LONG-TERMERS
Our favourite supersaloon has had a mid-life refresh – which was all the excuse we needed to put another one through a long-term test
That grin on Adam Towler’s face is because he’s just taken delivery of a new Giulia Quadrifoglio. A Mk4 Focus ST has arrived this month too, while Jethro’s 911 has a new engine from an unlikely source
ON PAPER, I ADMIT, THE EXCUSE to run another Giulia Quadrifoglio on the evo Fast Fleet looks rather thin. This facelifted version has some LED tail lights, the centre console and switchgear is improved, NVH is reduced, and there’s a new infotainment system. All told, it doesn’t sound like a great deal is different, but then there never was anything wrong with the 503bhp twinturbo V6, or the rear-drive chassis, so why change for change’s sake? Moreover, with a new key player in the market in the new G80 BMW M3, it’ll be interesting to see how a modernised – however slightly that may be – Giulia stacks up against it across months rather than days. That’s enough of an excuse for me!
So what have we got spec-wise? The paint, once again, is Competizione Red –
a £2500 extra that sounds fancy but in reality looks a bit dull and muddy as soon as it gets, er, a bit muddy. I’d prefer the brighter Alfa Red for £0. I’d also prefer our old long-termer’s slim-spoked silver wheels, but instead we have the £700 dark grey five-hole items, so there you go. No, it’s not how I would have specced it, and I think Alfa would have loved for it to be one of the fancy heritage colours, like Montreal Green, but supply is a little delayed on those by the sound of it, and let’s be clear, while in my eyes it may not be in its optimal battle dress it still looks gorgeous, curvaceous, stylish, in a way the German supersaloon contingent never manages. See, I’m smitten already.
We also have the Driver Assistance Pack at £1000, with all the usual stuff I imagine I’ll be keeping switched off, then there’s the exposed carbonfibre roof (£1600), carbon mirror caps (£190), the 14-speaker Harman Kardon hi-fi (£950), the £350 carbon V-grille surround (this is getting a bit silly now) and the £400 leather/ Alcantara flat-bottomed wheel with ‘carbon insert’. More importantly, we have the incredibly good Sparco carbon-shell buckets (£3250) and the Akrapovic exhaust (also £3250). The latter could be a key option, because with the adoption of a particulate filter to meet WLTP regs, the last Quad I drove was substantially quieter than our old longtermer, almost to the point of being a bit subdued. The sports exhaust should put that nasally V6 thunder back into the mix, or so you’d hope at any rate. All-in, you’re looking at a price of £83,295, up from the basic list of £67,195. Given the way people now buy cars such as these I’m not quite sure of the relevance of quoting those numbers, but they at least puts things into some sort of perspective.
When ‘GDA’ was ready to be delivered, Alfa suggested we could forgo the usual Pirelli Corsas for some Sottozeros – winter tyres – for a while. Experience with editor Gallagher’s old Quad meant I didn’t have to think about that for long, because the bespoke Corsas are an incredibly sticky compound but absolutely useless in low temperatures. Sure enough, on the hardy winters the car’s poise and grip were astounding: even in snowy conditions it just went about the journey in a relaxed, fuss-free manner. I know we say this a lot, but by not adopting winter tyres in the UK we are constantly inviting the sort of chaos that descends every year; the Alfa was a lot more stable and predictable than a 4x4 SUV on performance summer tyres.
‘It still looks gorgeous, curvaceous, stylish, in a way German rivals never manage’
The winters were still in place when we converged on Bedford Autodrome for a recent photo shoot, and I took the chance to get a few laps in with the Alfa. It was hilariously good fun, drifting from lock to lock with ease, the lower, malleable limits of the winters only adding to the fun (you’ll find a clip in evo’s Instagram feed), although as the frost and damp dried on the racing line, the friction started to take its toll on the Sottozeros and I left the Alfa parked up to concentrate on the other business of the day.
As I write, they’ve just been swapped for a set of Corsas, so now it’s back to maximum attack mode. Can’t wait.
Date acquired January 2021 Total mileage 2170 Mileage this month 400 Costs this month £0 mpg this month 21.0