A new logo for the Four-leaf clover green symbol of the maximum sporting expression of Alfa Romeo. A new logo that celebrates the 100th anniversary of one of the emblems that has accompanied the cars of the Alfa Romeo, first only in the world of competitions and then also on the road up to the present day. Waiting to find out what the new versions of the Quadrifoglio will be on the Alfa Romeo models with the electric conversion that will inevitably lead the Arese-based carmaker to write a new page of this combination, we want to go back in time, retracing the epic story of this symbol since its first use.
The first car to have been embellished with the Quadrifoglio was the RL “Race”, led by Ugo Sivocci. That car was able to cross the finish line first in Targa Florio number XIV. It was 1923. That was also the first of ten successes that the Alfa Romeo would sign in the prestigious competition. The four-leaf clover will then be also present on the bodywork of the P2, that of Brilli Peri who in 1925 at Monza won the first “World Championship of car racing”. Also in that case the triumph was a good omen given that Alfa would have won another 4 world titles. At the end of the 1920s it was again the Quadrifoglio that distinguished the Alfa Romeos of the parent company from the Alfa Romeos managed by the Scuderia Ferrari, which had the “prancing horse” as its emblem.
In 1950 and 1951, Giuseppe “Nino” Farina e Juan Manuel Fangio lead the Alfa Romeo 158 and 159, the legendary “Alfetta”, to success in the first two Formula 1 World Championships. In the 1960s, then, the Quadrifoglio characterized the “ready-to-race” of the “Giulia”, the “TI Super”, to then join the blue triangle of Autodelta for several decades: from the “GTA” to the “33” up to the two World Championships of the “33 TT 12” (1975) and the “ 33 SC 12” (1977). Alfa Romeo’s competitive activity continued in the 1980s when: after returning to F.1 in 1979, the successes in touring car racing (“GTV 6 2.5”) were repeated, up to the triumph in the “DTM” with the “155 V6 Ti” in 1993 and the very long series of victories of the “156 Superturismo” (1998-2004). Even normal production Alfa Romeos had the Quadrifoglio. These are particularly high-performance models made between the 60s and 80s. Some bear the symbol on the bodywork, without appearing in the official denomination – such as “Giulia Sprint GT Veloce” or “1750 GT Veloce” – others however, from the 1980s onwards, carry the Quadrifoglio in their official denomination, such as for example the various versions of the “33 Quadrifoglio Verde”. or the “164 Quadrifoglio Verde”. The Quadrifoglio itself undergoes an evolution, with two different categories: the Green, which characterizes the more sporty models, while the Gold one becomes the symbol of the luxurious and refined fittings.
Meanwhile also the Q has begun to enter the daily use of the brand from Arese, as the initial of cutting-edge technological solutions: the Q4 all-wheel drive but also the Q2 limited-slip differential, the Q-System automatic gearbox and the Q-Tronic. This symbol then also returns in the more modern range of Alfa Romeo, in 2008 on the MiTo and in 2010 on the Giulietta, until 2015 when the new generation of Giulia is born, which in the Quadrifoglio version is powered by the Ferrari-derived 2.9 BiTurbo V6 petrol engine of 510 CV and a maximum torque of 600 Nm between 2500 and 5000 rpm, combined with an 8-speed automatic gearbox that allows you to change gear in just 150 milliseconds in Race mode. Giulia Quadrifoglio is able to go from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds and despite not having Launch Control, it compensates for this lack with a low weight (only 1,526 kg). The sedan was also able to set a new record on the famous Nurburgring circuit, with a lap in 7’32”. The Quadrifoglio then also arrived on the SUV produced by Alfa Romeo.
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