With Alfa Romeo having successfully reintroduced itself as a worthy contender in the super saloon game with their four-door Giulia Quadrifoglio Verge, and stealing some verve away from the German establishment’s BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C 63, it’s time to tweak that formula for maximum effect.
News of a two-door body to sit atop the Giulia QV’s front-engine, rear drive chassis and 373kW 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 started to surface almost immediately following the confirmation of the hot sedan’s confirmation. A natural permutation that would be competitive against the M4 and Audi RS5.
However, it’s now been reported that Alfa Romeo has more interesting plans for their forthcoming QV model, one that goes beyond merely making a two-door version of an existing four-door design, because it would incorporate a fairly advanced powertrain that leverage technology derived from Formula 1.
Now that the Italian marque has returned to ‘the pinnacle of motorsport’ with Sauber, it makes sense for their upcoming performance flagship to have its influences rooted in the sport - specifically, the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used to power the hybrid systems in present day F1 racers.
As Autocar reports, two powertrains are being developed with this technology in mind, and which will be premiering in the near term. The first being a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder that’s derived from the Giulia Veloce, while the other being the aforesaid 2.9-litre V6 bi-turbo.
The latter engine would be the first to roll out, housed in the Giulia coupe that should premiere in its early form later this year before being on sale in 2019. With the V6 able to outgun most of the competition on its own, the prospect of a performance-boosting hybrid means that combined output could be as high as 485kW - the most powerful Alfa Romeo yet.
It’s rumoured that the energy recovery system under development is a offshoot of the technology co-developed by Magneti Marelli for the LaFerrari hypercar. Though in the the Giulia coupe’s case, the system will very much be tuned to extract the most performance, Alfa could incorporate modifications that would have it improve fuel economy for other models.
Rumour is that the Italian automaker is still undecided on a final name for the car, and that some space would be ideal to separate it from the Giulia it is based on. Some monikers from the company’s long history have been suspected for a short list, including GT and Sprint.
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