Giulia Quadrifoglio

Make
Alfa Romeo
Segment
Sedan

For BMW enthusiasts, there is no greater event than Bimmerfest, which took place this year at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. This year's gathering celebrated the 20th anniversary of the event and had over 25,000 people in attendance. It is the perfect opportunity to put new products in front of hardcore BMW enthusiasts, a point which was not lost on Alfa Romeo.

You may expect BMW to show up to such an event with a slew of new models to test drive but instead, Alfa Romeo sponsored the event and brought out a Giulia and Stelvio (both in Quadrofoglio trim) for BMW fans to test drive at no cost. It takes some guts to show up to a BMW event with a rival product, but Alfa Romeo clearly feels confident in its offerings. An Alfa Romeo spokesperson told CarBuzz, "the event overall was a great fit for Alfa Romeo given the built-in audience of BMW owners who were very interested in the chance to drive Alfa products available to them."

Over the course of the two-day event, Alfa Romeo "completed 300-plus test drives with the average person waiting 30 minutes to get behind the wheel. We also brought product specialists to provide their vehicle expertise to those who had questions" and received some enthusiastic feedback about its cars. One person said, "I compared it (the Stelvio Quadrifoglio) to my (Porsche) Cayenne S and it knocked it out of the park." Another said, "What I loved about this ride is that whenever I asked it (the Giulia Quadrifoglio) to do something, it just did it."

BMW owners are notoriously devoted to the brand, so it means a lot to hear them praise a competing automaker. Another owner said, "I just drove the Alfa Romeo Stelvio (Quadrifoglio) and it was amazing, I loved it." One even made the bold comment that "I have six BMWs and I'm actually kinda disappointed I didn't go with Alfa."

Both the Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglio are powered by a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 producing 505 horsepower. The Giulia sends its power to the rear wheels while the Stelvio utilizes all-wheel-drive. We've driven both cars and their competition from BMW and we feel the Alfa Romeos possess a special flare that has been missing from BMW M Cars in recent years. A new M3 is on the way and the X3 M and X4 M could be excellent rivals for the Stelvio, but for now, there are many reasons to consider an Alfa Romeo.