Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

The Italian supersaloon’s uncompromising sportiest mode gives it an edge

‘Just as well I wasn’t hooked up to a heartrate monitor: I think I might have broken it’

AS EFFECTIVE AS THE PIRELLI SOTTOZERO winter tyres were in poor conditions, it’s great to have the sticky P Zeros back on the Alfa. With their 60 treadwear rating, they can feel more like 1980s one-lap qualifiers, but while this makes them utterly useless in sub-zero conditions, in sunnier climes the response and grip they give the Giulia’s front end is just fabulous. Despite this, the twin-turbo V6 has more than enough mumbojumbo to overwhelm the rears, sometimes with amusingly thuggish consequences.

What makes the Quadrifoglio particularly naughty is that with just a double nudge of the centrally mounted DNA rotary wheel to select Race mode (with the dampers knocked back to ‘mid’ to retain ride composure, naturally) you’re into maximum-attack mode with absolutely no safety net whatsoever. In essence, you can only have this ultimate sporting set-up with no ESP or traction control – a strange decision, perhaps.

The idea of this on a curving wet motorway slip road in fourth gear certainly focuses the mind. In fact, I can recall having pretty much just such a moment in editor Gallagher’s earlier Quadrifoglio long-termer when I momentarily forgot we were in Race and not Dynamic mode, and it picked up its rear wheels over a crest at high speed in the rain. In a straight line. Just as well I wasn’t hooked up to a heart-rate monitor at the time: I think I might have broken it…

The Alfa’s rivals, such as the new BMW

M3, offer much, much more in the way of customisation through driver modes, but then offset this by matching the Alfa’s accessibility with configurable steering wheel buttons; M1 and M2 in the BMW’S case. This way you can have all the noise, but still with a predefined safety net, then if the time and place are right you can flick into a shackle-free set-up almost instantly to have some illicit fun. Still, there’s something about the Alfa’s brazen approach to all this that appeals. It presents you with a deal: if you want the full strength of espresso, it comes at a price – concentration, commitment, and skill. It makes me think of driving a Porsche 996.2 GT3, for example, which by the time it was launched in 2003 was unusual in not providing any driver aids, and hence was a car that you could never completely relax in, especially in poor conditions.

We talk a lot in these pages about modern cars lacking driver interaction, and it’s for this reason that

the Alfa’s uncompromising doctrine strikes a chord. It also means that without even the slightest hint of button pushing required, a cheeky little slide here and there are that much more attainable, because sometimes they happen without you even really intending them to. And that kind of entertainment is one of the factors that continues to elevate this wonderful car above most, if not all, of its supersaloon competition.

That said, I’m duty bound to report the bad as much as the good, and our Quadrifoglio appeared to have developed a worrying creak somewhere low in the car – until I realised it was the driver’s seat back moving slightly. It’s annoying, but I’m sure a simple tightening of something will be the cure. I blame that Steve Sutcliffe (sorry Steve, I have to blame someone, don’t I?), who used the Alfa for his video with the M3 Comp, AMG A45 and Civic

Type R. Head to evo’s Youtube channel to watch the result.

I also must admit that I poked my head inside a new G30 BMW M3 the other day – I’ve yet to get behind the wheel – and from a ‘perception of quality’ point of view the Alfa’s recent interior upgrades don’t appear to have been enough to close the gap. Then again,

I do like the leather dash and the way the carbonfibre of the bonnet’s top edge is visible from the driver’s seat, and the Alfa doesn’t have a face like… well, that. I notice some of my learned colleagues are proclaiming to quite like it now; it’s a taste I’ve yet to acquire.

Adam Towler (@Adamtowler)

Date acquired January 2021 Total mileage 2771 Mileage this month 601 Costs this month £0 mpg this month 21.1