Try again: Lancia Beta suspension, & V6 Alfa engined Fiat Croma

["Mark Battley" <m.battley@domain.elided>]

Oops, sorry, hit the send button too soon..

>I believe that 164 suspension was derived from the Lancia Beta (circa
>1972). If I am not mistaken Lancia was the first to use the quadra link
>suspension (rear) on a front wheel drive car. As a matter of fact a lot
>of mid size front wheel drive cars probably have used the Lancia as a
>prototype. GM definitely did for their first front wheel drive cars. I
>don't think Mazda made any front wheel drive cars in early 70's. This
>type of suspension has been copied by many. Looked under a Ford Taurus
>lately.

The "who did it first" is always a dangerous discussion to get into! You are
right though, the Beta mechanical (engine/gearbox/suspension) layout is very
similar to what became the standard FWD car of the 1980s.  The Fiat 128
front end was similar, but the rear suspension was different with a
transverse leaf and a lower wishbone. There is a lot of similarity between
the 164/Croma/Thema rear suspension and that of the Beta. The main
difference is the Beta used the antiroll bar for the longitudinal location,
while from memory the 164 etc have an additional link for the longitudinal
location (?? Croma is at home, so I can't have a look right now). The main
problem with the system is that the lightweight parallel lower arms are
prone to being bent by ignorant mechanics with trolley jacks....

I've always thought that the early Honda Accord 2 door and hatch looked like
copies of the Beta Coupe and HPE.

On a vaguely related subject, while trying to find a picture of the rear
suspension on the web I stumbled onto
http://www.fiat.com/e/altro/croma/sc25v6.htm which is Fiat's technical specs
for a V6 Croma. At 2492cc, 159hp, it has to be the Alfa engine: does anybody
know how long this variant was produced for?

Mark Battley
Auckland, New Zealand.

1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce
1989 Fiat Croma
(also had a Beta HPE 2000 for about 5 years)

Alfa Romeo 105 series Bertone Coupe home page and register at:
      http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1806/105GTV.HTML

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