Alfaholics Giulia Super R review

Its 240bhp encourages you, feeling eager yet not overwhelming. The lateral grip from the little 185/65 Michelin Primacy 4 front tyres is surprisingly strong and assured, which means you can flick it into bends and then just concentrate on the rear, which immediately shadows the front’s movements with a suspicion of slip. You tend to steer it on the throttle through most of a corner, but in a lovely neat, controlled way that still retains the distinctive character of a solid rear axle.

Then there’s the size of the car, both in terms of narrowness and shortness, which allows you to drive it in a fashion that would feel too expansive in anything modern, but which is contained comfortably between your own white lines in the Alfa. It instils such confidence that one of my favourite drives was down a fairly wild B-road at night, the mercifully upgraded headlights picking out the way between the hedges and the whole car bundling along in joyously fast fashion.

I drove it on circuit the next day and, although it might not look like something that should roll down a pit lane, it absolutely works on a track. All the considerable race-winning experience of the Banks brothers, Andrew and Max, has been poured into the setup and it shines through in the way it drives. There is a tightness and precision in how it drifts through corners, allowing you to run it out to the edge of a kerb or half way up it…or all the way over it. You can slip speedily with minimal steering, or slide sideways with armfuls.

Given its head, with the revs really allowed to crescendo to 7000rpm, it feels fast, too. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that while the tyres do a fine job laterally, they reveal their maker’s more humble intentions under braking and there’s no ABS to save you from yourself.

The overall feeling in this four-door saloon is understandably, wonderfully reminiscent of one of Alfaholics’ two-door GTA-R build. But, with a bigger, original steering wheel and a slightly longer wheelbase, there are subtle differences that give it its own character. That wheel in particular, with its thin and hard wooden rim, communicates everything, and its greater diameter translates into slightly larger movements, giving the impression of a faintly busier car.

One area that it perhaps outscores even a GTA-R, and in fact one of the things that appeals to me most, is that this is a car that would seem appropriate in almost any situation. It is understated yet interesting, practical yet fun. Think of a scenario and this car would most probably fit in. From the school run to Silverstone, from Ascot to austere Aunt Angela’s. It looks like a charming old three-box Alfa, which most people would think was cute or adorable, possibly a touch prim and proper, beautiful but certainly not too showy or flash. I don’t think there would be any sense of ostentation in driving one (particularly with the 1.3 badge intact on the boot) and I really like that. Only those that recognised the subtleties would understand its true depths.

What I also love is that it feels in some way vaguely attainable. Don’t laugh. Yes, you’re looking at the thick end of half a million quid for a full, back-to-bare-metal, 2.3-on-throttle-bodies, upholstered-like-an-expensive-handbag and tricked-out-with-titanium build like this. But that’s not the only option, because Alfaholics started as and continues to be a mail-order parts company.

Although old Alfa Giulias aren’t as cheap as they once were, you could still realistically aspire to one and then drip-feed it a diet of Alfaholics parts as budget and desire allowed. Fortify it with some suspension bits on your birthday (they don’t have to be titanium). Treat it to a lightweight glass fibre bonnet if it’s been good. A carbon fibre one if it’s been really good. Splash out on an exhaust on your anniversary. That sort of thing. And if it’s got any, you could simply start by taking the mirrors off.