While flared and winged cars with matching performance are sights to behold, there is something about sleeper cars that are intrinsically devious by their very nature. A (very) powerful engine hidden in a nondescript-looking car has for a long, long time been the bane of unsuspecting victims. The car featured here is the only one of its kind for a series that was supposed to be a front act for Formula 1 races. The original Procar series featured the BMW M1 and with its production run nearing the end, a new car/series was proposed with would have cars very similar to F1 cars of the day but with a body similar to road cars.
Manufacturers did not support this new series and only Alfa Romeo came up with a prototype racer for the proposed series. What you are looking at is the only car of its kind in existence. This Alfa 164 Procar was built in cooperation with the Brabham F1 team and so its powerplant is one of, if not the only Alfa Romeo V10 ever built. In fact, this car is effectively an F1 car with a production-looking body on top, where the front and rear clips are removable as one piece. The Alfa engine is a 72-degree V10 displacing 3.5 liters mounted longitudinally in the middle of the car. The naturally-aspirated aluminum engine produces 605 horsepower at 12,000 (!) rpm, giving a specific output of 173 hp per liter. Power to weight ratio has been calculated at .81 bhp/kg. This is enough to propel this 750 kilo racing silhouette to over 210 mph, with a calculated 0-100 km/hr time of 1.78 seconds.
The rest of the car features a carbon fiber monocoque, double wishbone suspension, a Hewland 6-speed transmission and vented discs at all four corners. If this racing series had pushed through, it’s pretty certain that it would have inspired a lot of sleeper road cars.
Original article can be found here.
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