Well, the waiting’s over and the motoring media has had its first crack at the Alfa Romeo Giulia, surely one of the most eagerly awaited arrivals in motordom.
And the verdict? Upbeat and positive. Yes, really. Defying the odds, perhaps, Alfa has delivered on a car that exceeds expectations by quite some distance. It seems like a miracle and perhaps it is but here is a new Milanese sports saloon that’s genuinely on the pace: good to drive, quick, refined and that’s before we get to the BMW-baiting Giulia Quadrifoglio with its Ferrari-inspired 2.9-litre twin turbo V6, pounding out a vibrant and addictive 510 ps. That one you will enjoy, trust me.
That said, flying into Milan for the Giulia drive last week, I must confess I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Yes, I’d seen the Giulia at a number of shows and knew the back story: how a dedicated design/development team had come together from scratch, working behind the scenes in isolation to develop this crucial all-new Giulia based off a completely new rear-drive platform. That in itself is something remarkable. No new Alfa has ever been built that way.
Yes, it looks great – fantastic- on paper, especially with ex-Ferrari engineers heading up the project. But what of the reality? Alfa’s recent record, 4C included, has been patchy, to say the least. Would the Giulia truly be the car to turn the corner?
The new Giulia shape? OK, so it’s not a classically beautiful Alfa Romeo like the original 156 but that powerful and stylized front end certainly gives it presence, exuding “overtaking status,” as per the German premium brands. From the sides and back, it’s perhaps less distinctive. Out on the road, it’s also a design that seems to work best in certain colours (red, obviously….).
But then new Alfas dividing opinion is nothing new. When the Duetto was launched back in 1966, its shape was seen as screaming heresy after the lovely 101 series Giulietta Spider. Now look at the Duetto today. Fabulous…
We pitch up at Balocco and because the weather’s bad, we first get to sit alongside an Alfa test driver as he powers around this tight damp track in the top spec Quadrifoglio.
Whoa, even from the passenger seat, you can tell this is something special. The sheer speed of the Alfa is one thing, but the sound, the chassis tautness and pace through corners is undeniably impressive. What’s more, the Alfa driver is smiling and doesn’t seem to be working too hard, the car just seems to flow. Cool.
Then it’s my turn and it takes just a few corners and straights to ascertain that here, genuinely, is a rival for the BMW M3 and Mercedes C63. The bark and response of that all-aluminum, Ferrari inspired V6 twin turbo is the real deal but what also comes through quick and fast is that – at last – Alfa has delivered on decent, informative steering feel and an 8-speed auto box (with big steering wheel paddle shifters) that zaps crisply, swiftly through the gears without hesitation, deviation or repetition, as the saying goes.
The Quadrifoglio is a mass of trick stuff: carbon-fibre bonnet, roof, front active aero splitter, rear spoiler plus aluminum-manufactured doors and wings. Add ceramic brakes, a Torque Vectoring double-clutch rear diff, DNA selector with unique Race setting plus an electronic brain dubbed Alfa Chassis Domain Control (CDC) to that list…
Within the confines of Balocco and given just a few laps, I can’t begin to claim that I had the chance to test all that to the outer limits. What I can say is for sheer driver app