The annual roadtrip adventures continue. Therefor we needed something nice, powerful and with a great sound. To summarize: something emotional. I thought that my upcoming test drive with the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio might be the right decision to chase down some amazing roads with two friends. So let’s see how the Giulia Quadrifoglio manages the trip. First of all big shoutout to Alfa Romeo Switzerland for lending me their Giulia Q press car.
The Giulia is almost identical to the Stelvio I’ve driven a few months ago. Only the chassis and bodywork with some interior bits are different. Therefor I had a bit higher expectations depending the agility and acceleration compared to the Stelvio Quadrifoglio.
The car is painted in the traditional slightly dark red called “Rosso Competizione” over the “black sports seats with white and green stitching” leather and alcantara interior as well with green seat belts (optional: 500,00CHF) and the black 19-inch alloy wheels which set you back an extra 800,00CHF.
Location: Bergün
First impressions
As the whole drive train of the Giulia Q is the identical one like used in the Stelvio Q, I obviously expected an even better handling and performance than the Stelvio had. And it has proven to be better. A lot better.
What it’s all about
Road Trip time! I Picked the car up on Friday morning. Drove off to pick up my friends in Zürich and we went on towards the mountains. St. Moritz as a late lunch destination to be exact. We ate some excellent beef Tartar and delicious pasta at the “Peppino’s”. I can definitely recommend this place a lot.
We continued our journey towards the Stelvio Pass via Bernina Pass, Livigno and Bormio. Been there for the third time already and we had some perfect weather again. But this time we conquered the Stelvio Pass from Bormio instead over the Umbrail Pass or Prad am Stilfserjoch like the last two times we’ve been up there. We made a short stop to enjoy the view and to take our annual Stelvio Pass Road trip photo at our beloved spot to have the ultimate memory. Further we drove to Meran to have dinner and our destination Bolzano. I almost sweated blood because we accidentally ran out of fuel and were already way too late for our Check-In. At least, I now can promise you the Giulia Q is able to drive 40km after hitting the 0-fuel range.
Stelvio Pass
From Bolzano we made our way through South Tirol and the Dolomites and crossed Passo Sella, the Grödnerjoch and Passo Giau to Cortina d’Ampezzo to eat some perfect Italian pizza in a traditional restaurant. Continuing our trip towards south direction. Crossed the infamous Passo Giau again and made a quick stop at the impressive and very narrow Passo San Boldo to take some photos and have a proper look at it. After a fresh breath we made our way to Venice. Our final destination of the second day. The Alfa Romeo Giulia Q proved its motorway capabilities at a proper speed. As you do on the Italian “Autostrada”. On this day I had the pleasure to fully experience the sportiness the Alfa is capable to deliver. The car feels so well balanced, has a pretty good suspension, loads of grip in corners and an astonishing acceleration from 3000rpm upwards! Oh yeah and there was the driving mode “Race” which permanently opens the exhaust valves and makes a hell of a noise even on half acceleration which made driving on mountain roads very entertaining. So the Akrapovic exhaust option is a MUST!
After two very intense days packed with twisty roads, impressive views and many smiles we made a day off in Venice. Luckily, thanks to covid there were only a very few tourists. Which made it very peaceful and charming walking through the beautiful city.
Venice
On Monday, we took the car to have an approximate drive of 4-5h to Como on the “Autostrada”. We made a spontaneous stop in Milan for lunch and shopping. During afternoon we made our way further to Como where we stayed overnight. A super nice Air-BnB with a bar, settled in a beautifully decorated patio. For dinner we had to ate pizza and drank some Moretti and Italian wine aside to reach the full south experience.
Tuesday was our last day and we crossed the border from Italy back to Switzerland. We drove up the very famous scenic Tremola Pass which is the old and narrow Gotthard Pass. This place is always a sight to behold and was (obviously) a must to take some nice photos to capture the moment. After we made our way to Andermatt for lunch and continued towards lake Zürich where we ended up at the beloved Rare Street Coffee in Rapperswil-Jona to finish off our intense, but amazing 1’800km trip through eastern Switzerland and north Italy.
old Tremola Pass
To the interior
Something that sticks out to me is the dashboard with the two large round instruments (speed, rpm) which are a reminder to the old days. Like BMW still has the two front grills or the Porsche 911 the five round instruments placed in the dashboard. The sports seats are very comfortable even on long journeys but provide enough lateral support on mountain roads. Mentionable are the front head rests which are so softy like the ones in a Mercedes S-Class! They felt like cushions. But sadly, no carbon bucket seats like in the Stelvio I had earlier this year. Everything worked flawlessly except the air-condition which didn’t want to work once on the motorway towards Milan. Turned the car off at a rest stop and turned it on again. The A.C. came back to life. So nothing to worry about.
All in all, a very great place to be. Leg room in the back is enough and even tall persons have enough head room.
Now what to buy
At a current starting price of almost 100’000CHF this car isn’t a bargain at all! I checked the used car market and recognized that Alfa Romeo used to build manually gated versions of the Giulia Quadrifoglio. I’m wondering how the manual versions are like to drive. How responsible the clutch is? Good examples start at around 50’000CHF. And honestly, you can’t go wrong with it. The Giulia is a truly great and yet a rarely seen car compared to BMW M3s, Mercedes C63 or Audi RS models. I’d choose the Alfa Romeo without any hesitation. It has true character and made our trip a true pleasure. This car gained a spot in my dream car wish list for daily use. Go and get one, too, if you want to have something different!
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