Alfa Romeo: 1966 Giulia Spider Duetto on 2040-cars

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‘Yee haw’ in Italian - Alfa Romeo Giulia is the Car of Texas

You can't underestimate the visceral pull of the new Giulia Quadrifoglio's 505 horsepower wrapped in Alfa Romeo's sweet, seductive sheetmetal. Autoblog said the hottest Giulia "puts some practical meat on the bone for American drivers bored of the usual Audi A4/Mercedes C-Class/ BMW 3 Series suspects." The Quadrifoglio delivers 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and laps the Nurburgring Nordschleife in just 7:32. This makes it - for the moment - the fastest four-passenger production car around the 12.9-mile circuit. Austin's Circuit of the Americas F1 venue isn't Germany's Nordschleife, but that's where the Texas Auto Writers Association gathered for its annual Spring Roundup - some 50 auto writers, broadcasters and bloggers evaluating 40-plus cars and crossovers in 11 categories, with best-of-class wins such as Performance Car of Texas, Family Car of Texas and – ultimately – best of show, the Car of Texas. In a vote as out of the blue as that one back in November, Giulia got the nod. When evaluating a Car of Texas at a track, the Giulia Quadrifoglio is a no-brainer. Beyond its brute power is a linear dynamic behind the wheel, even if the track's official road speed for this event was 60 miles per hour. Competing against it in the Performance Sedan category were the Dodge Charger R/T and SRT Hellcat, along with a Lexus GS F and VW Jetta GLI. Beyond its surfeit of power is the Giulia's raucous personality and – we'll admit – novelty. Many of the younger journalists at COTA had only vague memories of the brand. This was also, regrettably, a relatively weak grouping of performance machinery. The headliners – such as the Mercedes-AMG GT S and Nissan GT-R – were prominent, but cars most likely to be tagged a Car of Texas, such as a Shelby Mustang or hot Camaro, weren't. Ford brought only its Focus RS, and GM execs have deemed regional press events not worthy of their attention. Also, both BMW and Audi were no-shows, although – in defense of the Giulia – the M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63S were whipped by the Alfa in at least one recent hot sedan comparison. In short, Alfa swept a smallish field. But a win's a win, and every win bodes well for Alfa, even in a market where the first car is a truck, and the second car might be a second truck. Related Video: Auto News Alfa Romeo Ownership Luxury Performance Sedan no ribbon

Ralph Gilles talks minivans, Millennials, mobility, and kissing Alfa Romeos

We sat down with Ralph Gilles, the global head of design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show. The veteran stylist has worked for the company for 25 years, and oversees the design of all of the products in the FCA portfolio – everything from mobility pods to Maseratis. This serves Gilles just fine, as his personal automotive interests are exceedingly diverse. The FCA stand was unusually quiet (until Vice President Joe Biden stopped by at the end of our time there) and Gilles was willing to weigh in on a wide range of subjects. Autoblog: We're seeing all of these autonomous mobility pods like Portal being presented at auto shows like CES or NAIAS, but we're not seeing any adoption of this kind of small vehicle in the market. What's your perspective on our pod-like autonomous future versus our truck-centric present? Ralph Gilles: Obviously I pay attention to the industry as much as your readers and yourself, and everyone has a take on the future. We had a debate, we could have done a supercar or something for pure sex appeal [ apparently that's also in the works], but we chose something practical, to really look at the future in a different perspective. We have these Millennials, a huge swath of people born between 1982 and 2004, and the oldest ones are turning 35 right about now, and a lot of them are having families later in life but when they have them they have a little more buying power, so it makes for an interesting cocktail. The one stipulation we had on the Portal project was that everyone had to be a Millennial to be on the team. So that excluded me, I had more of a coach role on the team. And to your point, the Portal in its current state as you see it is not going to be on the road tomorrow. But there's a lot of ideas, a lot of connectivity ideas, a lot of styling ideas, even lighting and technologies that will absolutely find their way into vehicles in the next few years. AB: Being a Detroiter, all of this attention we've had recently in Vegas, CES – I heard that they're maybe going to be running the show at the same time next year. Do you feel a little protective of the Detroit Show? RG: Yeah, it's something to watch. I hope it's not an aggressive thing on their part, by moving the shows on top of each other. They're both important shows. CES, I've been going to for the last five years, and it's changing. There's a lot more automotive content, but there are a lot more start-ups too, and it's interesting to watch.

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla Model X towing drag race, Porsche 918 salvage auction

Watch an Alfa Romeo 4C drag race against a Tesla Model X towing an Alfa Romeo 4C. The ridiculous (or, perhaps more appropriately, ludicrous) race appeared in MotorTrend's Instagram, which was then shared on Facebook by Tesla Motors Autopilot Program Director Sterling Anderson, along with the comment, "Fun fact: many high-performance cars cross the quarter mile line faster when towed by a Model X than they do on their own four wheels." While we can't quite see the actual results of the drag race in the video, it appears to be a close one. Check it out in the video above, and read more from Electrek. A Porsche 918 Spyder has gone up for auction. Unfortunately, it's a salvage auction, and said performance plug-in hybrid is totally mangled. The gut-wrenching photos reveal an even sadder detail, as the car's odometer shows it only logged 92 miles before being involved in what appears to have been a terrible wreck (though the listing describes the miles as "not actual"). The current bid on the Copart auction site is up to $106,000, and the listing shows a $600,000 repair estimate. The very expensive hunk of metal and carbon fiber is located in Long Island. Check out the listing for yourself, or read more at MotorAuthority. GKN Driveline says that German drivers are more interested in plug-in hybrids (especially with all-wheel drive) than conventional hybrid cars. In a poll of more than 1,000 drivers commissioned by GKN, 75 percent preferred PHEVs to standard hybrids, while 61.2 percent said that 50 kilometers (31 miles) of electric range is enough for their daily driving duties. About 81 percent are "wary of hybrids," most believing them to be a poor value. 52 percent said their ideal car would combine a plug and all-wheel drive. "We believe that plug-in hybrids with all-wheel drive make sense," says GKN Automotive President of Engineering Peter Moelgg, "and the public's positive response to vehicle programmes that offer this combination – like the Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine, BMW i8, and Porsche 918 Spyder – can only continue to grow." Read more in the press release below. NEW RESEARCH REVEALS GERMAN DRIVERS PREFER PLUG-IN HYBRIDS Lohmar, Germany, 22 March 2016: Drivers now consider plug-in hybrid vehicles to be more attractive and practical than conventional hybrids, a survey commissioned by GKN Driveline has revealed.