Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Review- #blogpost by Szymek S

My story with the Giulia began back in September 2015. That year I got invited to go to IAA in Frankfurt, along with my dad and my friend who is also running his automotive blog (carburator.pl). The show was fantastic, the cars were shiny and beautiful, but nothing, nothing was as gorgeous as the newly unveiled Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Not only were we left speechless by the looks of the car, but also because we weren’t exactly sure how to correctly pronounce the name of the car without getting hot coffee poured all over us by an angry Italian.

When I got back to Warsaw I couldn’t stop thinking about the Giulia; it was so promising. It was a little light in a dark room full of boring Alfas. As much as I like the looks of the Mito and the Giulietta, they are dull- there’s no arguing about that. I was scared that Alfa forgot their crazy identity, that they stopped taking risks.

Here I am almost 1.5 years later sitting with a huge grin on my face, writing about the best car I’ve ever got to experience. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

When I was browsing Facebook one day, I saw that my friend got his hands on a Giulia Veloce, so I wrote him a little message, asking if it was possible for him to give me a short ride along in the car. Unfortunately, he gave the car back the same day I decided to ask him, but he proposed something way, way better. In two weeks time, he will get to drive around in a Giulia Quadrifoglio, and he agreed to let me shoot some pictures of it.

The two weeks preceding this insane occasion were probably one of the longest two weeks of my life. During that time I read a ton of reviews of the car, all of them were pretty much praising the car left, right and center. As excited as I was, I was almost sure there’s no way in hell that this Alfa could be this good. It didn’t have the right to, it’s not German, it’s not sensible, and it’s an Alfa. Holy crap was I wrong.

As soon as my friend pulled up to my house, my adrenaline level went through the roof. The car was red with black accents and silverish wheels, to say it looked stunning would be an understatement. Even my dad who has been sick for a few days got out of bed to take a short peek from the window. The only thing I heard leaving the house was him screaming “Szymek you’re one lucky guy.” He was right. I’m one lucky guy.

My friend quickly introduced me to the car and I put my camera and a tripod in the surprisingly big trunk. I was ready, he wasn’t- he had to put on his black, leather driving gloves- then he was ready as well.

My friend quickly introduced me to the car, and I put my camera and a tripod in the surprisingly big trunk. I was ready; he wasn’t- he had to put on his black, leather driving gloves- now he was ready as well.
We started the ride along by deciding to do a little photoshoot near the stadium in Warsaw; I did especially pick that place because:

• there was a tunnel on the way there

• it was semi far away

• there’s a highway we needed to take

That proved to be one of the best decisions I made in my whole life. Enough chattering now, lets’s talk about the Alfa for a bit. In short: it’s a 510 horsepower, RWD saloon, our particular model was a six-speed manual as well. The car has a few different driving modes, but I can only tell you about the “Dynamic” one and the “Race” one, I hope you don’t mind- I am not complaining about that fact. The difference between those two modes is enormous; it’s like swapping cars. Does that mean that the Giulia doesn’t feel right in the dynamic mode? No, it’s far from being bad, I would even go as far as saying it’s great. The issue is that it’s just stupidly brilliant in race mode.

Thankfully my “designated driver” is a fantastic driver (he has driving gloves, he wouldn’t wear them if he was a bad one). After only spending a day with the car he seemed to know it inside out. He proved that quickly after power sliding down an access road when joining the highway. If that wasn’t enough proof already, he then did it again by hitting speeds that totally were under the speed limit… on the autobahn that is. Of course driving fast isn’t hard, but driving fast while being safe should be considered art.

Back to the Alfa, when you put the DNA system into “Race” mode, the beast awakens. The steering sharpens, the suspensions stiffens itself, and you can access a 100% of the power. Also, the exhaust starts to sound like a wild boar trying to fend off intruders from taking its piglets away. Or to be simple- it growls beastly and very, very aggressively.

Even though the car has 510 hp, 80 hp more than the M3, the power is very manageable, it’s not overwhelming as it can be with those powerful cars. The Alfa handles fantastically well, the steering is very direct for an Italian super saloon. You point the car in one direction and it just goes there, no questions asked. Of course, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t like to spin its wheels, it loves to, but once again it is very easy to control. As my friend explained, it’s very easy to slide it because it has just enough grip in the rear for it not to come around too much. We probably would have had a tad more grip if we weren’t on winter tires, but then again we had a stupid amount of fun.

One complaint I’d have to have is that after you responsibly plant your foot on the accelerator, the car waits just a split second to fully react if I had to guess I’d say the turbo lag is responsible for that. However, it’s only a minor issue and doesn’t take away from the fact that the car is extremely fast.

Now we have to say what happened in the tunnel; it’d be a blasphemy if I didn’t share it with you. We came to almost a complete halt, rolled the windows down, put the car in race mode and then well, you guessed it- we went full throttle. At that moment I needed to have a reality check because no car should be able to sound this good. Now I’m worried that I will never satisfy my ear drums like I did in that tunnel…

After power sliding some more and pleasing our ears, we arrived at the location and were immediately greeted with terrible lighting and quickly appearing rain. So that’s my excuse for the not the best photos of the Giulia… But hey! At least I got to move it around.

Following the short photo shoot was time to go home, but before that, my friend had a little surprise for me. We both wanted to experience the car in any gear above third (which tops out at over 160km/h), so we went on the big highway… well, long story short we were in fourth and reached a speed of somewhere between “really bloody fast” and “Jesus Christ my face is about to be permanently stuck to the seat.” That was the best surprise ever, and it wasn’t even for my birthday!

Well, unfortunately, it was time for me to get back home and I would lie if I said I didn’t want to cry leaving the car. I was and still, am astounded by it. It was everything I ever wanted it to be and more. Alfa has finally retained its crown; all hail the Queen.

Now that I’m a few days after the experience I think it’s the right time to write a proper review of this car.
I usually try not to have high expectations going into a car I’ll be reviewing, but I had extremely high hopes for this car. It was praised by almost everyone I can think of, Doug DeMuro loved it, evo.co.uk loved it, and our own Matt Robinson called it “Bloody Mega.” It also is the quickest saloon to ever go around the Nurburgring. How can you not expect a lot from a car with such accomplishments? I was pretty sure I was going to love it, not only because it’s a bloody brilliant car on paper, but because it’s an Alfa Romeo and if there’s a single car manufacturer that we all love and wish all the best to- it’s Alfa Romeo. I wasn’t wrong.

The driving comfort is surprisingly good for a car that is truthfully nothing more than a four-door performance car. The dampers aren’t too stiff; they’re surprisingly soft for a 510 horsepower Italian car. The seats are quite comfortable, but they’re a manual- weight saving? Maybe, but you’d probably expect those to be automatic in an 80 grand car. I feel like the interior, as beautiful as it is isn’t the best. It’s a bit of a space waste, it only has a single cup holder (could easily have two, three) and there isn’t any space to put your phone in. On the upside, the materials were surprisingly good. The stitching is beautiful; the carbon fiber is beautifully balanced with other elements of the interior, so it doesn’t look excessive.

Next aspect of the car you can’t complain about is the steering position as it is fantastic. The visibility is quite good; you can see everything going on around you with no bigger issues. The steering wheel also is a piece of art, its size for me was perfect, and it isn’t overflowing with all kinds of pointless buttons and switches.

The infotainment system is… well… decent, I guess? It looks great, and the screen is beautifully integrated into the center of the console, but holy moly is it slow. In a car that reaches 100km/h in 3.9 seconds, you’d expect the infotainment system to be equally as fast, but in a typical Italian fashion, it’s just good enough to be good enough.

Here comes the part we’ve all been waiting for- the engine. Marvellous. Absolutely marvelous. It essentially is a Ferrari California engine with two pistons blocked off. The 2.9-liter BiTurbo V6 produces around 505hp and as I mentioned above- sounds stupidly good for a V6. The power plant is always ready to bite and rev up to 6500rpms vigorously. It picks up revs in a very smooth fashion. The gearing is quite long, as I mentioned before the third gear tops out at above 160km/h. It also loves to; I repeat loves to slide. It’s the happiest it can be when it’s sideways and to be honest the driver, and the passenger is also the happiest when the car is sideways.

Alfa has set out with an ambitious goal to produce the best performance saloon ever. In a field dominated by calculated, cold and German sedans, an Italian fun car is a breath of fresh air that the industry needed. I think that BMW was too comfortable sitting on their pedestal with the label of the best saloon car so I’m glad that Alfa came and said “Hey! We’re back, and after WWII two we don’t want the Germans to be that comfortable at the top”.

The Giulia is a fantastic car. It’s incredibly fun to throw around, but also surprisingly decent as a daily driver. You can fit four peoples in it with baggage. I’m also pretty sure that you will all be arriving at your destination with huge smiles painted on your faces.

In conclusion, Alfa has done a tremendous job with this car, they’ve managed to create a brilliant automobile from scratch. They’ve used their connections with Ferrari to create a car that could be proudly wearing a prancing horse as its logo, but it’s not, it is wearing the Alfa badge and goddamn am I happy because of it. The Queen is back, all hail the Queen.

Cheers,
Szymek Ślusarczyk

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