When buying a high-performance car, is it more important the reason or the heart? It’s all about numbers, or all that is behind it? Is there always prevalence of a component, or is everything the same? Questions that came to mind looking at the “return” of Alfa Romeo on the world stage with a car which ultimately we were not used to and that has created an interest difficult to find in other Alfa Romeo of the recent past. So why so much interest in the new Giulia, unveiled in its Quadrifoglio Verde version, its better declination… Some might say that it’s all about the stunning performance numbers we are talking about: 510 hp, 0-100 kph in just 3.9 seconds, top speed of over 300 kph, power/weight ratio of 2.99 kg/hp. Someone else might reply that it is about its characteristics, such as the emotional return to rear-wheel drive (several times praised) or the use of characteristic design elements that have always been part of the DNA of the Italian brand, or even the return to symbols and initials of a past full of winning races. The fact is that all features, based both on numbers and on the emotions, push the new Giulia in two diametrically opposite directions, but which finally give tremendous energy to the new born, difficult to find in other models of the same segment. Why? Well, we can understand the numbers of the new Giulia are a mission in the future, that is the only possible way to challenge those cars which until now was not possible to get close to for Alfa Romeo, like the Audi RS4, BMW M3 and Mercedes C63 AMG S, which incidentally, have the very same horses of the new and fresh Italian. Not only the new Giulia could also be understood as a return to the glorious past of Alfa Romeo, made of models with attractive design and superb technical solutions as the welcomed rear-wheel drive. Probably the interest (the same of journalists and fans) towards the launch of the new Giulia is the result of a judicious mix of old and new and a fresh wave of technology combined with traditional elements that have made history: it is no coincidence perhaps that Alfa Romeo’s new slogan is “the mechanics of emotions”? Just this fascinating mix of numbers and traditions, reason and heart gave life to the Alfa Romeo that was missing for too long in the Company but, more importantly, in the hearts of fans of the brand. If you do a step back with to the latest Alfa Romeo models, it is hard to see how this assumption is not without foundation, as the 2007 8C had a beautiful line and was combined with rear-wheel drive, but it was a supercar produced in a limited edition and reserved for only 1,000 clients and wealthy enthusiasts. But the 8C was a first step in this direction, almost twenty years after another limited edition, the always fascinating SZ 3.0 born in 1989, again rear-wheel drive, but it represented the swan song for the RWD’s Alfa Romeo. Today Alfa has recently released the 4C, but it is again a supercar for a few people and not created to inflame the crowds. Technology aside, the latest Alfa Romeo designed have often found favor in the big audience: starting with the 156 and the 147, until the 159 and the new Giulietta which have won acclaim thanks to a design that pointed straight to the heart. In a few words, there was the design, but there were not enough mechanical solutions (primarily a rear-wheel drive layout), which in the past had given a lot of prestige to the brand of the snake. With the Giulia, it seems that the wind has changed: there are now numbers (both performance that, hopefully, market figures) and there are the emotions of a design that captures, there is a look to the future together with a blink to the past, there’s a fair fight against the German who was missing for too long and there is a return to daring technical solutions that many had already called for so long. So the Giulia could put all together: rational and irrational, impulsive and calculating: this explains, perhaps, why the long wait and all the fuss around its presentation. So … welcome back Giulia!
Antonio Iafelice