Alfa Romeos bring with them a certain set of connotations. Car lovers see Alfas as beautifully designed machines, with delicious curves front to back. The performance and handling are inspiring, thrilling with engaging dynamics and a soulful exhaust note. But it’s not all good – Alfas also have a tendency to, well break down, and unfortunately, it was this final association that was on display when our friends over at PistonHeads brought one to the track for a three-way sports sedan showdown.

Here’s the set-up: Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, BMW M3 Comp Pack, and Mercedes-AMG C63 S. A trio of four-door performance machines boasting good looks, opulent interiors, and more than a little gusto under the hood. This is a segment typically dominated by German makes like the two listed above, but Alfa recently decided to challenge the status quo by introducing the 505-horsepower Giulia QF, inspiring enthusiasts the world over to proclaim the return of one of the world’s greatest performance brands. Thing is, to finish first, you must first finish, as they say.

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The Full Story

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio has a lot of good stuff going for it. The styling is the kind of muscle-bound sports car stuff that turns heads, with huge front intakes, plumped-up fenders, plus-sized wheels, and beefy proportions. The cabin gets carbon fiber trim, velvety soft-touch surfaces, well-bolstered sports seats, and a grippy three-spoke steering wheel. The most exciting bit, however, is under the hood, where Alfa mounted a turbocharged 2.9-liter V-6 from Ferrari, pumping out 505 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque to the rear axle through an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Those are the right words for this segment, and on paper, the Giulia QF is every ounce a competitor for BMW and Mercedes. This time around, though, it broke, and that’s more than a little worrisome. Granted, an Alfa isn’t something you purchase for bulletproof dependability – this is a brand built on passion, emotion, and feel, but at the end of the day, it still has to work.

Of course, the breakdown in this video could be nothing more than just one of those random occurrences. We’ll have to see what happens as further Giulia models get out in the real world to collect real data, but personally, I’m crossing my fingers that the utterly fantastic Giulia isn’t plagued with issues.

Read the full review on the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio here.