Photo: corriere.it
Located in Piedimonte San Germano, which is very near to the still active volcano of Mount Vesuvius, Fiat Chrysler’s Cassino Assembly Plant is a magical place. Identified with the Alfa Romeo brand since the Giulia Tipo 952 started production in April 2016, the Cassino plant also happens to be the place where a certain someone crashed a brand spanking new Giulia Quadrifoglio.
As reported by Corriere, the Giulia Quadrifoglio crash occurred on the evening of November 25, one day after Sergio Marchionne and the Italian prime minister visited the factory to announce the addition of 1,800 jobs by 2018. The publication suggests that a factory test driver is at fault, attacking a curve too bravely even though RWD and rainy weather don’t go together.
The Alfa Romeo Giulia Q in question is a white-painted model with its steering wheel on the right-hand side, a car that was undergoing its dynamic check-up before being sent off to the UK. To the Cassino factory test driver’s defense, 503 horsepower sent to the rear wheels in a RHD vehicle driven on a wet road isn’t plain sailing. What’s more, please bear in mind that the test driver is probably an Italian, a.k.a. somebody who is accustomed to LHD, not RHD.
From the looks of the roadside barrier and the left side of the vehicle, this Giulia Quadrifoglio is a write-off. Happily, however, Alfa Romeo’s Cassino factory test driver walked out the €80,000-something wreck mostly unscathed. It’s no wonder, though, chiefly because the Giulia earned five starts from the Euro NCAP, scoring 98 percent in terms of adult occupant protection. The result is the highest score ever achieved by a vehicle before and since Euro NCAP introduced a more severe evaluation system in 2015.
As a post scriptum, I recently tested the Giulia Quadrifoglio on a cold, damp track. A manual one of those. Due to the weather conditions, the instructors recommended car journos NOT to go nuts in Race, the driving mode that makes the Giulia Q louder and much edgier at the limits of grip.
The Alfa Romeo Giulia Q in question is a white-painted model with its steering wheel on the right-hand side, a car that was undergoing its dynamic check-up before being sent off to the UK. To the Cassino factory test driver’s defense, 503 horsepower sent to the rear wheels in a RHD vehicle driven on a wet road isn’t plain sailing. What’s more, please bear in mind that the test driver is probably an Italian, a.k.a. somebody who is accustomed to LHD, not RHD.
From the looks of the roadside barrier and the left side of the vehicle, this Giulia Quadrifoglio is a write-off. Happily, however, Alfa Romeo’s Cassino factory test driver walked out the €80,000-something wreck mostly unscathed. It’s no wonder, though, chiefly because the Giulia earned five starts from the Euro NCAP, scoring 98 percent in terms of adult occupant protection. The result is the highest score ever achieved by a vehicle before and since Euro NCAP introduced a more severe evaluation system in 2015.
As a post scriptum, I recently tested the Giulia Quadrifoglio on a cold, damp track. A manual one of those. Due to the weather conditions, the instructors recommended car journos NOT to go nuts in Race, the driving mode that makes the Giulia Q louder and much edgier at the limits of grip.
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