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2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia First Drive | All about the little things

ALBEROBELLO, Italy – Little things can make a big difference. And for the 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia, it's the little things that have been addressed, those that have been causing reviewers to kvetch and customers to look elsewhere. The cupholders that cause bottles to bang into the HVAC controls. The shifter and knobs made of cheap plastic that wobble about in your hand. The backwoods entertainment system that makes an Audi's look like it's been beamed in from the far-flung future.  The big things? They've been left untouched, almost entirely for the best. The Giulia's exceptional driving credentials have been well-documented with multiple awards and much gushing about divine steering and an astute chassis. For 2020, they're unchanged apart from some imperceptible tweaks to the steering that iron out an occasional low-speed refinement issue. Even when driven on the regrettably non-winding roads of southern Italy's "heel," the Giulia continues to come across as something different and special. That steering is pleasingly quick and full of feeling, friendly to both those who yearn for man-machine connection and those who'd rather not get an upper body workout when parking at Kroger. The Giulia feels light and playful, with a stiff chassis and adeptly tuned suspension. When people talk about sport sedans losing their edge (cough BMW 3 Series), it can still be found in the Giulia. At the same time, the adaptive dampers available in the Ti trim's Performance package impressively sops up nasty bumps, of which there are a great many around Italy's heel (AKA Puglia). Cars with such a sporting "edge" are often given a pass when it comes to ride quality, as a sore back and kidneys bruised by the seat bolsters are considered par for the course. The Giulia needs no such handicap. If there's a meh moment, it's the engine. Much is rightly made about the Quadrifoglio's 2.9-liter turbo V6 derived from Ferrari and possibly divine intervention. By contrast, the standard 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four doesn't offer much in the way of zest. Oh, its 280 horsepower and 306 pound-feet of torque are class-leading, and its 5.1-second estimated 0-60 time is exceptional. In sound, however, it's just another turbo-four, and most disappointingly, its 5,500-rpm redline is a real buzzkill. It's not exactly diesel-like, but it's close.

Touring's Disco Volante makes us green with envy [w/video]

In its entire production run, Alfa Romeo only ever built 500 examples of the 8C Competizione – just 90 of which ended up in the United States – and another 500 Spiders. That makes it a pretty rare car indeed, but it's positively commonplace compared to the Disco Volante, the version reborn by the talented and steady hands at Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. In correspondece with Autoblog, Touring's CEO Piero Mancardi confirmed that the coachbuilder will only build eight examples of the Disco Volante, in colors chosen by their individual customers: one in black, one in blue, one in silver, the one in green you see here and the rest in different shades of red. That makes this particular example a one-of-a-kind work of art that we were privileged to behold here at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, and you can see what we saw through the camera lens in the high-resolution image gallery above, or by checking out the video below. Featured Gallery Touring Disco Volante: Geneva 2014 View 20 Photos Related Gallery Alfa Romeo Disco Volante by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera in green & gold View 38 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL Geneva Motor Show Alfa Romeo Coupe Luxury Performance 2014 Geneva Motor Show touring alfa romeo 8c competizione carrozzeria touring superleggera disco volante

Alfa Romeo's Giulia Quadrifoglio gets the GTA treatment

Alfa Romeo will celebrate 110 years of building some of the world's most emotional driving machines with a brand-new Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA. GTA, which stands for "Gran Turismo Alleggerita," is a throwback to the 1965 Giulia Sprint GT, which first got the treatment. The new GTA and GTAm will elevate the Giulia's already driver-friendly formula to a whole new level.  If the plain-Jane Giulia Quadrifoglio is a BMW M3 or Mercedes-AMG C63 competitor, the GTA is your Competition or "S" variant, respectively. It boasts more power, less weight, enhanced aero, a revised suspension, and a reworked chassis and interior designed to keep the driver in place and focused on one task and one task alone: driving fast.  The wick on the GTA's 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6 has been turned up a bit, resulting in a new peak rating of 540 horsepower (up 30 from the base car). To reduce weight, Alfa replaced a host of exterior panels with carbon fiber equivalents. The carbon treatment extends to some other components, such as a the drive shaft. Alfa says the net reduction works out to 220 pounds.  Outside, the aero has been completely revised with technical know-how provided by Sauber Engineering (of F1 renown). It also boasts 20-inch center-locking wheels and a titanium exhaust system. Alfa replaced many of the suspension bushings, the shocks and the springs with performance-friendly hardware. The GTAm pushes the formula even farther. We hesitate to compare a sport sedan to a GT Coupe, but the relationship between GTA and GTAm is quite similar to that between the Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS. Both are fundamentally the same car, but the latter compromises a great deal more of its daily drivability for the sake of improving its on-track feel and performance.  With the GTAm, this included a set of carbon-backed front bucket seats with six-point harnesses, Lexan window inserts for the side and rear windows, and a rear seat delete. In place of the rear bench, you get a harness bar attached to a structural roll hoop, plus a handy little cubby for storing your custom Bell helmet in Alfa's GTA livery (which comes with the car, as well as an Alpinestars race suit, gloves and shoes, and a personalized Goodwool car cover). Checking in at just 3,350 pounds, the GTAm boasts a power-to-weight ratio of 6.2 pounds per horsepower, which Alfa says is the best in the class, enabling a 0-60 run in just 3.6 seconds.