It’s Italian, rear-wheel drive (and God knows we’ve been waiting for this to happen too long), it’s got the numbers to scare an M3 and… it’s an all-new Alfa Romeo. What’s not to like about the Giulia?
It depends. It’s easy to be smitten by all of the above, especially when you drive it at its birthplace for the first time. The thing is, it’s taking Alfa an awful lot of time to actually bring it to the market; moreover, once you get past the excitement of the initial launch, it’s not uncommon to start noticing some foibles you might have initially missed.
Silverstone is as far removed from Balocco as possible, and this particular example comes with the standard steel brakes, plus the 8-speed ZF auto box, which will be the sole option in Blightly.
By now, we know the facts by heart: a twin-turbo V6 with 510 PS (503 HP) that’s good for a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint in a smidge under 4.0 seconds, Ferrari engineering… the lot. So, does the Giulia in top QV form feel as good the second time around, or, now that the novelty factor has worn off, are there drawbacks that have begun to surface?