Giulia (Type 952) 2015 - Current | AROC Member Car

My Giulia story..

Meet my second Alfa Romeo - Giada the Giulia..

I've previously owned a variety of sporty cars, including a pair of Honda S2000s, but there's something special about an Alfa that's hard to describe. I guess when Jeremy Clarkson said to be a real petrolhead you have to own an Alfa Romeo, he was absolutely correct.

My previous Alfa was a MiTo, which I owned for five and a half years and loved it, but by mid 2022, I'd decided I wanted to move up to something bigger and with a bit more performance (and I had a reasonably significant birthday approaching & it was going to be a present for myself!). The MiTo had seen a fair bit of trackday action & been a lot of fun, but it was time to move on..

The Giulia was my number one target (although I did toy with the idea of a Mazda MX-5 RF, with a view to having it fitted with a supercharger!), but in the end, it had to be another Alfa - so the search began.

Whilst I'd have loved a Quadrifoglio, I couldn't quite justify such a generous gift to myself!! But the 2.0 litre Giulia has plenty of performance, so wasn't too much of a sacrifice to make. My budget was in the region of £30,000, so there were plenty of options.. By late December, I'd narrowed it down to 2 cars that D Salmon's in Colchester had for sale - a Misano Blue Veloce and another in Alfa red (both 2021 cars). The plan was to take a trip to Colchester just after Xmas & decide from there.

That all changed on the evening of December 22nd when I had a look on the Alfa Romeo website & spotted that Snows in Southampton had listed a Giulia that afternoon - a 2022 Sprint in Blu Anodizzato, that was their demonstrator & was just over 5 months old.. I was attracted by the colour as it's a less popular shade of blue than the Misano or Monte Carlo blue options. Decision made - I immediately pulled out my debit card & paid the £99 reservation fee, until I could call them the following morning.

I was flying back to London early on Boxing Day as I was back at work (I work in the broadcast industry), but was off the following day & drove down to Southampton in the MiTo to have a proper look at the Sprint. Took it for a test drive, loved it, so the negotiations started on a deal to trade in the MiTo and get the Giulia. We managed to come up with a package that worked for me (and them!), so the Giulia was mine and I collected it on 6 January 2023. I was sad to see the MiTo go, as I'd loved owning it, but it was time for a new Alfa in my life.

And my adventures with Giada the Giulia started from there..

Modifications/Upgrades

Celtic Tuning Stage 2 engine remap
Celtic Tuning ZF8 gearbox remap
DNA Race mode enabled
K&N air filter
Powerflow custom built stainless steel exhaust system
Tarox Sport Japan brake discs
Tarox Braided brake hoses
EBC Yellowstuff brake pads

In Sprint trim (until MY2023), the Giulia had 200bhp but as the engine is mechanically identical to the 280bhp motor, therefore there's plenty of scope for improvements. As a result of the Celtic Tuning work on the ECU, that gave me around 325bhp (a 62% increase!) and with the addition of the K&N filter and the Powerflow exhaust, running on Tesco Momentum 99 or Shell V Power fuel, it's now producing 335+ bhp!

I've also had Celtic reprogramme the ZF8 gearbox controller - this makes a huge difference & is worth doing particularly if you use your Giulia for trackdays. It lifts the torque allowance to prevent the gearbox controller limiting peak torque, increases the line pressures for greater clamping pressure which also helps minimise wear and finally faster shift speeds which is immediately noticeable when pushing hard through the gears.

Celtic looked after enabling the Race mode in DNA for me too - that's a recent addition & haven't had an opportunity yet to test/enjoy that properly on track.

The exhaust system is a cat-back custom built replacement, the standard system was a bit quiet (and when you see the size of the standard silencers, you'll understand why!), so I was looking for a little bit more noise. I didn't want a full on droning "boy racer" sound, so custom build was the way to go. I had the work done at Powerflow in Dartford & what they've built is a work of art in stainless steel - it's a shame it's hidden away, but it sounds great - distinctive, but not headache inducing loud..

I've uprated the brakes by having Alfa Workshop (who I can throughly recommend) fit Tarox discs and braided brake lines and the EBC Yellowstuff pads are great improvement over the OEM pads once warmed up properly.