The all new Alfa Romeo Giulia sets new lap record at Silverstone

Alfa Romeo has celebrated the U.K. launch of the Giulia in a rather curious way, taking the Quadrifoglio model to Silverstone to set a 'blindfolded' lap record. To set the lap, two Giulia Quadrifoglios were used. The first had its windows covered in black vinyl while the second one then followed closely behind and instructions were given to the lead driver, Ed Morris, the youngest Briton to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

At the end of two days of practicing, a best time of 1:44.30 was set. While far from an outright lap record, it did match the 1:44 set by F1 driver Nino Farina 65 years ago in the British Grand Prix, which at the time, was a lap record.

Despite the car windows being covered entirely in a black vinyl, the hotly anticipated sports saloon, powered by an all new aluminium 503bhp, 600Nm bi-turbo V6 petrol engine, navigated the seven-turn course and reached speeds of more than 161km/h.

To make this achievement possible required more than just driver determination and memory power, the Alfa Romeo Giulia is packed full of high-performance technologies that allowed the driver to be truly at one with the car. The Alfa Romeo Giulia is equipped with the Alfa Chassis Domain Control system, which is a sector first, distributing the power evenly through the torque vectoring and active suspension systems to ensure maximum drive through the rear wheels.

In addition, and working almost as a sixth sense for the driver, the active safety systems such as forward collision warning, autonomous emergency brake with pedestrian recognition and lane departure warning, allowed the driver to have complete confidence in the task at hand.