hello and welcome to another video with my alfa romeo julia veloce long termer and today
i'm going to be comparing the velocity to another performance saloon car
and it's not a bmw it's not an audi or a mercedes mercedes-benz
or even a jaguar it's something much much closer to home is that
yes i've managed to nab myself a lovely trafeo white julia quadrifoglio in order
to make a comparison with the veloce there's roughly a 30 000 pound difference in price
so what does that extra money get you in the real world and is it worth it
now before we get started properly please don't forget to subscribe to the parks cars channel and
turn your notifications on right both cars exterior they both look really really good
i don't think it's just me these are the best looking saloons of this kind that i reckon you
can currently buy the veloce is subtler and the quadrifoglio is a bit more aggressive
but not too aggressive the main difference is on the outside at least are lots of carbon you can
see that on the splitter and down the sides at the back as well there's more vents on this the wheels
on this particular car 19-inch alloy wheels they're not the five-hole the popular five-hole
design but i still quite like them you've also got beefier brakes as well there's the
cloverleaf badge which obviously quadrifolio and then at the back there's a really nice subtle
as you can see carbon spoiler just a little lip spoiler on the boot lid there's a not so subtle
rear diffuser and above that sits the optional acropovich exhaust system which sounds fantastic
swing into the cabin and it's a similar story to the outside of the car because the differences are
fairly minor but if you look around you can notice them so we've got more carbon fiber obviously it's
on the center console it's on the dashboard up here it's also on the steering wheel and i like on
the steering wheel you've got a nice quadrifoglio badge on the carbon fiber down there we've also
got leather and alcantara so it's a really nice tactile thing to hold got these lovely gear shift
paddles as well just like the velocity and then a red starter button which just looks a bit sportier
down here extra drive mode i've got race drive mode which you don't get in the veloce and also
i've got the adaptive dampers which you can't get in the veloce anymore at all you need to get the
estrema for that if you want adapted dampers in a non-quadrifolio julia the seats they're all so
different and they've also got these nice green seat belts as well which you've got to be careful
what you wear because they can clash for obvious reasons but yeah the seats are different got the
green stitching you can get carbon say belt seats which are very nice they look really cool but they
are optional extra they cost a few thousand extra and i don't think they're necessary because these
are super comfortable the carbon seats aren't as comfortable and they do make in the back they
make it a little bit tricky for passengers and their knees as i'm sure you can imagine
now as i said earlier this car is around 30 000 pounds more list price than the veloce
but if you do a finance deal which a lot of people will do the price well it's more it's more
than the equivalent would be in cash so per month on the same deal which you'll see appearing on
the screen now it's over 600 pounds more the quadrifoglio than the velocity and that's a
huge amount i mean it's almost double the monthly payment on the velocity and i guess the question
you've got to ask is are you getting double the car is it worth almost double the amount and as
much as sitting in the interior and talking about the exterior will help the real way
you're going to answer that in a quadrifoglio is driving it so that's what i'm going to do now
now despite the julia quadrifoglio been around for a good few years now this is actually
the first time i've had an extended period driving the regular qv which i've driven the
gta and the gtam quite a bit but not this one so this has actually been really interesting and for
those that don't remember this has got a 2.9 liter twin turbocharged v6 that makes 510 horsepower
600 newton meters of torque not to 62 3.9 seconds and a top speed in excess of 190 miles an hour no
limiters in this thing and there's three things that really strike me about
this powertrain the first is how smooth it is i mean you can be at low revs
like we are now and then just press the accelerator and it's just so silky smooth whether
you're getting it right to the red line which is around 7000 rpm or whether you're using the
torque and just accelerating in gear it is just like butter you sometimes find that engines on
high performance cars like this they can be a little bit coarse they can be a little bit rough
but there's none of that here it is an absolute joy to go through the rev range as i said whether
you're in gear or whether you're just hanging it to the red line it's such a lovely engine
and then there's the noise it's so cultured and delicate and italian sounding and when
you compare it with the amg c63 in the bmw m3 i'm not saying that those are not good
sounding cars especially in the case of the amg but this i mean this is just on a different level
i mean just listen to the way that the sound just builds up
and this is a car that you know a saloon car was designed to sit and go up and down motorways
and be a comfortable cruiser and in base form that's what this julia does but then and they
put this masterpiece of an engine in it properly transforms it it's an incredible sound and it's
noticeably a lot lot nicer as you'd expect than the four-cylinder in the velocity gotta say that
another thing that strikes me is the gearbox it's an eight-speed automatic and as far as i can tell
this is the best gearbox of any super saloon that i can remember driving it's better than
the gearbox in the m3 it's better than the c63 the rs4 and it's not just because of how quickly
and concisely it changes gears fourth third second it gives you the gear when you want it
but it's because of how smooth it is in manual mode but also when you put it back in automatic
it is so well behaved it doesn't really make you compromise at all and that's really really rare
don't get me wrong the gearbox in the velocity is good but it properly shines in the quadrifoglio
i'm also a really big fan of the adaptive dampers in this car and that might sound a
bit odd for people that have seen previous episodes because i said at the veloce
it doesn't need the adaptive dampers and i stand by that the passive setup is great
but when you get into something a bit more serious such as this they make so much sense
they're supple and comfortable in all of the three different stiffness settings but in comfort mode
it's shockingly civilized i mean you could genuinely be fooled into thinking that it's
not a quadrifoglio until the exhaust valves open up and until you start to go through the corners
or put your foot down because the way it rides and how civilized and refined it is
it's deeply impressive but then of course the other side of that is the firmer damper setting
so the mid setting which you can use in dynamic mode or in race mode where you can have the mid
but you can also have the full stiffness and even then as i said it's still quite supple
but that's where it allows this car to do things that a saloon
really shouldn't be able to do it genuinely feels like it's only a whisker away from being
as flat and as sorted and as agile as some of the best sports cars that you can buy today
and i actually think that part of that reason and not much seems to be made of this but part
of that is because the curb weight for this car alfa romeo quotes just over 1.5 tons
and when super saloons like this are just getting heavier and heavier that's a massive massive
advantage it's got hundreds of kilos advantage over some rivals such as the bmw m3 and it shows
and all of that is helped and complemented by the steering because on most cars including
some performance cars there's a noticeable dead zone around the straight ahead which stops it
from being too nervous on motorways in this it doesn't seem to have it i mean if i'm wiggling
the steering wheel like that you can see how much i'm moving around and you get an idea of
just how alert it is just off center but then it's not nervous on motorways at all you just
you wouldn't know there's any difference until you start to point it into a corner
and you feel how on its toes and how willing it is to rotate and turn in
it's a brilliant brilliant piece of engineering and it makes this car feel like it's been set up
to do this kind of driving all day long but then somehow it also does normal and sensible stuff as
well it's proper witchcraft it's gonna sound like a cliche because it is a big cliche and of course
they did have some involvement with this car but if ferrari were going to make a super saloon
this is what it would be like it feels every bit the ferrari saloon car and when you put it
like that that 70 odd thousand pound price tag it starts to make a bit more sense honestly this is a
special special car it really is my only complaint with this car to drive and it is a small one
is that when you put it in race mode which you'll want to do because it's the most exciting mode
you need to have the esc off and the autonomous emergency braking system off and
i don't know why i don't know why they couldn't separate it so that you can have the esc on
and have it in the most extreme mode doesn't sound like too much to ask and instead when you put it
in race mode you have to be aware that there is absolutely zero safety blanket some people will
like that but i think from a usability point of view it maybe makes it a bit intimidating which is
a shame because it needn't be of course i knew the qv was going to be a staggering performance car
but what i wasn't so prepared for was how well it managed to imitate the usability of the velocity
so with this in mind i got back into my long termer and took it for a drive on the same roads
it's been a while back in the veloce and surprise surprise the biggest difference to
the quadrifoglio immediately is the engine in this for anyone that's forgotten it's a two liter four
cylinder petrol it's got 280 horsepower 400 newton meters of torque and not to 62 miles an hour in
just less than six seconds now i've spoken about it in previous updates and i've said that this is
a solid engine and it is for the amount of money that you're paying but when you compare it with
the julia quadrifoglio's engine and the amount of money you're paying for that then some things do
start to show a bit of contrast and while i'm not suggesting for a second that it should be anywhere
close to the quadrifoglio's 2.9 liter v6 there are some things that i think perhaps alfred mayo
could have done to make this engine sparkle just a little bit more i think it could have a little
bit more power i've spoken before about how i actually thought it's got the right amount of
power but now i've had the car for a few months and driven it back to back with the quadrifoglio
i think that an extra 20 30 horsepower would really make a difference especially at the top
end so there's that there's also the fact that given it is a performance variant even if it's
a fairly light performance variant the fact you can't turn off or slacken off the esp system or
the esc system at all is a bit puzzling especially when you've got the exact opposite problem as i
mentioned in the quadrifoglio so that's a bit of an interesting one and although that kind of thing
might not seem so important i reckon that a fair proportion of julia veloce drivers or buyers would
actually quite like to see it if you disagree then let me know in the comment section below but the
reason i think that is because this car is just so well balanced and it's such a sweet handling car
that with the traction control kicking in as early and as aggressively as it does it's a shame you
can't just turn it down a little bit in fact the way this velocity tackles a twisty road like this
you wouldn't believe that there is that bigger price difference between this and the quadrifoglio
you do get more body roll on these passive dampers which have to blend a comfortable ride with a
torch chassis but aside from that it's still got a lot of the elements that make the quadrifoglio
so much fun to drive so it's still lightweight it's still got that super quick steering just off
center and it's still got that way that it wants to turn in and rotate through corners there's no
sense the understeer is in this car's vocabulary and again it pushes well beyond what should be
possible in a two liter four-cylinder saloon car that isn't even the most hardcore version
you honestly don't get this quality of drive from anything made by mercedes-benz or audi
or even bmw and jaguar the julia is genuinely ahead it's the best handling
saloon that you can buy not just in courtfolio form but also in veloce form and in base form
a couple of things though and it could just be my car i know it is from the wing mirror wind noise
there's a lot of people have said in the comments that they don't get that on there julia veloce
and i wasn't getting it in the quadrifoglio so it is making me think it's this particular car that
is the issue and when thames took it in for the service for whatever reason they couldn't find
that was beyond the tolerance so there's that there's more wind noise in this than there is
in the quadrifoglio but also the brakes i know they're not going to be as powerful in this but
the feel through them isn't all that good and i wonder whether it's worth when this car goes
in for a service soon i'm having a look at it because when you go for the pedal there's a bit
of a squishy dead zone and then that's when the braking comes in so it's quite hard to modulate
those things aside though the velocity is still brilliant to drive even when i've just got out
of a julia quadrifoglio and as much as i'd like to keep telling you about how good it
is to drive i think i need to bring this video to some kind of conclusion because honestly i could
drive these two cars on these roads all day long but we do need a verdict now i have to be honest
when i first booked the quadrifoglio in for a comparison with the veloce i wasn't sure how
i was gonna handle it because obviously if money was no object i think we all know which one we'd
pick and that's you know there's a reason why it's so much more expensive but having said that
and having driven a lot of cars in this job and a lot of really really lovely cars there's very few
that i'd spend my own money on but this thing this is one of those if i had the money i'd definitely
be getting one because it's just spectacularly brilliant it's got such a well-rounded ability and
it's so fun and exciting and it looks great i just think it is absolutely fantastic and it's the best
super saloon out there and that's saying a lot considering how good the rivals are
but having driven this for hundreds of miles over the last week or so
and then getting back in the velocity this isn't a disappointment i mean yes there are things that
i'd like to improve like the engine for example especially after driving the 2.90 to v6 in that
but otherwise it takes plenty of elements from the quadrifoglio and puts it into a cheaper package
and i think it is a worthwhile baby brother for the portfolio and as praise goes i don't think
it really gets any better and i gotta say i'm quite relieved because i was enjoying the veloce
and i didn't want it to be spoiled after i drove that thing but it hasn't which is the good news
so the takeaway then is that if like a lot of us you can't afford over thousand pounds or thirteen
hundred pounds a month on the quadrifoglio there is a very good alternative in the veloce
or of course the estrema so i hope that was useful i hope you gained something
from this video and it wasn't as foregone a conclusion as you thought it would be seeing the
title and if you have any questions let us know in the comments section below about either car and
also any requests for future videos on the veloce don't forget to check out the written article on
the parker's code at uk website but until the next video thanks for watching see you next time
you