DAY 1: The return of the Alfas

The saying goes, “you can’t be a true petrolhead until you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo” – words once told by Jeremy Clarkson. It’s only fitting that for day 1 of carsmas, your true love gave to you: the return of the Alfas!

Alfa Romeo had given the world some fantastic cars a long time ago. They gave us cars like the Guilia of the 60s, 147, 156 GTA, the spider and much more. Cars that thrill. Cars that excite. Cars that were proper driving machines.

The Tipo 33 is still one of the prettiest cars ever made – sits right up there with the likes of the Ferrari 250 GTO and Jaguar E-Type in our books.

Sure they weren’t the most reliable of cars but that was considered part of the ownership experience.

Then somewhere along the way during the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, Alfa had lost their way. A company that produced automobiles with great motorsport pedigree went on to make a bunch of boring, unreliable sedans and hatchbacks. Gone was the desirability of owning an Alfa to the point where we thought they were dead. There was no coming back from this.

Alas, enter 2013 and we have a new exciting Italian sportscar in town – the Alfa Romeo 4C. It weighs 895 kg. It has 240hp from a 1.75L turbocharged 4-banger. It has a carbon fiber monocoque chassis. The recipe for an exciting car and exciting it was.

The chase to 100 kmph took only 4.5 seconds and speed tops out at 258 kmph. It was great around a track and lapped the Nurburgring in a little over 8 minutes.

While this was thought to be a one-off success for a struggling Alfa Romeo, come 2016 and they gave us the all new Guilia – and the Guilia Quadrifoglio.

The Guilia Quadrifoglio was Alfa Romeo’s response to the BMW M3, Mercedes C63 AMG and the Cadillac ATS-V. It featured a twin-turbo V6 from Ferrari and made 503 hp. All of the ponies sent straight to the rear wheels. It was a proper car. And it was a very pretty car too.

But Alfa did not stop there. They also gave us the Stelvio and the Stelvio Quadrifoglio in 2017. An SUV with the same powerplant from the Guilia line. It claimed the title for the World’s Fastest SUV with a ring time of 7 minutes and 51.7 seconds.

The Alfas (still a little unreliable) did stir up the pot and give the Germans a good shakedown. Let’s pray it continues into the 2020s. THE ALFAS ARE BACK BABY!

12 Days of Carsmas

What did you think of the return of the Alfas?

Check in daily as we post a new car for every day of carsmas.

You can see the entire list here: https://mikaniki.com/news/2019/12/the-12-days-of-carsmas/