The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio has Seductive looks, a snarling exhaust note, and sharp handling are essential to any Italian sports car, and the racy Giulia Quadrifoglio has all three in spades. A Ferrari-derived 505-hp 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 drives the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic; a manual isn’t available here.
Four selectable drive modes adjust suspension damping and throttle response; in Race mode, stability control is fully disabled, and the Quadrifoglio is all too happy to swing its tail out for a drift.
Like a new fling, we don’t know where this is going or whether it’ll all blow up when we start meeting the rest of Alfa Romeo’s U.S.-bound family next year, but damn, things between us and the 2017 Giulia Quadrifoglio are hot right now. As in, cuffed-to-the-bedposts hot.
The sex appeal expected of an expensive, high-performance Italian car drips from the Giulia’s every curve. The Quadrifoglio upgrade piles on the pheromones with a snarling front bumper, a massive diffuser straddled by Ferrari-like exhaust tips, and a (painted) carbon-fiber hood and roof. The hardware also arouses. There is a torque-vectoring differential, the twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V-6 has Ferrari lineage, and the available Pirelli P Zero Corsa Asimmetrico 2 tires and their ridiculously low 60 treadwear rating promise gut-shifting grip (and also incredibly brief intervals between replacements).
Surely There’s a “But” Coming, Right?
You might think we’ve gone off the deep end, that the Alfa has tied one thigh-high around our eyes. You’re expecting us to come to our senses and realize that the Alfa’s wiles are only a distraction from the sort of flaws common to semi-exotic Italian cars. We must be excusing curiosities such as an odd or nonfunctional infotainment system, questionable build quality, or worse because we’re blinded by the sedan’s sparkling performance and looks. We couldn’t be more surprised to declare (for the most part) a great big “nope” to all that.
Truly, the strangest aspect of the Giulia is its lack of a folding rear seat or a trunk pass-through. The rest of the car’s execution is spot-on. The well-assembled interior resembles a Mazda 6’s businesslike environment, and the front seats are well bolstered and graciously accept the human form. Headroom in front and back is generous thanks to the attractively domed roof, although rear legroom is tight.
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