Ever since the Alfa Romeo Giulia was announced, the Italians have claimed it was coming after the benchmark in the segment, the BMW M3. During its development, engineers had plenty of time to test their new creation against the M3 and in the end, the Italian proved to be quite close, if not better than the BMW, in some tests. Well done, we all thought, seeing the Alfa brand going back to its RWD roots which haven’t been catered for in over 20 years. And yet, has all that downtime helped the brand shed some of the stereotypes created around it?
During a recent comparison pitting the BMW M3 Competition Package against its arch rival, the Mercedes-AMG C63 in S guise and the newcomer, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde, the latter experience some engine issues that stuck the reviewer in Normal mode around the Anglesey Circuit in North Wales. That was definitely a bummer as the Italian thoroughbred couldn’t live up to the expectations.
The engine is derived from the turbo V8 animating the California T. Nevertheless, this could just a small mishap and the guys from Petrol Heads were correct not to make a big deal out of it. These things happen during test drives…
As for the conclusion of the review, the three cars felt as different as possible, without reaching a unanimous conclusion as to which one would rise above all others. The AMG impressed everyone with its V8 thunder and torque, the M3 with its nimble feeling and precise handling while the Alfa made itself noticed due to the Check Engine light in the instrument cluster. Maybe on a different day things would’ve been different.
