With its 3 liter turbocharged V6 engine, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde looks and sounds ready to throw down with the world’s fastest premium sports sedans.
There was this great line in ‘The Usual Suspects’ where Kevin Spacey’s character Verbal Kint (later on known as Keyser Soze) was telling the cop during the interview something like “How do you shoot the devil in the back…What if you miss?” Remember that?
We wouldn’t blame you for thinking something similar about Alfa Romeo right now. They just came out with a 510 PS, rear-wheel drive sports sedan and claim “best weight-to-power ratio” plus a better acceleration time than what any of its rivals are capable of.
This means war.
Seriously. What this means is that they can’t afford for the Giulia QV to fail in any sort of way. Especially from a performance stand point where it seems as though they’ve went with the “American way” which is to throw more power and better specs at the Germans and hope that it frightens them.
Before we get into “who brought a knife to a gun fight”, let’s line up the BMW M3, Mercedes-AMG C63 S and Cadillac ATS-V Sedan and see how they compare to the Alfa Romeo Giulia QV from a visual perspective.
The Looks
We’ll start with the BMW M3 because, well, it’s almost unfair how easy it is to look at it and then look back at the Giulia QV and let out a sarcastic sigh.
Even though the Giulia doesn’t “borrow” as much from the 3 Series as it does from other BMW models, its profile is painfully similar to that of the M3, especially that design line that starts off from the side vent and goes through both door handles. Even though the shoulder lines don’t match, this particular design element does kind of turn the Giulia into a copy cat – and we don’t take kindly to those.
Luckily, the rest of the car is entirely different and there aren’t any more M3 similarities since the BMW is all about sharp, aggressive lines and the Giulia is a bit more puffy. We’ve already covered the fact that it looks like so many other models it’s almost annoying to mention them all again (must be why I’m not doing it), but as far as this particular segment is concerned, the Giulia QV definitely sets itself apart from not just the M3, but also the ATS-V Sedan and C63.
Speaking of the C63 AMG, it doesn’t look at all like the Giulia because, well, it’s a Mercedes-Benz and their design language is perhaps more unique than that of its rivals. However, the QV’s front spoiler does slightly resemble the C63’s…but let’s call it a coincidence, which it probably is.
The Mercedes-AMG C63 is by far the most elegant car here and even though we don’t know much about the Giulia’s interior, I’m willing to bet a hand and an eye that it’s got nothing on that Mercedes cabin.
As for the Cadillac ATS-V Sedan, its looks are also pretty unique. It’s actually a lot more angular than the Alfa, which we obviously don’t mind since direct rivals shouldn’t look anything alike.
The Performance
Here’s where it gets really interesting! What these cars can do on the track and in a straight line is what earns them their “paycheck”. Let’s see what we have:
Alfa Romeo Giulia QV – 3.0 liter turbo V6, 510 PS (503HP), 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.9 sec
Mercedes-AMG C63 S – 4.0 liter biturbo V8, 510 PS (503HP), 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.0 sec
Cadillac ATS-V Sedan – 3.6 liter twin-turbo V6, 470 PS (464HP), 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.0 sec (est.)
BMW M3 – 3.0 liter twin-turbo straight-six, 431 PS (425hp), 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.1 sec (DKG)
Let’s start off with another cool line from a completely different movie than the one I mentioned earlier. Remember Captain America: Winter Soldier? When those guys were getting ready to fight him in the elevator he paused and asked “Before we get started, does anybody want to get out?”.
So who wants to “get out” here? First of all, if we’re talking straight line racing, despite the fact that we don’t know how much torque the Giulia QV has, it’s safe to say that at least on paper it should out run both the M3 as well as the ATS-V.
Then again, how fast the car changes gears matters too, and you’d be a fool to bet against BMW, though if we’re talking 1/2 mile or a full mile, the extra grunt of the engine is going to eventually call the shots.
The C63 S has 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque and that’s probably more than what the Alfa is going to bring to the table, if not a lot more. We could easily go with the C63 S as our straight-line winner if the runway is long enough, but what about short distances and what about the fun factor?
Here’s where we really have to give it up for the Italians! They made the Giulia RWD – how cool is that?
The Giulia QV also comes with a Torque Vectoring System, Integrated Brake System (they actually said the words “record-breaking stopping distances”) and an Active Aero Splitter.
It sounds great, it really does – and in a way, that could be a problem because it raises expectations. What if the car rolls around too much? What if the steering is nowhere near as good as it should be? In order for the Giulia QV to be a success, it has to be very good at absolutely everything.
Again, ‘very good’, not brilliant. Expecting it to be flawless would be silly. But if it’s got very good handling, very good power delivery & transmission, very good stability and a very good workspace ..well, it would more than surpass any of our expectations.
ALFA ROMEO GIULIA QV
MERCEDES-AMG C63 S
CADILLAC ATS-V SEDAN
BMW M3
