Desie Heita
It is one thing to read words about a car’s looks and performance. It is completely another to look at the real thing. The jury is still out for the Alfa Romeo’ Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde, which Windhoek’s MZ Motors unveiled last week Friday.
To be clear the Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde (QV – you wont be able to always correctly enunciate the name so we shortened it for you) is a fast sports saloon vehicle, aimed at providing competition to the Mercedes Benz C63 and the BMW M3. The Giulia QV is strengthened by the fact that it has been developed with a racetrack in mind, for the petrol heads who may not be able to get their hands on a Ferrari, but would really love to experience the feeling of owning a sports car closest to a Ferrari.
So the engine in the Giulia QV has been inserted ‘wrongly’ – which is to say the opposite of what is traditionally accepted as the right way to insert an engine in the car. Alfa Romeo wanted it wrongly inserted so they can achieve a 50-50-weight ratio. And that means the car can both sprint and tackle the corners with such agility that would make its competitors green with envy.
For a cool N$1,4 million price tag for an Alfa Romeo, the owner of a Giulia QV can also boast to his (yes, he is likely to be male) mates with AMG C63’s that the engine in his red Alfa, is a Ferrari derived 2.9-litre V6 Bi-Turbo. There, the thing is simply a Ferrari for the poor people on the road. At nearly 375 kW the Giulia QV is faster compared to the power output of the 350 kW in the AMG C 63 and tackles head on the AMG C63 S with its 4-litre V8 bi-turbo engine.
So on paper, then, the Giulia QV is the beast to own. The only problem is the interior in the Giulia QV. Besides all its whistles and bells that gives it a sense of being in a toned-down Ferrari, the interior is nothing compared to the AMG C 63, its closest rival, where the driver and passengers are accommodated in sheer opulence.
One has a feeling that when not racing, or tempting other motorists to a drag race between traffic lights, the normal about town driving would eventually be disappointing for the occupants in the Giulia QV. But then again, no one buys a Ferrari for its opulent interior. And the sound of the engine and its four exhausts, which on the Giulia QV, is simply orgasmic. An owner would be tempted to once every other day just switch it on and burry the accelerator pedal to listen to the exquisite growling notes of the engine.
For those not being able to afford the Giulia QV, there is the Giulia model that again is aimed at competing with the Audi A4, the BMW 3-series, and the Mercedes C-Class. It has a watered-down 2-litre engine, which on paper also packs a punch, it spits out 145 kW in the top model variation. It is priced about N$650 000, and while it does not look exactly like the QV, it does sport twin-exhaust pipes and other similar aesthetics features.
Without Alfa Romeo the world today would not have Ferrari. It is perhaps fitting, then, that 95 years later Alfa Romeo has introduced a reinvigorated Alfa Romeo Giulia in guise, but with a new engine developed with Ferrari technologies.
It was in the 1920s and after the Second World War that the romance between Alfa Romeo and Enzo Ferrari began, with Ferrari as a race driver. Alfa Romeo was at the time a ten-year-old company called A.L.F.A (Anomica Lombardo Fabbrica Automibili) producing the most desired sport and racing cars, and winning automobile races. Ferrari was to become the engineer behind the scenes, the man whose wisdom ensured that Alfa Romeo employs the best engine tuning technologies and automobile designs. From a racing driver he became an investor in Alfa Romeo and subsequently a founder of his own automotive company, Ferrari.