I was going to post about this in the 'introduce yourself' area but I suspected it might catch the attention of a few more people if posted in here instead (moderators - please feel free to move it if you wish).
I recently purchased a 1994 Alfa 164 Q4, in Proteo Red, UK registration L273 ORS, as a new project. The car had obviously been off the road for some time, and as such it cannot be driven at the moment. The ignition barrel is also apparently seized. The pictures on the auction listing showed it had been stored in a garage/barn. The auction (eBay) was a bit bizarre - the car was listed three times. The 1st time it was removed for no apparent reason before any bids were even placed. The second time, it was listed as a 'regular' 3.0 24V - it sold, but the winning bidder must not have paid as the car was then relisted again...this time as a 3.0 24V 4wd (Q4).
The auction listing had sketchy information to say the least - no mention of mileage, or history,etc - but the auction was no-reserve so I was definitely interested. The seller was able to confirm the car was a Q4, but aside from that seemed to know very little about it. The car has no rear badges. A few hours before the auction was due to end I decided to enter the car's registration into Google, purely out of interest. This showed me the following link with some extremely interesting information;
http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-164 ... shaft.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
So apparently the car I was bidding on was actually a 3.5 Savali Q4. The car's colour and registration matched the car I was bidding on, as did many of the details such as the fact that the car was 'imported from Holland sometime in 2004' (the UK registration service says it was first registered here in 2005, and there were some original manuals/bits of paper in the car that were in Dutch, plus a receipt for some air-con work (I think) at Sam Van Lingen).
My Dad and I collected the car on Friday the 30/01/15 and took it home on a recovery truck...a 6 hour round trip! On the way back I went through all the paperwork that came with the car, to try and see what information I could find. The car came with very little service history, no V5 (UK registration document), no keys, and no other paperwork. There was lots of junk in it too, such as old CDs and stuff. When I got home I began searching for more info:
- I retrieved the original engine number from Fiat Eper via the car's chassis number and compared it to the engine currently in the 164 - the numbers match.
- I contacted Sam Van Lingen - they have no records of the car's chassis number, but said this doesn't mean it isn't one of theirs. I was told it could have 'escaped their records'.
- I tried to contact the person who posted the above forum thread on alfaowner.com - so far I have no response
- I had a good look round the car for any other clues - the engine has no special markings, and there's no other paperwork to be found.
There was some good news though - I connected up a battery and the car's electrical systems seem to be working just fine. I checked the condition of the belts and connected up and old ignition switch to see if the engine would turn over - which it did, so I removed the fuel pump and injector fuses and all the spark plugs, and performed a compression test: The readings (in PSI) were 212, 220, 198, 217, 220, 227 (1 - 6) which I was pretty pleased with. I also checked the odometer - 123556 kms, or 77K miles! The LCD climate control display also works perfectly

Anyway - long story short, I would be extremely grateful if anyone can provide even a tiny piece of information about this 164, and I figured this is probably the best place to ask. To again summarise the car's key details:
- 1994 Q4, Proteo Red
- UK registration: L273 ORS. Original registration: JD-NP-34
- Imported from Holland in 2004
- No badges on the rear, a strange rear spoiler that is a bit narrower than the bootlid
- Tan leather interior
Thanks for reading, and I apologise for making this such a long post!
Kind regards,
Haydn (164 12V QV, 164 Q4, 145 Boxer)