties also had many fans, especially in its late six-cylinder Busso version GTV6. But when this model was discontinued, there was no successor. And even the small coupé "Sprint" based on the Alfasud was discontinued in 1989.

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