The Alfa Romeo Giulia: The Answer To All Petrol Heads’ Dreams

If you’ve just bought yourself a new 3 Series or Mercedes C Class, it’s probably best if you look away now. Otherwise, regretful weeping will soon follow.

Alfa Romeo has been out of the executive saloon market for some time now, and its last attempt the 159 was fairly feeble. This time though, Alfa has gone away to Maranello (the hometown of Ferrari and Maserati) and come back with what could quite possibly be the best saloon car ever made. It’s called the Giulia, and it is stunning. Just look at it. It’s cars like this that make you feel like a small child again. The car is jaw dropping to look at. It’s almost like they have shoehorned all the best bits of previous Alfas and put them together to make the perfect package. Alfa have put some serious time into this car too; they have thought about all of te little details. They haven’t over complicated it one bit, in my eyes – and I’m sure you’ll agree – it’s beautiful, like art in motion.

If the sight of this car didn’t make you go weak at the knees then the specs definitely will. Firstly, it’s rear wheel drive. Yes; Alfa has ditched the front wheels in favour of the sportier rear ones. On top of that the car has a 50:50 weight distribution, a long wheelbase with short overhangs (good for cornering) plus a lightweight build, making use of components such as carbon fibre, aluminium and a fancy plastic composite. All of which make the car weigh somewhere in the region of 1500kg. So It’s no featherweight, but that’s not bad for a saloon car.

Ok, that’s it, I can’t hold it off any longer, I’ve just got to talk about the engine. The car shown at the launch was the top spec Quadrifoglio model, and those who are fans of the brand will know that that basically means it’s the quick one. Rather than just making a mildly hot variant -like you would expect from Alfas of late- they have given the job to the biggest name in the business, Ferrari. As a result, this prancing horse derived car pushes out a whopping 503bhp, that’s 30 more than a C63 and over 70 more than an M3!

Hold on just one more minute though, because there’s a bigger surprise yet to come. The 0-62 time of just 3.9 seconds was achieved with, wait for it, a manual! Alfa really have made a true drivers car here, and boy do they know it. The car features active aero in the front splitter, does without any electronic gimmickry which could hinder the joys of those magnificent rear wheels, and, you get all of this while sitting in your luscious driver orientated cabin complete with leather, wood, and carbon fibre.

I could go on about the eight new models due in the upcoming years, and I could say about the other 4 and 6-cylinder petrol and diesel engines that will follow. But instead I think I’ll just leave you with your mind officially blown.

Well done Alfa, a fast, desirable, potentially best in class car. Talk about a comeback!