2021 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Rwd on 2040-cars

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Alfa Romeo realigns product onslaught (again)

After Sergio Marchionne announced an ambitious plan in May of 2014, Alfa Romeo has continued to struggle, pushing back launch dates and the debut of the models that would serve as the brand's new bedrock. And now it's happening again. A new investor relations document reveals that Alfa won't complete the debut of its new lineup until the middle of the next decade, and that FCA will be scaling back the brand's research and development, manufacturing, and product investments through 2018. The move is partially down to "uncertainties" in China, which gels with what we reported back in December. Alfa also needs extra time to "guarantee proper global distribution network execution," the document claims. As we've reported, the revised product cadence will still see the Giulia (pictured) and a new midsize utility vehicle hit dealers in 2016 and late 2016/early 2017, respectively. From there, Alfa is still aiming to flesh out its lineup with six more vehicles, including a fullsize sedan, two more utility vehicles, two "specialty" vehicles, and a hatchback. This new product strategy differs from the original Marchionne strategy in a few key ways. First, all of these vehicles were supposed to have been launched between May 2014 and sometime in 2018. Since it's 2016 and we can't even buy a Giulia yet, it's pretty clear that plan isn't going to happen. Instead, the six vehicles that will follow the Giulia and midsize CUV won't start arriving until 2017, with debuts continuing until at least 2020. The new product strategy also better reflects today's market. Gone are the two compact cars, and in their place is a single hatchback, arriving at the tail end of the brand's new product offensive. That might explain why the MiTo was given a stay of execution. It's no surprise to see a second utility vehicle in Alfa's plan, considering the way the segment has exploded in the past few years, while enthusiasts will likely welcome the idea of a second "specialty" vehicle. The brand's second midsize sedan has been pushed out, though, so the only Alfa four-door following the Giulia will be a fullsizer. As for Maserati, the investor relations PDF didn't list nearly as many specifics. As we've reported, FCA still expects the Levante CUV to be a growth leader for the brand by 2018. The performance brand's fortunes will also be bolstered by pairing its dealerships with those of Alfa Romeo. Related Video:

Alfa Romeo teases 6C supercar taillight

Alfa Romeo's latest reboot takes its next steps this year with the arrival of the refreshed Giulia and Stelvio to the U.S. market, and the debut of the new Tonale. The Italians primed the pump with an Instagram video celebrating 2022 and asking if we're ready for 2023. At the end of the vid, Alfa Romeo answers its own question with, "We Are." And as it's clear to see, the first "e" is a brand new font we've not seen Alfa use before. Everyone expects this is a taillight from the supercar that brand chief Jean-Philippe Imperato starting hinting about last year, intel coalescing around the name 6C. If that ends up being the name, the new supercar would complete the trilogy of 2007's 8C and 2015's 4C.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Alfa Romeo (@alfaromeoofficial) If Evo can be believed, the 6C will borrow much of its tech spec from the Maserati MC20. Even more unexpected, Evo says Alfa Romeo will advertise the halo as a bridge between its internal combustion era and its electric era, so the supercar will be offered with ICE and EV powertrains. An electric MC20 is on the way, so the plan won't be a tough jump. The most unexpected bit is when Evo says the Alfa Romeo supercar will use Maserati's in-house Nettuno V6 designed for the MC20, whereas most believe Alfa plans to go with the 2.9-liter V6 used throughout its lineup and in other halos like the Giula GTA/Am. If Evo is correct, this is sounding like another 8C, that car based on the Maserati GranTurismo and using Maserati's Ferrari-based engine of the time.  It's a bit of a challenge to reconcile Evo's report with some aspects of what Imperato said in an interview with Autocar. The honcho told Autocar, "It’s 1969 [the Spider] since the last time Alfa Romeo was stamped on a chassis" and it would be "a cool thing" to see again under his watch. We don't envision that happening to the Dallara carbon fiber monocoque chassis designed for the MC20. Imperato also said the automaker's still fine tuning the business case and that "the positioning is ongoing." If Alfa Romeo were nabbing the $260,000 MC20 practically wholesale, the only positions are super spendy supercar and wildly spendy supercar. Lastly, the all-electric MC20 Folgore isn't expected until 2024, the Alfa supercar at the end of 2023.

Cold start comparison: 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio vs. 2013 Dodge Challenger SRT8

The 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is a five-seat, compact luxury sport sedan packing 505 horsepower thanks to a 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6. My personal 2013 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 is ... well ... not. It's a full-sized muscle coupe whose iron-block 6.4-liter V8 makes 470 hp in the very traditional way: it's freakin' huge, like everything else about the car.  On paper, these two have nothing in common beyond the fact that they were built by the same multi-national manufacturing entity.  But if paper were the be-all and end-all of automotive rankings, everybody would buy the same car. And we don't, especially as enthusiasts. Whether it's looks or tuning or vague "intangibles" or something as simple as the way a car sounds, we often put a priority on the things that trigger our emotions rather than setting out to simply buy whatever the "best" car is at that particular moment.  So, what do these two have in common? They both sound really, really good. Like looks, sounds are subjective. While a rubric most assuredly exists in the world of marketing (attraction is as much a science as any other human response), we have no way of objectively scoring the beauty of either of these cars, and the same applies to the qualities of the sound waves being emitted through their tail pipes.  But we can measure how loud they are. In fact, there's even an app for that. Dozens, as it turns out. So, I picked one at random that recorded peak loudness levels, and set off to conduct an entirely pointless and only vaguely scientific experiment with the two cars that happened to be in my garage at the same time.  For the test, I opened up a window and cracked the garage door (so as not to inflict carbon monoxide poisoning upon myself in the name of discovery), and then placed my phone on a tripod behind the center of each car's trunk lid. I fired each one up and let the app do the rest. I then placed my GoPro on top of the trunk for each test so that I could review the video afterward for any anomalies.  I started with the Challenger. The 6.4-liter Hemi under the hood of this big coupe is essentially the same lump found under the hood of quite a few Ram pickups, and it has the accessories to prove it. Its starter is loud and distinctive. Almost as loud, it turns out, as the exhaust itself. As its loud pew-pew faded behind the V8's barking cold start, we recorded a peak of 83.7 decibels. In the app's judgment, that's roughly the equivalent of a busy street.