Join the Family

Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter featuring the very latest from Petrolicious. Don’t be left out—join the ranks of those who Drive Tastefully.

Already a member?

How was the drive?

We're glad you're back.

Not a member yet?

Forgot your password?

Reset Your Password

We'll get you back on track.

Journal: Do You Like How The Alfa Romeo Giulia QV Sounds?

Do You Like How The Alfa Romeo Giulia QV Sounds?

By Petrolicious Productions
September 9, 2015
19 comments

Photos Courtesy of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Thanks to the amazing world we live in, with cameras and camcorders reduced to the size of a phone, the testing of a hotly-anticipated car on public roads quickly ends up on the internet. With the Alfa Romeo Giulia QV on its way soon, enthusiasts have captured it near the Nürburgring—but do you like how it sounds?

To recap, the hottest variant of the range, the QV, will pack an all-aluminum twin turbocharged V6 engine, developed by Ferrari. Related to the engine in the Ferrari California T and 488 GTB, it produces 510 horsepower and is said to hit 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. Yes, it’s hot.

Here, we have six videos. The first, from the incredible BridgeToGantry, who are chasing the new Giulia on the ‘Ring…which is definitely not something you should do without a healthy amount of experience. The second is of the car at a gas station, with idling and a quick getaway. The third? The car hauling around the track past popular spectator areas. Below, two official Alfa Romeo clips. Finally, the final one from the “real world” is another trackside shot from testing, at a different circuit.

It sure is quick, but do you like how it sounds?

Tags Alfa Romeo/ Giulia QV/ Questions
Join the Conversation
19
View Comments
Related
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Eura Barbieri
Eura Barbieri
7 years ago

Useful discussion , I was enlightened by the insight . Does someone know if my assistant could access a fillable IRS 1040 version to fill out ?

3
Roxanne Dimacale
Roxanne Dimacale
7 years ago
Reply to  Eura Barbieri

Hi Eura, my colleague acquired a blank IRS 1040 document with this link https://goo.gl/hsVPhE.

4
Dominic Nicandri
Dominic Nicandri
8 years ago

I don’t understand all the hating on Alfa here lately either. The reliability attacks are farcical, anyone paying attention to what the Germans are putting out knows they are having issues a plenty in Bavaria. The Italians are not alone. More competition on the sport end of the spectrum is nothing but positive. BMW is nearly the only maker still contributing to mainstream performance with Audi chiming in. Mercedes are fast but not sporting, Acura and Lexus are faux performers, and the American car companies don’t have meaningful vehicles in the sports sedan / coupe realm besides the Caddy ATS. Mustang/Camaro are too different of a vehicle type. Whether the Alfa can match the feel and feedback that the ATS and 3/4 series are offering remains to be seen. We know it can lay down a mean time now. For me, just knowing that there is an Italian offering on the way of a legitimate performance vehicle with practical notions to boot (aka not a 500 Abarth or 4c) to the United States has me buzzing. Right now I feel like Mazda, BMW and now Alfa are the only companies focusing on the driver first. If Alfa can compete with a driver’s offering it will only make BMW, Audi and others more focused in their performance offerings. So hate on Alfa for whatever reason makes you feel good… but their return and hopeful success will make your favorite marque better too.

As for the sound, the era of the turbo will change forever our ideas of what “sounds good”. I believe that the reported NA V6 offering of the Giulia will be the singer of the group, although it will probably not have as free of an exhaust from factory as the QV.

0
Paul Misencik
Paul Misencik
8 years ago

How can so many people root [i]against[/i] Alfa Romeo? Love it or hate it, doesn’t it feel good to be talking about something a little different for a change?

Alfa compares the vehicle to the 3-series not because they want it to be the 3-series, but because the BMW is the gold standard. A truly magnificent motorcar that, in virtually every iteration, which perfectly scratches the itch of every time period in which it is produced. But because it’s so good you see two 3-series BMW’s at every traffic light and fifteen in every parking lot. Does anyone NOT have a family member or close friend with a 3-series? I doubt it.

So the Guilia is something different. Yes, the exhaust note is contrived and digital. Yes, there are certainly typically glaring Alfa mistakes in there somewhere that will make us all shake our heads a little when they inevitably reveal themselves. And sure, when the magazines do their big comparisons they will pick it apart and explain in excruciating detail why it only scores 91 out of 100 to the M3’s 97… But even though we all know all of that, don’t you at least wish it will be a success? How could anyone possibly root against it? It is bound to be an inspiring car to own and drive.

I hope it sells, and establishes Alfa as a small but stable player in the USA again, just as it is here in Europe. I hope it spurs the Fiat group to do something interesting with Lancia, and maybe design a new Fulvia or something (instead of cranking out ghastly, rebodied Fiat 500’s and rebadged Chrysler 300’s.) And even if I don’t buy one, and even if I might have done some things a little differently, I sure as heck don’t want it to fail.

0
Luca
Luca
8 years ago
Reply to  Paul Misencik

Bravo, well said!

0
Luca
Luca
8 years ago

In any case, it sounds like a flat 6. Porsche almost. I am sure any after market exhaust can fix that.
As for the negative comments about this car, American people don’t like the Fiat 500 either, while here in Europe is sold pretty well. So I don’t see why this car can’t be successful also.
I personally like the car, for the comments regarding the fact that it looks like a BMW, it’s simply because finally at Alfa they reverted back to a rear wheel drive scheme. This means shorter overhang at the front, and a sort of “taller” rear end. That mind you, Alfa Romeo had it already with the 1980s Giulietta.

0
Paul Steel
Paul Steel
8 years ago

To these ears it sounds like a computer game simulation, the Alfa vids actually look like a simulation, exactly what I would expect from a modern performance car compared to gran turismo in surround sound, sure a few choice after market mods will sort that out, a tiny step in the right direction, but unlike Alfa past, it’s hardly going to set the world on fire.

0
Str8 6
Str8 6
8 years ago
Reply to  Paul Steel

It’s a V-6, which generally don’t sound very good, other than the Busso, the NSX’s mill, and a few others. It’s also not N/A so it’s never going to sound as nice as an N/A motor. The M4, with it’s turbos, manages to strangle the classic straight six sound, so the Giulia doesn’t have strong competition in that department.

0
JB21
JB21
8 years ago

While it sounds great, am I the only one who feels that it just doesn’t sound authentic, i.e., mechanical? Or maybe that’s just because I’m listening it via speaker, maybe (I actually had this thought when I drove 4C, it was loud and sensational, but didn’t particularly feel like it was the result of mechanical concerto and petrol explosion). Also, am I the only one who think it’s ugly, and not lovably ugly or odd, but just plain ugly?

0
Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago
Reply to  JB21

Ahhhhhhh…. he gets it ! Ahhhhhhh !

Good catch good sir and an excellent set of ears y’all got on that bean o’ yours !

Cause guess what ? The ‘ sound ‘ … much like its Dodge Dart Hellcat counterpart … is completely and utterly synthesized and manufactured

Thank you . And i do mean Thank you ! You’re ‘ getting it ‘ making my day in and amongst what seems to be a plethora of delusion across the entire net this morning

Phew !

-1
Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago

Actually as a former Alfa owner and Alfista to this day there is absolutely nothing I like about this over glorified Dodge Dart Hellcat [ which is in fact an old and in the way FIAT platform ] in an Alfa Romeo party dress [ and an ugly party dress at that ] complete with Dodge V6 as well as the now ancient FIAT underpinnings in the suspension .

The Dodge Dart is FWD you say ? Hate to inform you but with todays modular platforms anything can be FWD , RWD or AWD with the stroke of a pen

Ugh . The ‘ new ‘ Alfa Romeo . The automotive oxymoron of the century seeing as how there hasn’t been a genuinely new Alfa since the ole 75 .

Alfa is dead . Long live the memory … cause in reality beyond the pretense …. thats all we’ve got left …. sigh ….

-1
Brian Martinez
Brian Martinez
8 years ago
Reply to  Guitar Slinger

@ Guitar Slinger

It’s aint a Dart. You may not like it, which is fine. But it aint a Dart.

From Car and Driver:
Alfa’s new rear-wheel-drive platform sits under the Giulia. The suspension uses control arms in the front and a multilink arrangement in back, and in the top-spec model, the Quadrifoglio, the rear differential will be capable of torque-vectoring via clutches.

From Wiki:
It is underpinned by an all-new, longitudinal-engined platform developed for Alfa Romeo—codenamed “Giorgio”.[5] Development of the Giulia, and indeed of the entire “Giorgio” project, has been overseen by Ferrari technical director and secondee, Philippe Krief

0
Ian Miles
Ian Miles
8 years ago

They really must get this car right. Fortunately Alfa seem to aware and serious about it. Rear wheel drive, looks and that V6 are good steps along the way. Sounds great. Better send that sound to Porscha. The new 911 sounds as dreadful as ever.

0
Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago
Reply to  Ian Miles

… yeah but any Porsche including the god awful Macan can out run and our drive anything Alfa has in its pretense of being Alfa Romeo quiver . And in light of the underwhelming initial orders …. I’d say like everything else Alfa /FIAT and now FCA has done for the last couple of decades or so … I think they missed again

Especially if they’re deluding themselves into thinking this will in any way compete with anything coming from BMW .. which they are .

Jeeze I am getting so sick of everyone from the former SAAB – to Cadillac – to Jaguar and right on down to this pathetic travesty Dodge/FIAT posing as an Alfa trying to be the next BMW .. or as good as a BMW .. or worse yet better than a BMW … rather than being the best of what they are and should be .

Comparing one’s product to BMW in any way shape or form proving time and time again to be the automotive Kiss of Death . And yet … like the very definition of insanity … BMW’s competitors keep trying over and over again ….

-1
Luca
Luca
8 years ago
Reply to  Guitar Slinger

Perhaps wrong comparison, but they used to say the same of the iPhone, and the competitors who were trying to compare their product to it… Now Android phones are sold much more than iPhones.
And if everybody would think this way there wouldn’t be Pepsi, just Coca Cola. Or Burger king, just MacDonald’s. Ferrari and Maserati. Nikon and Canon. Each industry has examples.

0
Brooks Lester
Brooks Lester
8 years ago
Reply to  Guitar Slinger

BMW has slipped mightily during the past 10 years or so… the Cadillac CTS is a better 3-series than than BMW’s own and the Chevy SS out-E39’s the current 5-series. BMW is trying to be all things to all people instead of delivering straightforward driver’s cars. I don’t want piped-in motor sound, I don’t want too much understeer, and I’ll trade lighter weight for less over-the-top luxury content. I’m a multiple BMW owner and have driven them since the 1980’s. My 128i will likely be the last one I own unless BMW goes back to what made them great in the first place.

0
Wayne Strawbridge
Wayne Strawbridge
8 years ago

I’ve owned a couple of Alfa’s including a V6 and while this car looks beautiful and sounds purposeful, I think I prefer the sound of the Busso v6. But 500+hp? Can’t easily do that with a busso! 😉

0
Matt Bakken
Matt Bakken
8 years ago

I saw one in camo in Vegas this morning

0
Matt Bakken
Matt Bakken
8 years ago
Reply to  Matt Bakken

hmm apparently the pics aren’t loading. Well trust me, they are cell phone pics of a QV in traffic.

0

Petrolicious Newsletter