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Alfa Romeo celebrates Quadrifoglio's 100th anniversary

This year, Alfa Romeo celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Quadrifoglio becoming part of Alfa Romeo lore. In 1923, team racing driver and eternal second-place finisher Ugo Sivocci painted a four-leaf clover inside a white square on his RL "Corsa" single-seater developed to win the Targa Florio. Sivocci won the race, giving Alfa Romeo its first international victory. A few months later, Sivocci went to Monza to test the P1 for the Grand Prix of Europe. He hadn't painted a four-leaf clover on the #17 P1 he drove, and he died during practice. True, correlation is not causation, but it's hard to find a more superstitious bunch than racing teams drivers. The Italians retired #17 from racing vehicles, and from 1924 every Alfa Romeo featured a Quadrifoglio on the bodywork inside of a triangle instead of a square. The missing point represented the loss of Sivocci. Since then, those green leaves have identified Alfas among the sea of other red Italian single seaters from competitors like Ferrari and Maserati. Of course, sometimes the cars didn't need such help, the lines on models like the TZ and P33 iconic enough to forgo further distinction. The Milanese added Quadrifoglio versions of production cars in the 1960s, but didn't make it part of official production names until the 1980s. Following that, the branding expanded into two clovers, a Quadrifoglio Oro (gold) denoting luxury versions, a Quadrifoglio Verde for sporty variants. Then came even wider use as the single letter "Q" for features like the Q2 locking differential and Q4 all-wheel drive. Centro Stile Alfa Romeo tweaked the logo, the graphic to appear at brand events that will kick off on the official centenary June 25. That's been dubbed "Quadrifoglio Day," host to a "Backstage" conference and parade open to all of Alfa Romeo clubs.    This year is also the 60th anniversary of Alfa Romeo's Autodelta racing division. Equivalent to an AMG or M division for the Italians, predating both German versions, the famous Alfa Romeo racing cars like the 1965 Giulia Sprint GTA and the 1975 33 TT 12 sports car racer emerged from the Autodelta workshops. These celebrations will come first, on March 5, punctuated by a conference at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese, Milan. Related video:

Alfa Romeo Giulia SWB Zagato revealed as a glorious green one-off coupe

Christmas came a few days early for one lucky enthusiast in Germany. Italian design house Zagato unveiled a one-off, carbon fiber-bodied coupe called Alfa Romeo Giulia SWB Zagato that features a twin-turbocharged V6 and that was commissioned by a German collector. Zagato explained that it launched the project to celebrate 100 years of collaborating with Alfa Romeo, the current-generation Giulia and the V6 engine. It started by shortening the Giorgio platform that the Giulia and Stelvio are both built on. It then drew a head-turning coupe that borrows a handful of styling cues from several past and present Alfa models. The front end is dominated by air intakes (including one shaped like the Alfa grille) and it features a pair of Tonale-like LED headlights. The coupe's profile is characterized by a long hood, a short rear end and a carbon fiber double-bubble roof panel left unpainted, while the back end gets a thin, curved light bar and a massive air diffuser. While several cars inspired designers, including the 1989 SZ that Zagato helped design, the Giulia SWB isn't full-on retro or old-school in any way. It features carbon fiber body panels and it's powered by an evolution of the 2.9-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 engine fitted to the Giulia Quadrifoglio that's been updated to GTAm specifications. Technical specifications weren't released, but the GTAm's six is tuned to develop 540 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque. Starting with the Quadrifoglio's engine gave Zagato a big advantage: the V6 spins the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission. The limited-edition GTAm is exclusively offered with an eight-speed automatic transmission. From the driver's perspective, the cabin is mostly standard Giulia fare; you'll find the same steering wheel, touchscreen, air vents and climate control interface in the same locations as in the Giulia. Green accents and several model-specific carbon fiber trim pieces help the SWB stand out from the sedan it's based on, and a major difference between the two cars is that the coupe is fitted with only two seats.  Zagato delivered the Giulia SWB to its new owner after shooting the photos you see in our gallery on the La Pista race track located near Alfa Romeo's hometown of Milan, Italy. There's no word on who owns it yet; all we know is that the coupe will join what sounds like a massive collection of high-end cars that includes an 8C Competizione, a 1990 SZ, plus a handful of Zagato-bodied Aston Martin models.

Mysterious Maserati test mule could be upcoming Alfa Romeo Giulia

Well well well, what have we here? The truth is that we don't know. It seems to be a Maserati Ghibli, but since that model is already out on the market, we're likely looking at something else. Just what is the question, and the answer likely lies in the wheelbase. While this test mule, spied undergoing cold-weather testing in northern Sweden, is clearly wearing the bodywork (and likely most of the mechanical bits) from the Ghibli, it's riding on a shortened wheelbase. Which tells us this could be one of two things: it's likely to be a test mule either for the upcoming Maserati Alfieri sports car, or for the new Alfa Romeo Giulia. The Alfieri was presented in concept form at the Geneva Motor Show back in March, foreshadowing a new sports car to serve as a halo model in the Maserati lineup. The production version is expected to be smaller and nimbler than the existing GranTurismo and positioned against the likes of the Porsche 911, Jaguar F-Type and Mercedes-AMG GT, to name just a few. The Giulia, meanwhile, is slated to be the first all-new Alfa Romeo since the arrival of the 4C last year and the Italian marque's first mainstream model since the launch of the Giulietta in 2010. The new sedan is expected to go after the likes of the BMW 3 Series and the new Jaguar XE, slotting in below the larger Maserati Ghibli that seeks to challenge the 5 Series and XF. If this is indeed a test mule for the new Alfa sedan, the quad tailpipes would seem, as our spy photographers point out, to indicate it's laying the groundwork for the GTA performance version. One way or another, there's something enticing to be coming soon from Italy, so watch this space.