1988 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce / Low Mileage / Video on 2040-cars

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6 luxury car brands to watch in 2024

2023 was a healthy year for the auto industry, and even with incentives returning and dealer lots filling up, there's plenty to like about the market if you build luxury automobiles, and we expect 2024 to be more of the same, which makes luxury-segment rivalries all the more interesting. Top luxury car brand rivalries? Well, that sounds downright uncivilized. But we know better, don't we? And when every quarterly sales update is an opportunity to remind somebody else that they bought the wrong status symbol, well, who can resist? Certainly not the diehard customers who fly their favorite brands' banners high.  Read more: Auto sales: Industry records best year since 2019 Read more: 2023 auto sales and 2024 preview: Ford Bronco vs. Jeep Wrangler This is a tricky segment to define, but essentially, we're looking at luxury car brands with depth to their portfolios and dealerships that exist to attract real-world customers. The Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and McLarens of the world are luxury cars, certainly, but we're more concerned with brands that have a bit more mass appeal — manufacturers who treat supply constraints as fiascos rather than features. If you disagree with our selections, feel free to let us know in the comments.  And since we're mostly concerned with finishing order, the luxury brands and totals featured here may change as new data come in throughout 2024. Due to the wild swings of the past several years, we're treating 2023 as the baseline by which we'll measure sales performance. And rather than rank brands vs. their finishing order in 2022, when supply-chain and inflationary issues still played havoc with sales figures, we're starting 2024 off with a clean slate.  The mainstream luxury segment is always a dogfight, but with their varied approaches to electrification all of the major luxury brands are in the midst of reshaping the premium landscape. Who is doing it right? Well, according to U.S. shoppers, the usual suspects are up to their old tricks.

The Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio set a lap record at Silverstone with someone driving blind

Alfa Romeo announced today that its Giulia Quadrifoglio super sedan set a new lap record at Silverstone that nearly matched one put down by one of its Formula 1 cars in 1951. The F1 car set a time of 1:44, and the Giulia finished in 1:44.3. That may seem a bit slow for a modern 505-horsepower sports sedan, but it makes more sense when you realize the Giulia in question had black vinyl over the windows to keep the driver, Ed Morris, from seeing where he was going. Apparently Alfa thinks a clear view makes driving too easy. To get around the substantial handicap, Morris was assisted by directions from another driver in a following Giulia Quadrifoglio. The other driver, David Brise, radioed directions to Morris to get him around the track – and avoid crashing. Over the course of two days, the duo got the hang of it and set the aforementioned lap time. They even reached speeds of over 100 mph. You can see them practicing and setting the time in the video above. It was a cute record to set, but we're hoping blindfolded Nurburgring laps aren't next. Related Video:

Abarth SP 1000 factory restomod entering very limited production

In May 2021, Abarth created a one-off roadster to celebrate the brand's racing history, called the Alfa Romeo Abarth 1000. Based on the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, this was a factory-made callback to the 1966 Fiat Abarth 1000 Sport Prototipo, a highly successful competition car designed for gentlemen racers who wanted to do more than just show up, but who wanted to win. The UK's Auto Italia magazine tweeted that FCA Heritage chief Roberto Giolito said the carmaker would produce at least five customer units of the new Abarth 1000, with a price of around GBP170,000 each ($228,500 U.S.) Details beyond that must wait for the February issue of Auto Italia, due to hit newsstands on January 6 for UK readers.  If this happens, it could close the circle on what the 4C was originally meant to be. Legend says the idea for the carbon-tubbed 4C should have spawned a hardcore Fiat that channeled the 1966 Abarth 1000. However, since the 4C took many of its cues and much of its technology from the limited-edition Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, it stuck to being a halo sports car for Alfa Romeo and all other branchings got pruned. Giolito likely reveals more in the interview, seeing as he was head of Fiat and Abarth design from 2011 to 2015. The reboot suits the modern 4C save for the high, 21st-century shoulder line. The 1966 car's low pointy nose, curvy fenders and myriad vents and scoops fit great, and we also dig the exposed roll bar and cut-down rear cowls. For such an expensive restomod, we might have wished for some mechanical changes. It appears there's no change to the 4C's mechanicals, with a 1,742-cc turbocharged four-cylinder sending its 237 horsepower to the rear wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch transmission. As such, this should probably be called the Abarth 1740 SP or 1700 SP rather than 1000, since the original was named after the displacement of the modified Fiat 600 engine it used. The original weighed 1,058 pounds dry and had 105 horsepower; the 2,465-pound production 4C won't feel as spry, but should perform a little better. Once British readers get the skinny from the magazine interview, we should know more.