The Four-leaf clover is back and it looks better than ever. The Quadrifoglio badge is steeped in rich history spanning back to when Enzo Ferrari himself basked upon the charm that decorated his Alfa Romeo when him and fellow comrade Ugo Sivocci won the Targa Florio race in 1923. It seems almost poetic then, that this new Giulia is powered by a Ferrari inspired mill.
Like all Alfas in the past, it’s one to evoke emotion amongst petrol heads, drivers and believers alike. Why believers, you might ask? The bare fact of the matter is, everyone knows that Alfa Romeos will be as unreliable as a Greek accountant, but that said, it is the truest form of driving nirvana. Perseverance is key to that. But it rewards dividends richly with the biggest grin imaginable.
To put it simply, the Giulia QV is drop dead gorgeous. It’s built from the ground up as well. The successor to the 159 as you see here is designed to be as wrought and muscular in a package that combines the best of all worlds, such as a long sweeping bonnet, short wheel base and short over hangs. It’s basically penned to be a Ferrari-inspired Quattroporte on a ‘budget’.
The Quadrifoglio is shuffled along by a 2.9-litre, twin turbocharged 90º V6 block that will kick out 510 rampaging Italian horses with 600 Nm of twist to boot. The numbers mean that 100 km/h is dispatched from standstill in just 3.9 seconds. Keep your foot welded to the carpets and you will hit its top speed of 308 km/h. This Italian will give most sports and even super cars a proper run for their money!
All that power is fired out through the rear wheels via a choice of an automatic or the one the six-speed stick shifter that’s located at the back in order to attain a perfect 50:50 weight ratio balance. The rear suspension is underpinned by an advanced multi-link set up, with an electronically-controlled Torque Vectoring system on the rear differential allowing the driver to explore the Quadrifoglio’s handling without ever needing the stability control to intervene.
Alfa has also come up with a new and innovative braking system dubbed Integrated Brake System (IBS) – an ingenious electromechanical system which combines stability control and a traditional brake servo for instantaneous braking response. The result is a record-breaking stopping distance from 100km/h to standstill of just 32 metres! The G-forces involved in an exercise such as that are unthinkable.
The Giulia comes with a whole host of high-tech wizardry such as Chassis Domain Control (CDC), one that was jointly developed by Magneti Marelli which in essence acts like the car’s ‘brains’ and coordinates all the on-board electronics. The system manages other features such as Torque Vectoring, Active Aero Splitter, active suspension, brakes, steering and ESC systems.
Most sports cars come with driving mode selectors and this Alfa is no exception to that rule. However, here it’s called the Alfa DNA Pro. The system lets you select from Dynamic, Natural, Advanced Efficiency and Race. Noteworthy though, as ironic as it is for the QV have an Advanced Efficiency mode, it returns the best in class CO2 emissions levels at just 198g per km that’s largely thanks to its electronically-controlled cylinder disabling system and excellent active aerodynamics.
Now once you’re done running rings around your rivals and hooning about, the Quadrifoglio lets you appreciate the fine Italian craftsmanship like plush stitched leather, exquisite trims and gorgeous instruments that surround the driver. Lead-footed audiophiles rejoice for the red-hot Alfa comes packed up with a 12-channel class D amplifier with Logic 7 tech to distributes rich, clear 5.1 surround sound through 14 speakers.
UK sales are slated to begin in the second half of 2016. This is because Alfa is only producing the Giulia in left-hand drive configuration for the time being. We sincerely hope that the Alfa brand will make its comeback here. We want the Giulia!
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