One of the most exciting cars I drove in 2018 was Alfa Romeo’s flagship Giulia QV, QV for Quadrifoglia Verde, a stunning high performance sedan that best personifies the Alfa brand. At $143,000 the Giulia QV is a luxury sports sedan in the ilk of Mercedes C63 and BMW M3 – does it do well in this company. Most certainly, this really is a performance car for the diehard enthusiasts with a potent Ferrari-derived 2.9-litre twin- turbo V6 with 375kW of power, 600Nm of torque. With a 0 to 100Km/h acceleration time of just 3.9 seconds and a top speed capability of 307km/hour this is surely one of the quickest ways to launch yourself into jail. Drive is via an eight-speed ZF automatic with manual shift paddles while there’s three selectable drive modes – Dynamic, Normal and Race. The ride is hard but in that context its handling is up there with the best. If you like performance the Alfa Romeo QV is a luxury sports sedan delivering performance in spades. I’m David Berthon

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