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‘Yee haw’ in Italian - Alfa Romeo Giulia is the Car of Texas

You can't underestimate the visceral pull of the new Giulia Quadrifoglio's 505 horsepower wrapped in Alfa Romeo's sweet, seductive sheetmetal. Autoblog said the hottest Giulia "puts some practical meat on the bone for American drivers bored of the usual Audi A4/Mercedes C-Class/ BMW 3 Series suspects." The Quadrifoglio delivers 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and laps the Nurburgring Nordschleife in just 7:32. This makes it - for the moment - the fastest four-passenger production car around the 12.9-mile circuit. Austin's Circuit of the Americas F1 venue isn't Germany's Nordschleife, but that's where the Texas Auto Writers Association gathered for its annual Spring Roundup - some 50 auto writers, broadcasters and bloggers evaluating 40-plus cars and crossovers in 11 categories, with best-of-class wins such as Performance Car of Texas, Family Car of Texas and – ultimately – best of show, the Car of Texas. In a vote as out of the blue as that one back in November, Giulia got the nod. When evaluating a Car of Texas at a track, the Giulia Quadrifoglio is a no-brainer. Beyond its brute power is a linear dynamic behind the wheel, even if the track's official road speed for this event was 60 miles per hour. Competing against it in the Performance Sedan category were the Dodge Charger R/T and SRT Hellcat, along with a Lexus GS F and VW Jetta GLI. Beyond its surfeit of power is the Giulia's raucous personality and – we'll admit – novelty. Many of the younger journalists at COTA had only vague memories of the brand. This was also, regrettably, a relatively weak grouping of performance machinery. The headliners – such as the Mercedes-AMG GT S and Nissan GT-R – were prominent, but cars most likely to be tagged a Car of Texas, such as a Shelby Mustang or hot Camaro, weren't. Ford brought only its Focus RS, and GM execs have deemed regional press events not worthy of their attention. Also, both BMW and Audi were no-shows, although – in defense of the Giulia – the M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63S were whipped by the Alfa in at least one recent hot sedan comparison. In short, Alfa swept a smallish field. But a win's a win, and every win bodes well for Alfa, even in a market where the first car is a truck, and the second car might be a second truck. Related Video: Auto News Alfa Romeo Ownership Luxury Performance Sedan no ribbon

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.

The Effeffe Berlinetta is a brand new 1960s Italian GT

You're looking at a brand new car, not one that has spent 50 years under a tarp in some barn in the Italian countryside. The vintage-looking Berlinetta, dreamed up by the brothers Frigorio, has been in the works for a number of years now. It was initially unveiled at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este two years ago, and the official introduction will be held at the Top Marques show in Monaco next week. As it stands, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the way sports cars used to be built, with virtually nothing to let a casual observer know that it's factory fresh. The drivetrain on the two-seater Berlinetta is classic Italian, using a front-mid-mounted Alfa Romeo Twin Cam four-cylinder, which originally dates back to 1971 in design. Naturally, the two-liter unit is coupled to a five-speed manual gearbox, and the two Weber DCOE carburetors finish off the power figures at 180 horsepower at 6,500 rpm. The car follows classic Alfa Romeo lines, but isn't a direct replica, rather a tribute to Italian GT car building half a century ago – the chassis is a handmade tubular spaceframe and the entire Berlinetta will weigh less than 1,760 lbs. There are disc brakes front and rear, and while the front suspension is independent, the rear relies on a solid live axle complete with a Watt's linkage setup. And – of course – it sits on wire wheels with center knock-off lugs. As for the interior, it will all be custom-made and tailored to the buyer's taste, and each car will be unique. The full Matteograssi leather interior includes a matching luggage set, too, and the driver will be holding a wooden Nardi steering wheel. What kind of price would you expect for something like this? The Frigerio brothers have priced their small-series creation at nearly $320,000. That includes some track time to get to grips with one's new 1960s sportscar, and the chassis settings will be fine-tuned to one's personal preferences. There are plans to widen the portfolio with another model, and we're hoping that will be a drop-top Spider made in the same style. Related Video: Featured Gallery Effeffe Berlinetta View 9 Photos Alfa Romeo Automakers Coupe Special and Limited Editions Classics top marques monaco