First Drive: 2021 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Review

In short, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is a prodigiously fast super saloon, a competitor for the BMW M3, Mercedes-AMG C63 or Audi RS4. But in reality as the only car in its class that could be classed as ‘stylish’, fitted with a howling V6 derived from Ferrari and still completely rear-wheel-drive, it might be the last super-saloon that’s made for the purist.

Much like its cousin the Stelvio, which we also recently drove, the 2020 Giulia Quadrifoglio looks very much like the 2019 Giulia Quadrifolgio. Which is no bad thing. The new car now has darker lenses in its LED rear light clusters and a gloss-black finish to some of the formerly chrome surrounds (rear badge and Alfa grille), but other than that, it’s business as usual. The Giulia is absolutely the class of its field when it comes to design, as BMW’s kidneys get closer to dialysis and Mercedes insists on more and more curves and heavy intakes, the Giulia sticks with simple lines. It works well. The headlights are slim, and seem to gently reach down for the grille while the lower air intakes reach up, it makes that iconic shape in the middle the very centrepiece of the design, drawing your eye in. The car’s lines feel uncluttered with the modern day obsession with metal crimping that has seen all its competitors sprout ever-sharper and harsher feature lines.

At the back the new dark lights look a bit aftermarket, a bit “smoked from Halfords” but we’ll forgive it as the four tailpipes and little spoiler draw the attention away.

Nothing has changed under the bonnet, the engine is still three-quarters of the block from a Ferrari Portofino, giving us a twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6. Revving to around 7,000rpm it produces 510PS (375kW) at 6,500rpm and 600Nm (443lb ft) at 2,500rpm. That is sent through an eight-speed ZF gearbox to the rear wheels and the rear wheels only. If you want to compare the Stelvio to the Giulia, this one is the hooligan.

Everything about the Giulia feels very analogue (except for the auto ‘box), even the dials on the dash have a real needle to whizz round, rather than a digital set. Stamp the throttle and the Giulia will summon everything from that howling V6 – although there’s a definite lag between throttle hitting floor and action – and then wonder exactly what to do with it. You can feel the rear-driven nature of the Giulia the moment you set off, any hard acceleration leads to a touch of wheelspin, no matter the surface, and while the Giulia’s sprint to 62 is only 0.1 seconds slower than the Stelvio, you can really feel the difference. But when it does harness all that power, the effect is impressive, especially when you later arrive at something interesting.

The Giulia has Alfa’s standard DNA switch for the adaptive driving settings, where N is Normal and D is Dynamic. There’s a definite difference in damping between the two, the Giulia feels softer and ready for a cruise in N, but rattles a bit more in D – Track will remove your fillings. Unless you’re cruising D will always feel better, but you never need to involve the harshest damping settings unless you really want to.

Hit a corner and the Giulia requires control, there’s no front wheel power here to help you through. Power on mid corner will induce more traction issues, making the back end actually quite useful, the Giulia will slide wider on corner exit than many of its competitors, as the fronts push rather than pulling, but the throttle is a useful tool in such situations. Through it all it’s not a scary situation, no matter how lairy the car is getting, the feel through the chassis is excellent and you know exactly what everything is doing at all times. A spirited drive in the Quadrifolgio is a workout, but a fun one.

The inside of the Guilia Quadrifoglio looks, to the untrained eye, the same as it ever was. There’s a 8.8-inch touchscreen in the middle, mounted nicely under a fold in the dash, a pair of those deeply recessed dials that Alfa do so well in front of you, a three spoke wheel with starter button and a carbon-fibre central tunnel. But there have been subtle changes. The screen is now controllable through touch, as well as the rotary dial. It’s not perhaps as incisive to use as many with your finger, but the rotary dial itself is much improved. The wheel now has a slight change in design, holding a small cloverleaf on the lower spoke and the gear selector is swathed in leather – after some owners apparently complained of discomfort from the old model. There’s a lot of brightly coloured stitching everywhere, carbon-fibre sprouting from dash, doors and centre console (not to my taste, but some will love it) and a nifty place for the wireless charger – just drop it down the front of the centre cubby and there’s no need to lift the armrest.

Electrically-operated sports seats come as standard, although you can opt to move up to the carbon-shelled Sparcos. The standard seats are fine, but the Sparcos really do look after you much better, the question there is more about whether you really want even more carbon-fibre in the cabin.

The new infotainment system is very customisable, with a whole host of ‘widgets’ you can move around, controlling the audio systems, the navigation, climate control and performance pages – from which you can monitor important things like torque delivery, acceleration, max speed (absolutely important things, not distractions, honest). If you don’t want to use Alfa’s own systems, Android Auto and Apple Car play are included.

The Giulia comes with My Remote, Alfa’s smartphone/smartwatch/smarthome system that can remind drivers of where they left their car or lets them set speed limits for certain areas. The Quadrifoglio also comes with onboard wi-fi, and level 2 automated driving systems – the highest level on offer in the UK. These work through the active cruise control, active blind spot assist, lane keep assist, traffic jam assist, traffic sign recognition and driver attention monitoring.

The Giulia still stands alone in its sector as an outright hooligan that doesn’t need a big all-wheel-drive system to make it feel usable. The rear-wheel-drive system feels unique in 2020 putting a little more control and, dare we say it, fun in your hands than rivals will allow. It is still the class-leading car for looks as well so if you want something different from the crowd the Giulia Quadrifoglio is the obvious choice. On a cruise it’s refined and gentle, with an increased amount of sound insulation the cabin making it a more relaxed place to be when slogging the miles. The cabin still lacks that final touch of quality that you’d find from BMW or Audi, but it’s a sacrifice you probably expect for that Italian charm at your fingertips. If all that appeals to you, go for it, we think it will be £67,195 well spent, just remember you need to take a bit more care with it than an M5.