Italian Finesse Vs. Detroit Muscle: The Alfa Romeo Giulia And Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat

There are some who say you can tell a lot about a country, and its people, by the cars it produces. Okay, no one says that, but it’s a pretty good opening line so hang with me for a minute. The Alfa Romeo Giulia is all-Italian— sleek, sophisticated, nimble, quick, and maybe a little quirky. The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is straight-ahead Detroit iron, and it leads with its power numbers—of course, if you had 707 horsepower (not a typo), you might lead with that too. So maybe it’s worth delving a little deeper into what makes each tick and what each says about its country of origin. Both are creations of FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), but there aren’t a lot of family resemblances between them. Let’s start with the sleek Italian.

The Alfa Romeo Giulia comes in two basic gelatos: The standard one has 280 horsepower, but the Quadrifoglio, denoted with the four-leaf clover on the sides of the front fenders, is a different kettle of lasagna. It feels like a car designed to knock the BMW M3 off its throne and drag the competitors from Mercedes, Audi, and even Cadillac with it. The Alfa 4-Leaf has prodigious power (505 horses) and is close to the near-perfect 50-50 weight distribution (the weight of the car over front wheels/rear wheels).

It boasts an eight-speed transmission with a lever in the center console plus today’s obligatory paddle shifters, and it goes through the gears like a hot knife through butter—this car lays it down really smoothly, assisted, no doubt, by a carbon-fiber driveshaft. It does so quickly, hitting 60 mph in under four seconds, and it holds the lap record for a production four-door sedan at Germany’s fabled Nürburgring race track (7:32 minutes). This puts it just a tick behind such luminaries as the Ferrari 488 Italia and the McLaren MP4 12C—yet the Alfa still has a place to put the children’s car seat and groceries in the back. Nevertheless, the Alfa doesn’t make the people inside pay for all that performance, as there’s plenty of room fore and aft, and with four doors, it’s an easy-in, easy-out car too.