Alfa Romeo has been making cars since 1910, they've had some good times, and some utter bad ones. From the old racing days, to the boxy 80's, to the Le Mans, to them almost going bankrupt in the 90's, to them arising once again in the 2010's. With this. and 100+ years of racing heritage, hereby i present the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifolgio!
What you are looking at is not just a car, a sports car, or a 4 door sedan, it is in fact, what someone would call "A true work of art". The Giulia was introduced in July 2015 on the Milan Expo, to celebrate 105 years of the brand's existence. With the inspiration of the original Giulia from the 1970's, this model was created to be a direct competitor to the BMW 3 - Series and Mercedes C - Class.
The Giulia is a mid-sized sedan, with a rear wheel drive layout, and available with a 6 - speed manual or the 8 - speed automatic (BMW's Z/F transmission), in both diesel and petrol variants. You could get one with a 2.2 diesel, or a 2.0 turbo petrol engine, but you could also get the top of the line Giulia, the Quadrifolgio , meaning Cloverleaf in English.
This model is the one we're going to talk about in this article. The Cloverleaf symbol has been with Alfa for the longest time, being there since 1923. Someone thought that if they put a 4 leaf clover on the side of the car they would have more luck in racing, and it actually helped, so they decided to keep it to this day!
After many years, the Giulia once again wears it to it's greatest extent. And with the performance to back it up. Under the hood we have a 2.9 Ferrari derived V6 that's twin - turbocharged and produces 510 horsepower in the Giulia (and the equivalent Stelvio). From the lines, to the exhaust, to the engine, to the sound, it's a proper sports sedan. Still available with a manual transmission (before 2018.) , Alfa Romeo is giving you the full experience. In my opinion, this is more of the "Ultimate Driver's Machine" than any BMW M3 at the moment.
A lot of carbon fiber has been used to lower the car's weight down, giving it 1525 kilograms, which in all honesty isn't a lot for a car like this. Sitting on the beautiful 19 inch stock wheels, and some Pirelli Corsa's Zero tires, giving it enough grip in the corners is no problem. With top notch suspension, and the power coming out of that glorious V6, the Giulia Quadrifolgio can take the Nurburgring in 7:38 , which is a really really good time, for reference this is 1 second faster than the Pagani Zonda F and 1 second slower than the Porsche 911 GT2.
The interior of the car is also quite nice, with nice materials being used, a lot of leather and soft plastic. It's not the best build quality wise, but it's not the worst. The seats are pretty good as well, good bolster, and they do hold you in place, they are a little tighter though. The Dashboard is familiar, but really good looking, with everything you need to see in place. It is a little more turned towards the driver, but the passenger will have a good time enjoying the ride! The steering wheel is absolutely brutal, it feels nice in hand, and the gear selector is right where it's supposed to be.
The DNA drive mode selector is doing it's job :
A - All efficency mode
N - Normal mode
D - Dynamic mode
R - Race mode
All of them really change the car's character while driving, but if you plan on going all out, i recommend dynamic mode!
The only bad thing about the interior could be the infotainment system, which is not really all that big with a 6.5 inch display, with low quality graphics, even so, an 8.8 inch display is available.
I'd also like to mention some stuff about the engine the Giulia is housing. The V6 engine is using twin scroll turbos, so fills the clocks with no delay or lag, it takes the gas very well starting at 2000 RPM. As you get closer to the redline, the power is harder, and the sound becomes much more natural and everything get's more intense at peak 6.500 RPM and 510 Italian horses. It simply makes you want to have more, with a huge smile on your face. The sound is amazing, although it's much more exiting out the outside than on the inside.
With such performance, comes phenomenal handling, and there aren't any doubts about that. With a perfect 50:50 weight distribution, it will be quite hard to find a sedan that handles like this one. You can throw her as much as you'd like in the corners, it's what the Giulia loves. With the rear differential it has, it can put up to 100% of the power on the rear wheel with the most grip.
The car has auto blip with downshifting and you don't have to worry about engine braking and such. Equipped with 6 piston Brembo's in the back, and 4 piston ones in the front, it has a lot of stopping power, but if that's not good enough, you can option the carbon - ceramics as well.
The last thing I would like to mention is the active suspension. You can choose one from two modes, soft or hard. Due to this, the Giulia QV is enjoyable to drive both on the regular roads, and on the tracks, comfort is not compromised.
I may have missed some things, but these were the most noticeable and most important for me!
In the end, we can say that the Giulia Quadrifolgio is finally caught up to the likes of BMW and Mercedes, with more power and superior handling, and even with the top speed of 307 km/h, it's faster than the M3 Competition and AMG C63s.
With a car like this, with looks, performance and the heritage it has, Alfa Romeo has once again shown us what they can do, and that they are still going back to their roots, with their customers in mind. This is one of those cars that will become a classic in a few years, and most people have yet to acknoledge her for what she puts to the table, it may be too late.
I hope that after this article, you clear your divided opinion on the Giulia and Alfa Romeo in general! In a later date, a Giulia GTAm review may come to exist. If it does, i hope this was a solid basis for it.
