Alfa Romeo Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde: Fun, but not for all

Alfa’s wild child goes for a spin

Vulture at the Wheel The Alfa Romeo Giulietta is a car with far too much power. The 240hp from the 1750cc turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine overwhelms the fat tyres, so it struggles for grip and torque steers.

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

And I love it.

I had a lot of things to do today and instead I took the Giulietta out for a drive. Laundry went undone, accounts were unfiled, and emails unanswered as I went to find some decent roads upon which to enjoy the car.

Too much power in too small a car is always a beguiling recipe but so often it’s a mistake in a front-wheel drive car. 240hp is 55hp more than my Lancia Integrale had and that was four-wheel drive. This is a “Quadrifoglio Verde” which is Italian for 'four-leafed clover', and Alfa Romeo for Abarth, M-series, Nismo or Type-R. It’s the jalapeno version.

Not that it looks to be so from the outside. It has the sexy Alfa nose and concealed door handles at the back to give it that two-door vibe, but mostly it looks like another small hatchback.

I like the rear lights - Italians, and Lancia in particular, are good at lights - but generally the reaction I got from others was “meh” bordering on disappointment that as an Alfa it wasn’t special enough. The wheels are cool, though.

That changes inside. There is a wide sweeping dash, a 6.5in multimedia system and, oh, disappointing, two pedals. They look good and racy, but they are accompanied by a gear lever which says 'P' 'R' 'N' and 'D', not '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6' and 'R'. How can this be a drivers’ car with an auto box? There is no manual option.

And it doesn’t suit many tastes. In fact this car has been universally panned by the motoring press as being unruly. But that’s what I liked about it.

Two, not three: The Giulietta only comes with an automatic gearbox

I’m not saying something that has significant torque steer or the ability to overwhelm the chassis is top of the list of things you should consider when choosing a car but it does make it exciting an characterful. It’s so very different to last week’s drab Golf Scirocco. I never found myself winding the window down to listen to the engine in that; in the Giulietta I did. This car is a wild child.

That engine is a 1750 cc turbo, which Alfa is very keen to tell everyone is what it fits to the 4C. Before I’d driven the Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde I thought a four cylinder turbo in a car which was chasing the V6 engined Elieses and Evora was a mistake, and that FCA should be looking to the V6 it puts in Maserati, but having driven, and more importantly heard, the Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde, I’ve changed my mind.

Engine bay: 1.7 litres may be a bit much but it sounds brilliant

It’s a magnificent engine. I kept dropping it out of full auto and into the paddle mode to save the sound and the blip as it changed down. You need to drive racing-driver style- holding the wheel at quarter to three the whole time rather than feeding so that you can change and turn at the same time - but diving into a bend, changing down and scampering out adds to the drama.

That wheel has a cool flat bottom and thumb rests. It feels good to hold onto as the torque makes it squirm. There is an electronic diff but it doesn’t always tame the power.

Wheely good: Alfa's steering wheel gets the thumbs-up here

There are three driving modes which Alfa calls DNA: Dynamic, Normal and All-weather. The last of these calms the hectic nature of the car and is that you’d select when you don’t want to feel quite so involved.

While I didn’t forgive the Scirocco for being poor over rough surfaces as it failed to deliver on the roller-coaster dynamics, I do forgive the Alfa for the odd crash and thump because you know what you are getting in return.

Interior: Standard for a car of this class

My father used to say of the Jowett Javelin that it was a great car for a friend to own. Something that you could borrow but didn’t have to live with. I’d rather have excitement over comfort and so think I could very easily live with the Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde but then I say the same thing about using a Nokia Microsoft Lumia smartphone. It’s right for me but I’d be cautious in recommending it to others.

For me, the Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde is wonderful. It’s the oddball choice tinged with emotion, but no-one should buy one without a test drive. ®