If you're a car enthusiast, you've probably heard of Alfa Romeo, a legendary car brand that originated in Milan, Italy. This brand was born in 1910, only 3 years later than the familiar Mercedes-Benz, is currently one of the few century-old car companies, and what is more surprising is that Alfa Romeo was born, it is for sports and racing, created 1 year to start participating in various events, simply put, as long as alfa Romeo participates in the event, it will be able to win the championship.
However, it is precisely because of Alfa Romeo's obsession with motor sports for many years and too obsessed with the production of sports models that the product line of the Alfa Romeo brand is quite narrow, resulting in its sales not being good, and once on the verge of bankruptcy. It was not until 1986 that Fiat Group acquired it and used Fiat's platform to build cars to get out of the crisis, it is worth mentioning that in this nearly 30 years, in addition to the 4C, 8C, which can be comparable to supercars, there are almost no models with the true pedigree of Alfa Romeo. In addition, since 2011, Alfa Romeo has not launched a new model, until the emergence of this new Giulia.
The Alfa Romeo Giulia series was first born in 1962, when the Giulia performed better than many pure performance cars, so it became the best-selling model in Europe at that time, and had a life cycle of up to 16 years. And today we want to test drive, to say that the new Giulia is the key model of the Alfa Romeo brand revival plan, when the Giulia QV four-leaf clover created the fastest four-door sedan in the Nürburgring with a time of 7 minutes and 32 seconds, this Giulia suddenly became a global fire, and the record for the fastest four-door car has not been broken so far. Evaluations of pure Italian blood, Ferrari engines, Ferraris that can commute to work on weekdays, etc. followed, and the population was filled. What is even more exciting is that this Alfa Romeo Giulia is also going to officially enter domestic sales, and the pre-price of the 2.0T model from 330,000 is full of endless temptations.
Alfa Romeo Giulia is really coming this time, because this time I had a test drive experience of the Chinese version of Giulia at the Balocco circuit in Italy. This includes models with 200 horsepower and 280 horsepower, which feel really great, and the driving experience is completely different from the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and so on currently on sale. Of course, during this test drive, there was also a simple experience of the European version of the Giulia QV four-leaf clover model, that is, the Nürburgring running 7 minutes and 32 seconds model, which is indeed very exciting. However, the focus of this test drive is mainly on the 200-horsepower and 280-horsepower Chinese models, which can directly tell everyone whether it is worth looking forward to and whether it is worth buying.
First, let's look at a few of the issues that concern you and look at the advanced technology used by Giulia.
How is giulia's 2.0T model different from the 2.9T Giulia QV four-leaf clover model?
I believe that many people are concerned about this problem, and the official answer to us is definitely enough to make everyone excited. According to the official statement, the Giulia QV four-leaf clover model is not an enhanced version of the ordinary 2.0T version, because the entire Giulia development concept is to first make the Giulia QV four-leaf clover version, and then launch the ordinary 2.0T version, which is completely opposite to the model development concept of BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz AMG. The BMW M3 was developed from the 3 Series for enhanced improvements, as was the AMG model, and the concept of development was completely different from that of the first model.
The more exciting answer is that the difference between the Giulia 2.0T version and the QV clover version is that in addition to the engine with different output power, the rest of the differences are only in the carbon fiber hood, carbon fiber roof, barrel sports seats, wheel tires, brake kits and exterior performance kits, as for the soft and hard adjustable chassis suspension system, steering system, carbon fiber drive shaft, gearbox, The rear axle differential and other basic equipment are completely unchanged and retained on the 2.0T version, which is very, very thick.
That is to say, the 2.0T version shares the high-performance suspension system of QV Clover, with exactly the same chassis and handling performance as the top QV Clover version. Unlike models such as the BMW 3 Series who want to improve the sense of handling and need to replace the suspension and other related things later, from the perspective of modification, it is "completely unnecessary to modify"!
Cars born for the Nürburgring brush laps are painful to drive, is the Giulia QV four-leaf clover the same?
The Giulia QV Clover was indeed built to set a new Nürburgring record, but if you've seen The Grand Tour Season 10, Jeremy's assessment of Giulia is that it's a Ferrari that can be driven every day. And my actual feeling is the same, Giulia in addition to running tracks, its powerful suspension system can also make daily driving very comfortable, and very, very good to drive, easy steering and excellent chassis quality, it is usually the same as an ordinary comfort-based model, there is not much to be picky, Alfa Romeo is very magical to make a car with two personalities, and there is no division, no conflict.
Isn't giulia's space small?
According to official information, Giulia's benchmark model is BMW 3 Series, Audi A4L, Mercedes-Benz C-Class these luxury entry models, although Giulia's wheelbase reached 2820mm, but the length of the vehicle is only 4640mm, the size is basically the same as the standard wheelbase version of the BMW 3 Series, but in the face of the extended version of the 3 opponents, Giulia seems to be a little inferior. Also affected by the perfect weight ratio of 50:50, the Giulia's engine is placed behind the front axle, so it also encroaches on a lot of cabin space.
From the performance of the actual space, Giulia's spatial performance is quite acceptable, but when passengers over 185cm tall sit in the back seat, it will indeed be a little uncomfortable, which is also where Giulia is currently suffering.
The luggage compartment space of Giulia is also affected by the complex rear suspension, which will be slightly smaller than the same class, but for general daily use, this does not pose a great impact, and there will still be a lot of space surplus after visual inspection of the 28-inch suitcase.
What "black technology" does Giulia have?
Based on the relationship between Alfa Romeo and Ferrari and Masarati's FCA Group, Giulia shares with Maserati in terms of design, power technology, and research and development, and even their R&D center is together to form a supercar group. Giulia has a perfect body weight ratio of 50:50 in front and rear, an ultra-low drag coefficient of 0.25cd, an ultra-lightweight body, and this is Alfa Romeo's first four-door rear-wheel drive model, which is also Alfa Romeo's most powerful product since 1986, all optimized to improve handling and performance.
Exclusive patented technology suspension system
Giulia's front suspension is a double wishbone structure, and a unique patent - virtual steering shaft technology (no detailed information is available for technical explanation) is to make the tires almost completely vertical in any state, so that the vehicle has better grip at the same time, but also to increase the directional response speed by 20%, to achieve fast and accurate steering control. The rear suspension, based on Maserati's rear suspension, is reduced and improved, and is a variant double wishbone structure with a smaller footprint, better sportiness and comfort, and a limited-slip differential.
Soft and hard adjustable suspension as standard throughout the series
This suspension can be seen as an upgraded version of the "CDC active suspension", the four suspension soft and hard based on hydraulics for quick adjustment, the entire response time only needs 10ms, so Giulia's chassis feels very good, low speed comfortable high speed and steady. In addition, this set of suspension also has a very powerful control system, such as in the rapid acceleration or start, the rear suspension will instantly harden to inhibit the posture of the front of the car; and when braking, the front suspension will also instantly become hard to resist the posture of nodding, when turning, the suspension on the outside side of the bend will also be individually hardened to resist the tilt of the body, that is to say, the four suspensions can be independently adjusted to control the driving attitude of the whole vehicle, so that the roll, nod and other attitudes are controlled in a very reasonable range, It provides good support for handling.
The lightest of its class
Giulia in the hood, doors, fenders, hem arms and other places are made of aluminum, in addition to carbon fiber drive shaft and other equipment, 200 horsepower model weight is only 1429kg, which is a wheelbase of 2820mm of luxury model is very rare, compared to BMW 328Li, light nearly 200kg, forward development has greatly helped to reduce weight. In addition, this is also the best model in Europe in 2016, and it is also the model with the highest score on the pedestrian crash test, and the safety is not bad at all.
The world's most powerful braking system
Giulia is equipped with IBS lightweight integral brake system, this set of Alfa Romeo's unique brake system can quickly increase the braking speed, and the actual braking feeling is better and more direct than the traditional brake, the ordinary version of the braking distance is within 38 meters, and the high-performance version of the brake with carbon ceramic wading disc, the test score is less than 32 meters, it can be said that it is the strongest level in the industry, more powerful than the powerful braking system of many supercars.
The world's fastest automatic transmission
The 8-speed automatic transmission from ZF ZF is currently the fastest automatic transmission in the world, with the fastest full shift time of less than 100ms, which means that the entire process from pressing the paddle shift to the completion of the shift takes less than 100ms, while the full shift time of the V8 model of President Masarati is 100ms, which is also. In addition, the gearbox shifting mode can be changed according to the driving mode, for example, when the sports mode is intensely driving, it can bring a strong shift impact and bring a stimulating acceleration feeling, that is, less than 100ms of full gear shift speed is used. At low speeds or in everyday driving situations, gear changes can become silky smooth, which is not unrelated to the demanding requirements that Alfa Romeo offers when customizing transmissions for ZF.
DNA driving mode
This Romeo DNA driving mode will involve up to 15 body parts compared to other models, such as the engine, transmission, suspension and other components that must be adjusted, brake, dynamic steering, turbocharging, exhaust system, torque vectoring, four-wheel drive, ESP, ASR, brake lights, cruise control, intelligent air conditioning, lubrication system and so on will be targeted adjustment, all of which are based on Ferrari's many years of track experience for debugging. Where D stands for Dynamic, dynamic driving mode, provides maximum driving pleasure, but esp cannot be completely turned off. N is Natural for daily road driving mode and A is Advanced Efficiency mode. In addition, the top QV clover also provides a track Race mode, ESP and other electronic programs are completely turned off, only a very small number of electronic system intervention, suspension, throttle, etc. are in the most tense state, the pursuit of pure driving experience.
In terms of power, the Chinese version of Giulia is basically the same as the information previously exposed, the 2.0T model is equipped with two versions of high and low power, the low-power version has a maximum horsepower of about 200 horses, the peak torque reaches 330Nm, and the acceleration of 0-100km is 6.6 seconds. The 2.0T high-power version can reach a maximum horsepower of 280 hp, peak torque can reach a staggering 415 Nm, and 0-100km acceleration is only 5.3 seconds.
Judging from Giulia's performance, to be honest, the competitors are not as fast as him at present, and the only thing that hinders everyone from buying is the popularity of its brand in China and whether it is entangled in the back row space.
The four-leaf clover version basically maintains the European version of the tuning, the 2.9T V6 engine has a maximum horsepower of 510 horses, a peak torque of 600 Nm, 0-100 km acceleration takes only 3.9 seconds, and the extreme speed is not less than 307 km/h. This is a first-class brush circle master.
Regarding the configuration, due to the current uncertainty, the official said that the configuration is still in the adjustment stage, and finally will give a big surprise to the owner, like the lowest entry-level version, xenon headlights, leather seats (non-leather seats), LED daytime running lights, keyless entry + one-button start, driver's seat with memory function, etc. should be equipped, and the high-end configuration for automatic braking, yaw assist, adaptive cruise, blind spot monitoring and other mainstream active safety protection functions will also be equipped, which is very worth looking forward to.
How does Giulia feel driving?
Steering feeling: light and exceptionally precise, loved after adaptation
As mentioned earlier, the giulia's entire series has the same chassis suspension system and steering system, and the actual test drive of 200 horsepower, 280 horsepower and the European version of the four-leaf clover model also give us the same feeling. The first thing to say is the steering feel, Giulia uses an electronic steering system, the first feeling of just getting started is a bit similar to the same feeling as Audi, the force required for steering is very light, and the force feedback of the steering is a bit hypocritical (all who have driven the Audi Volkswagen understand) are not real, the force will be slightly larger, the direction will hit the head, and the tail of the car will throw out the offset line, which is very uncomfortable. Although it is said that the speed will be aggravated after the increase, it is still significantly lighter than other models, even if it runs above 160, it can complete the operation with one hand, but this is also one of the reasons why it is not tired to drive.
But what I just said is the first impression, when I get on the track for the second time, I have the first groping, and the second lap begins to find the feeling, and after the third lap is fully started, I will love it and enjoy it. First of all, this electronic power steering system basically isolates the road sense, and then at low speeds, the steering wheel steering ratio will increase, and after the speed rises, the steering ratio will become smaller to very sensitive. And the first lap of the test drive is not adapted because the steering is too sensitive, the rear of the car is too flexible, a little too much force will be thrown out of the tail, but after mastering the adaptation to the steering rhythm, the driving pleasure brought out by this steering system begins to highlight, light and extremely accurate steering is rare in many models, after getting started The feeling of steering wheel force feedback has begun to become subtle, the steering and the body synchronization, the feeling is very dexterous, not at all like a model with a wheelbase of 2820mm.
Giulia's tail is very active, due to the rain on the day of the test drive, the road surface is relatively wet and slippery, and if the throttle is slightly larger at the same time of steering, or the steering angle is slightly too large, the rear of the car will be thrown out very directly. And the joy of driving also because of this flick began to appear, when the rear of the car flew out, you can obviously feel that the car is still in the controlled range, the limited-slip differential on the rear axle began to exert force, coupled with the intervention of ESP, the whole process does not need to step on the brakes, only need to return to the direction of the point to correct, it is easy to make people fall in love with this feeling of sliding out without any nervousness, very interesting. In addition, although Giulia loses most of the feedback of the sense of the road through the soft and hard adjustable suspension, but through the body posture and steering wheel feedback can tell you how much of the steering angle from the limit, and even there will be a feeling that can only be understood, really need to experience a bit to feel the essence, according to Jeremy's words, this is a real Alfa Romeo.
Chassis experience: soft and hard, comfort and movement go hand in hand - perfect
As for the chassis feeling, Giulia's four soft and hard independent adjustable shock absorbers are almost like opening and hanging, starting and low speed can feel the chassis soft but not loose at all, the slight bumps on the road can be filtered very well, but allow a little shaking to pass to the driver, will not completely lose the feeling of the road surface, comfortable can also maintain the pleasure of driving. And for the feeling of the speed bump, everyone speaks in unison that the feeling is comfortable, flexible and not tight, the body of the beat is very small, the sense of landing is very advanced, there is no half of the sports model that is hard to accept the feeling, a model that advertises sports in the low speed over the obstacle is a luxurious and comfortable orientation of the feeling, how much is some people feel incredible, and this feeling is still based on the performance of the Dynamic dynamic sports driving mode, if set to natural daily road driving mode, It is estimated that there will be more comfortable performance.
When entering the track, the speed rises, it can be clearly felt that the suspension begins to be supportive, and the suspension is hard but not bumpy, and still has good toughness to cushion the ditch. The roll control of the whole steering body is very good, the suspension support on the outside of the curve is in place, coupled with good seat wrapping support, the whole person does not need to spend more effort to resist centrifugal force, which feels very good. And in the time of sharp acceleration and sharp braking, the support effect of the suspension active adjustment is also very good, the nodding phenomenon is suppressed very well, the entire emergency braking plus emergency avoidance action will not make people overly nervous, of course, the excellent IBS integrated brake system also has a force, from the dynamic video of the scene we can also see the perfection of the suspension posture.
For Giulia's chassis performance, it can really be described as a stunning word, comfort + sports two completely different tuning, it is difficult to imagine how the two can be perfectly combined, but Giulia really did it, which is indeed worthy of the "a Ferrari that can be opened every day" fame, there is really nothing wrong.
Motivation feeling: 200 horses have been a lot of fun, and the four-leaf clover version is cool without friends
For the 200 horsepower Giulia, the feeling of driving on the track is already very good, the power output of the engine is very linear, the sense of turbo lag is not obvious, and the output speed of the maximum torque is very wide, to 5000 rpm still does not feel the obvious power decline, the speed is very powerful, after all, the 6.6 seconds of 100 km acceleration performance is not a joke. In addition, the engine and the gearbox match is very good, dynamic mode as long as the throttle is pressed down, you can clearly feel the impact of the 100ms full shift speed brought about by the downshift impact, but when the throttle is treated gently, the shift becomes no feeling, and the smoothness of the shift and the sense of impact are split again on Giulia. As for the 280 horsepower model, the direct change is that the power reserve is stronger, the explosive force is stronger, and the rapid acceleration can be felt more, while the other feelings are not much different from the 200 horsepower model, and 200 horsepower can create a good driving pleasure, which is the performance of the real sports model.
As for the 510 hp Giulia QV four-leaf clover model, the engine was specially developed by Ferrari's engineers and tuning team, the 90° angle V6 engine in order to maintain performance, as consistent as possible with Ferrari, and the top speed is also safely limited to 7000 rpm, also using Ferrari's zero lag technology. And the biggest driving feeling is that the explosive power is really different, coupled with the sexy engine sound, the whole person is in an exhilarating state, the fusion of perfect chassis performance, running on the track is completely a kind of enjoyment, the perfect combination of comfort and sports, really can experience a Ferrari feeling that can be driven every day, unfortunately only on the day of the test drive affected by the rain, in order to ensure safety have not been able to use the track mode for test drive, nor can it achieve a high-speed feeling, However, in the sports mode, there is already a feeling of cheering.
Exterior design: elegant Italian gentleman, untouchable athlete
Alfa Romeo Giulia has a very strong Italian design style, the lines of the body are clean and tidy, not with any angular lines to outline, but cleverly use the curved design, so that the body looks like a clear and light and dark light and shadow effect, as well as a rich and full sense of layering, no matter what angle looks very sexy and comfortable.
The shield-shaped middle mesh and the wide grille on both sides are Alfa Romeo's family front face that has remained unchanged for decades, the clover grille shape is very recognizable, coupled with this sharp headlights and the triangular lines on the engine canopy, the entire front face becomes extremely personal and seductive.
However, one of the more embarrassing things is that the designers of Alfa Romeo never seem to consider the location of the license plate installation, so the beautiful front face is easily a license plate, and the domestic version of the Giulia license plate is installed on the right side of the bumper. From the radar position in the right front of the bumper, it can be seen that Giulia is equipped with active braking, adaptive cruise and other mainstream active safety assistance functions, that is to say, others will have him, but the final configuration is still not determined, but from the official information told us, the configuration is very competitive and worth looking forward to.
Giulia's body length is only 4640mm, and the wheelbase of 2820mm is not short, but it is a bit underwhelmed compared to several of his competitors who have lengthened versions specifically for China, but this is an original Italian sports car after all, and it is also the fastest four-door sedan in the Nürburgring.
The tail of giulia is less radical, simple and intricate, with some angles that look somewhat Maserati lines.
As for the QV clover version, the European version was shot, and the rest of the lines remained consistent except for the different direction of the front face license plate, and the appearance was mainly to add an exclusive air kit.
The four-leaf clover version of Giulia has its own carbon fibre air kit, which is distinguished by the front lip and small tail of the tail box, as well as the deflector trough under the rear bumper and four exhaust pipes.
The four-leaf clover version of the Giulia bonnet and roof cover were all replaced with lightweight carbon fiber kits, all in preparation for performance gains.
Giulia's four-leaf clover version of the wheels is very beautiful, and the 5 petal wheels with carbon ceramic brake discs are simply fatal temptations.
Interior design: luxurious materials, driver-centric.
Giulia's interior compared to the previous Alfa Romeo model can be described as a great improvement, first of all, the entire central control using soft coverage, and the high-end model for leather covering + stitching decoration, the entire central control although does not show any sense of technology, but still has an Italian luxury design sense, with the driver as the core of the design concept so that the central control is obviously biased to one side.
Giulia's interior will also provide a variety of color matching options, the degree of color richness of interest can be directly referred to the color matching of Masarati, the interior can also be optional carbon fiber, brushed aluminum, solid wood, fabric, PF leather and other materials, can be customized according to individual needs.
The most attractive thing about Giulia is this steering wheel that feels almost the same as Ferrari's, and the design of the one-button start placed on the steering wheel like Ferrari directly makes people enter a state of passion, and the one-click start button of the four-leaf clover version is even more blood-pumping red. In addition, the high-end model is also equipped with almost the same paddle shift as Maserati, which feels very good.
The instrument panel adopts the design of the two-pointer instrument panel + the central color LCD screen, the size of the middle LCD screen is very large, the information that can be displayed is very rich, and the background color can also be changed with different "DNA" driving modes.
The central 8.8-inch LCD display screen is not like other luxury brands like the insertion of an iPad on the central control of the design, but a good center console integrated together, and the screen is almost attached to the central control, the feeling is very integrated, without the slightest abruptness. However, what makes people more unhappy is that this large screen also does not support touch operation, and it needs to be operated by the knob behind the gear, and the knob supports the control of up and down left and right in addition to rotation, which is not cumbersome to use in practice, or it is very easy to get started.
There is also a DNA knob button behind the gear handlebar, which provides the three different driving modes I mentioned earlier, the central control LCD screen will show the status correspondingly, and the background color of the dashboard will change accordingly.
In terms of air conditioning, dual-zone automatic air conditioning is standard, the operation of pure buttons is very convenient, and the air conditioning information will be displayed on the central control screen. Below the air-conditioning adjustment area are USB ports and two cup holders, and the storage space is decent.
But it should be mentioned that giulia's central armrest box is very small, while the leather-wrapped armrest on it is very large, giving people a strong illusion. The volume of the handrail box is very small, there is a USB, AUX and 12V power interface, in addition, this handrail box does not have a design switch, all opening and closing need to be hard pulled hard pressure, the feeling is not good, the Italian design feeling is always so casual.
All the places on the Giulia door panel that can be touched by the hand are soft cover + leather, which is particularly good to the touch, but whether it is the front door version or the rear door version, the storage space is very average, but it is no problem to meet daily needs.
In terms of seats, the lowest configuration giulia will also be made of leather material, and the front headrests are all printed with the Alfa Romeo logo, the comfort of the seat is very good, the wrapping and support are worthy of the title of sports car, and other high-end versions also have the adjustment of leg support. The front seat 6-way electric adjustment + 4-way electric waist support adjustment, the main driver 3 groups of seat memory is the standard of the whole series, which is very thick.
The rear seats are slightly stiff, but the backrest angle is good, and the ride has a certain wrapping, but the middle platform is affected by the rear-wheel drive shaft and rises high, so the rear seat is not suitable for a third person.
As for the panoramic sunroof, the European version of giulia is basically no configuration, but for Chinese like this configuration of the sunroof, it is still equipped with a double-piece panoramic sunroof that can be opened.
Test Drive Summary:
I am very fortunate to be able to preemptively drive the Alfa Romeo Giulia model, as the first car of the Alfa Romeo brand revival plan is very impressive, this step is finally the right step. As soon as Giulia appeared, she refreshed the four-door production car lap of the Nürburgring as a four-leaf clover, and this skill was only The Alfa Romeo, who was unanimously obsessed with the race. The top-down development has led to the amazing performance of the ordinary version of Giulia, with the same chassis performance as the four-leaf clover, and the use of various thick and technological aspects is really exciting. For its version ready to enter the Chinese market, the 2.0T must be the main model, from the performance of all aspects of performance, the same price and level can be said to be unmatched, but the only thing that affects its sales in China is the brand recognition and see if everyone minds that there is no particularly spacious rear row.
If you're a car lover who has the qualities of steering and sport, then I believe Giulia is well worthy of your possession and won't regret it, why? Because I've already started saving.