Text | Boss Wang
Recently, there is a car in the circle that has been talked about, its brand has a glorious history of 112 years, it was developed and designed by the F1 team himself, and its commissioning driver is also a legend in the history of F1, and countless people are waiting for it to go to the Nürburgring Nord Ring to set a new record for the fastest four-door car, this car is from Alfa Romeo's Giulia GTA.
It's a car that even if it's parked on the side of the road, someone will take a special camera to shoot, and its personality paint color and exaggerated aerodynamic kit on the body allow photographers to create photos that appear in magazines from all angles. Yes, some cars, even if it doesn't start, can be the focus of all the flash around them, just being static.
Image from watermark
As a standard Alfisti, although I can quote the ceiling parameters of its body, its 158W guidance price, frankly, is too far away from me, fortunately, I already have a 2020 Giulia 280 Veloce.
Also a few days ago, I waited for a long time for the 2022 Giulia officially launched, a total of two models of the driving control version (Ti) and the track version (Veloce), the driving control version (Ti) price range of 389,800 yuan - 399,800 yuan, the track version (Veloce) price range of 449,800 yuan - 459,800 yuan. But today we will not talk about the new car, but back to me and my Giulia 280 Veloce.
Veloce means sport in Italian, but proud Italians certainly don't flirtatiously stick a "Sport" on the fenders like the Germans, and make the whole car look sportier. According to the designers, only Alpha Romeo, who is strong enough in performance and handling, can be labeled with the Veloce nameplate.
So the Italians installed a 1.5Way LSD limited-slip differential on the rear axle in order to be able to twist through each corner faster on the track;
So the Italians designed a separate cooling duct specifically for the Veloce version of the bumper, in order to make its brakes work longer on the track;
As a result, the Italians installed the Veloce version with two seats with thigh extension and lateral support adjustment on the interior, so that the driver and passenger posture can remain stable during the fierce driving of the track;
thereupon......
There may be more details of the configuration level, you have to drive the official to personally move to the official website to check the configuration table.
If you ask me to use one word to evaluate Alfa Romeo, I thought about it, and that is — pure.
Purity is probably the most precious thing of our time.
My job is to be a vehicle product manager at an OEM, and at the moment, for some so-called product competitiveness considerations, I have to spend a lot of costs on such as huge and expensive screens, or because of the internal roll of computing power, I have to pile up several expensive Orin chips to claim that I have level X's ADAS capabilities, or for the so-called "extreme" innovation, I have to abandon the most basic human-machine experience and make the whole car so flashy.
Sometimes when I make a car at the end, I start to reflect on myself, what do I want?
Is it to meet the requirements of the leader, or to build a product for the user that they want that is not available on the market?
When I sat in Giulia's cockpit, I immediately found the answer in my heart:
Because this is a Living Machine, the ar product manager equipped it with a gear shift mechanism and logic from Ferrari, a huge aluminum alloy paddle with a textured shift sound, supplemented by the ZF 8AT's extremely fast shift response speed, so that users can feel a different peak experience from the beginning;
Because this is a Dreaming Machine, so the AR product manager can abandon the huge screen, even the instrument, can use mechanical pointers to replace the gorgeous full LCD instrument, but simplicity does not mean simple, the coverage glass of the central control screen to be made into a curved special-shaped glass, indicating the speed of the "RPM" to be deliberately marked as Italian "GIRI", Italians, the saved hardware costs, into aesthetic design, and other quality experience to transfer to the user;
Because this is a Diving Machine, so the ar product manager requires that this car must be safe in any country in the world, safety does not have national borders and collision standards, safety is safety, today even the lowest luxury version, will also be equipped with AEB automatic collision avoidance, because this is not only a five-star fixed plus, but also an effective guarantee for the driver when accelerating driving, for which I can prove, because I have experienced it countless times;
Because this is a Living Machine, so the AR product manager for this car to do a comprehensive lightweight, the chassis should use aluminum where the resolute use of aluminum, the new technology of the vehicle can reduce weight should be on the top, even if it is not a four-leaf clover model, its covering is also a large area of aluminum, and insist on 7 years so far not to make a big VAVE;
But even if this is a Dreaming Machine, Italians still want users to feel what is the Italian luxury style, so on the Veloce version, the product manager of AR uses first-class leather, Harman Kardon's L7 sound, and even the driver-friendly steering wheel heating in winter, so that users can experience what a luxury brand model itself should look like even when idly outing for a ride.
I'm ashamed to say that after driving 40,000 kilometers, I drove Giulia to the Pegasus Circuit for the first time on the track day officially organized by Alfa Romeo a few years ago.
On the track, Giulia showed its excellent athletic skills, the steering wheel is extremely accurate, there is no vacancy in Dynamic mode; the engine speed climbs very actively, the big foot can still automatically downgrade the oil after braking, keeping the speed in the maximum torque range, waiting for my next foot to slam the throttle; the adjustable flank of the seat firmly clamps me in the driver's seat, although I can feel the center of gravity shift in the corner, but the body does not displace The only fly in the ointment is that due to the excessive wear of my rear tires, there has been a serious lack of grip on rainy days, and in many sharp corners, the ESP will be triggered to limit the power, which seriously affects the cornering speed.
Listening to Alfa Romeo's colleagues in China say that AR is about to officially launch the amateur driver training program called "Clover Racing Academy" in March, I think I am very interested in participating, on the one hand, in order to resist the midlife crisis, I hope that I can find a feeling of young blood on the racing track, on the other hand, I also feel that my Giulia, it was born as a track, I should spend more time to bring it to my own place, let it fight with every corner, and let my racing skills grow in tandem.
Someone once asked me if Alfa Romeo's F1 team signed Zhou Guanyu really for the Chinese market?
From a business point of view, the Chinese market must be one of the most important markets for Alfa Romeo in the world, the crowd base here is large enough, as long as Zhou Guanyu can run on the F1 field, or even a few highlight moments, you can make Chinese have a good feeling for Alfa Romeo, Chinese will always have their own national athletes team or team can not help but take as the parent team, although the country does not now promote the "rice circle culture", but the love for the driver, to the team, into the final recognition of the brand product I think this is still normal.
From the perspective of brand development, Alfa Romeo really needs to find a spokesperson in China, this spokesperson needs to have a strong racing gene, has brilliant racing results, can put Alfa Romeo's control gene through his own personal experience to actually express, that is, there is no doubt that the F1 driver is the best spokesperson, Kimi is of course the idol of the global F1 fans, but he has to retire due to his age, so this vacated seat, It is also natural to find a Chinese to take charge.
If someone complained that Alfa Romeo's products were too expensive due to positioning reasons, the compact SUV released on February 8, the Tonale, would become another strategic model of Alpha Romeo in China, and in terms of size, Tonale's length, width and height were 4528 * 1835 * 1604mm, and the wheelbase reached 2636mm.
There is no doubt that the shorter the smaller and leaner the body size, the sharper the control of Alfa Romeo will adjust, and for Alfisti, who loves the brand, as long as the price is right, they will find countless reasons to own the car.
There is a five sense theory in the peak experience, which is a good product that can call the user's senses from all aspects of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, in these five points, Alfa Romeo has never let me down, I am even grateful for this car, whenever I drive it, it reminds me all the time:
To be a car, to be pure, to be a person, to always maintain the original intention.