1978 Alfa Romeo Spider on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Listen to the 2019 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio's howling Ferrari V6

There's a lot that makes the 2019 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio special, from its name to its handling. But arguably its biggest claim to fame is the twin-turbo 2.9-liter V6 under the hood that was derived from a Ferrari engine. It makes 505 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque, and all that grunt goes through an eight-speed automatic transmission on its way to the rear wheels. Being a Ferrari-related engine, it has a suitably impressive exhaust note. Pop it into "Dynamic" mode, and the exhaust opens up. It's plenty loud with higher revs, but quiets down on the highway, avoiding much drone. The note is unique, with a deeper tone than you might expect from the Prancing Horse brand. It also has rippling crackles that occur more naturally than some of its consistently popping competitors from Germany. Take a listen for yourself with the video above.

Alfa Romeo cancels plans for Giulia wagon to focus on Stelvio development

Automotive enthusiasts can talk all day long about the benefits of wagons over their respective crossover stablemates, but despite our protestations the case for the wagon seems to fall on deaf ears, especially in America. That seems to be the reason cash-strapped automaker Alfa Romeo has nixed any plans for a wagon variant of the new Giulia. According to Car, Alfa manufacturing chief Alfredo Altavilla believes the company can engineer the Stelvio SUV to drive as well as a Giulia wagon would – so no need for both. Porsche has shown with the Cayenne and the Macan that an SUV can be an excellent performance machine. That being said, as good as performance crossovers have shown themselves to be, the higher weight and center of gravity puts them at a fundamental disadvantage to a wagon. Killing the Giulia wagon is disappointing, but it's a pure business move. The company needs to focus on expanding it's lineup, not building variants of already existing models. Alfa is hoping to boost sales into the hundreds of thousands, and building a low-volume performance station wagon is not the way to do it. Despite the loss of the wagon, rumors persist that a two-door version of the Giulia is set to debut in Geneva. Related Video:

Alfa Romeo Stelvio caught hiding under ugly black camouflage

The vehicle you see here, bedecked as it is in camo-shaped warts and baubles, is the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Behind all that ungainly black plastic hides a jacked-up crossover based on the bones of the upcoming Gulia sedan, which, painfully, we're still waiting to officially launch. Suffice it to say that we're not expecting to see a production version of the Stelvio until much later in 2016. Up front, the well-established rounded-triangle grille that marks the Alfa Romeo marque comes through loud and clear... though it looks a little bit sickly covered in all that cladding. We're sure it'll be appropriately prettied up for production, and we're equally certain the slit-like headlamp cutouts are hiding stylish swept-back lighting units. We can't make out much of the Stelvio's bodysides, but we see some nicely aggressive rolling stock to go along with what appears to be a pretty steeply raked greenhouse. View 10 Photos That incongruously shaped chunk hanging off the back glass was likely tacked on to hide the shape of the actual tailgate, and perhaps there are some sensors or computers hanging around inside the box to feed more data to engineers. There's no telling what's powering this Stelvio mule, but it could be a version of the 2.9-liter, 505-horsepower, twin-turbo V6 that we can't wait to sample in the Guilia Quadrifoglio Verde. For production, expect four- and six-cylinder options, in both gasoline and diesel flavors, depending on where the car is sold. We can clearly see the Stelvio is out on the road, generating test miles ahead of a hoped-for release in early 2017. The next logical question, then, is this: Will Alfa Romeo actually launch the Stelvio on time? Related Video: Image Credit: Brian Williams/Spiedbilde Spy Photos Alfa Romeo Crossover Future Vehicles alfa romeo stelvio