Well, this is unexpected. I’ve just been flung around the Nürburgring Nordschleife at great speed in a new Alfa 159, dodging between that peculiar breed of German track-day special that only the ‘Ring spawns and wondering if I’ll ever remember where any of it goes, and now it’s my turn. And the test driver has just walked away, leaving me and a rather valuable 159 containing a certain amount of test gear. Trusting, or what?

It’s one thing to be let loose, alone, on such a sinuous, hazardous circuit in an important new car on whose test programme the finer honing of production versions may depend. But it’s quite another to tick those foregoing boxes and to mix it with nitrous-fuelled BMW M3s and Audi A3s with unfeasibly wide wheels and all varieties of well-thrashed, but not always well-driven, Porsche 911. Still, here goes. And now it’s raining.

This 159 is the top of the new range, a 3.2-litre V6 with standard-fit four-wheel drive. Its torque split is nominally 43% front, 57% rear, but up to 80% can head rearwards via the Torsen-C centre differential should conditions and cornering forces demand it. There was a lot of rearward torque diversion on the test driver’s hot lap. I was sitting in the back – it’s notably roomier than the 156’s rear cabin, by the way – and I could feel how far the Alfa was angled to the direction of travel as the cornering speed climbed.

But I’m still mindful of the 156 GTA, and its necessarily compromised grip/steering/ride combination, as I unleash the 260bhp on offer from the 159 Q4’s 260bhp, GM-based but Alfa-tailored engine. That’s 10bhp more than the GTA, but there are no histrionics at all. Every last twitch of those horses’ muscles is transferred faithfully to the ‘Ring’s graffiti-covered track surface; no pull, no tug, no scrabbling. It’s a perfect flow, channelled just where it needs to be.

The engine is pulling heartily, way up in the higher registers even though it’s strong on low-speed pull. That said, the 237lb ft torque peak is numerically lower than the bhp figure, always an indicator of an essentially revvy engine and a simple comparator lost when people divert into Newton-metres and kilowatts. Glad I’ve got that off my chest. The sound is authentic V6 Alfa, helped by the unique, direct-injection Alfa heads with their variable inlet and exhaust timing. All seems to be true to the brand, no expense has been spared. This time, Alfa Romeo really is going head-to-head with the Germans, and we’re even proving it on German soil. And then, three-quarters of the way round between the Karussell and the smaller version of the same half-banked corner, the rev-limit appears suddenly to have dropped. I change up and there’s nothing. Never overlook the obvious: the Alfa has run out of petrol. I dive for the bank to keep out of the way of wayward 911s, and await rescue. Very embarrassing. But never mind; I’ve learnt a lot about the 159, and such a version would make a fine base for a WTCC car if only the rules allowed this many litres and that many driven wheels. Right now, though, it’s back to Alfa’s Nürburgring garage – 159 dynamics guru Carlo Fugazza and his team have been here for the past two years – and out on the road in some different 159s.

It’s significant that Alfa has developed the 159 at the ‘Ring. The track itself is a kind of ultimate test, and a quick lap time relative to rivals is a point of honour, but equally significant are the public roads nearby which have dips, lumps, bumps and broken surfaces much like those in the UK. It’s a sad indictment of our underfunded, under-maintained road network that carmakers now consider the UK a special case and have to make sure suspension systems can cope here, and it’s also true that the 156 was a car which didn’t cope very well. I went on an early 156 drive in Italy, before the main launch, and all seemed fine. We now know that British roads changed all that.

So the 159 has a much stiffer structure, stiffer even than that of the new BMW 3-series, and its suspension has both more anti-dive and more travel. There are no carry-over parts at all, and even the platform is all-new – the so-called Premium platform that was to have been a joint venture with estranged partner General Motors but which is now unique to the Alfa-Maserati axis (159, Brera and probably the Kubang SUV). The rear suspension is what people lazily refer to as a multi-link arrangement (geometrically a kind of double wishbone with an extra toe-control link), while the front bears the same double-wishbone tag as before but is quite different in design. The upper wishbones, for example, are no longer steeply angled back but have conventional pivots parallel with the Alfa’s longitudinal axis.

I’m back in the garage and trying to decide if I like the way the 159 looks. It has presence, definitely; it’s bigger than the 156 (the wheelbase has grown from 2595mm to 2700), and it looks sturdier, sharper, tougher if less achingly beautiful than the 156 as first perceived.
 

It looks, in fact, more German: “The 159 should fit into a population of Volkswagens and Mercedes-Benzes,” Alfa CEO Karl-Heinz Kalbfell had declared earlier in the day, “and it should have that seriousness.”

But equally he acknowledges that people like the idea of an Alfa precisely because it isn’t German, because it has a kind of flair and vivacity and a Latin appeal to the sensual side of our nature. If Kalbfell, the ex-BMW, ex-Rolls-Royce German famously in touch with the Italian way of thinking (but able to bring German rigour to the thought) was to decide that an Alfa should simply be a BMW copy, then he might as well give up. Thankfully he knows that would be pointless.

He also knows that the UK dealer network is in need of a major attitude transplant, to make customers feel valued and want to buy another Alfa. Moves are urgently afoot to achieve this – he wouldn’t reveal what they are, exactly – and the job should be done in time for the 159’s UK arrival. Otherwise it would be doomed. The dealers had the 156 (one of the more significant in a long line of ‘cars to save Alfa’) and blew it, and it’s not going to be allowed to happen again.

Whatever, there’s no doubt at all that the 159 looks a convincing Alfa. Inside, too, there’s a 156-derived theme although chunkier and more tactile. Some of these early cars, though, have a light-coloured dashboard top as often favoured in the US, a market the 159 will one day enter. Alfas, to my knowledge, have never had this before and they shouldn’t now. It looks cheap and the reflections in sunlight are terrible. Don’t worry, though; conventional black is normal fare, with black elsewhere or light colours to choice. An interior all-black except for dark red leather seats looks especially good.

Other interior niceties include a starter button, keyless entry and particularly comfortable front seats with an excellent driving position. Not so clever is the handbrake, to the right side of the centre tunnel which means the driver, in these left-hand drive cars, is forever stroking the front passenger’s leg. In UK cars the driver will not be so touchy-feely but the angle of attack on the handbrake will be awkward.

And so to the roads, initially in a 2.2-litre JTS whose 185bhp engine, like the 160bhp 1.9, is again a GM-derived but Alfa-specific unit with variable inlet and exhaust-cam timing. I’m pleased to report that it sounds almost exactly like a 2.0 Twin Spark, with a similar edge to the induction and exhaust note, but it pulls rather better from low speeds. It also copes better than its predecessor with a road’s lumps and dips, with less of the engine shake (a trace remains) and a taut but absorbent ride. Even Kalbfell himself remarked on the 159’s comfort on this test route.

The steering is very quick – like a 156’s – and a little too light, but the response is more progressive and the whole car feels calmer and more composed. It’s still highly agile, though, pointing keenly into corners and letting you alter the line with the throttle once in them. No need for a sport suspension option here, and none is offered.

I then tried the tuneful 2.4 JTD, heavier in the nose, calmer in the ride. It needs bigger steering movements to counteract the greater understeer – four-wheel drive is optional – but the weighting is more credible and the engine’s 200bhp and 295lb ft of torque give terrific overtaking thrust. The six-speed gearbox (standard in all 159s, including the petrol and diesel 1.9s I didn’t sample) makes sure there’s always a gear to make the most of it.

Finally, it was time to meet the V6 Q4 again in real-road circumstances. Six-pot 156s were always the compromised handlers, heavier and clumsier and lacking the four-cylinder cars’ lightness of touch. Not so the 159 Q4, thanks of course to the four-wheel drive. It feels poised and planted on the road, fluid through the corners, accurately responsive to all commands. It’s smooth, sonically delicious without being loud, and it rides excellently. It’s the pick of the range without a doubt, which isn’t always true of a range’s grandest model.

Meet, in fact, the best Alfa Romeo saloon there has ever been. They’ve cracked it, no more excuses. This time BMW should be seriously worried.

Technical Specifications: Engine: 3195cc V6-cylinder 24v dohc, variable valve timing, direct injection; Power: 260bhp @ 6200rpm; Torque: 237lb ft @ 4500rpm; Transmission: Six-speed manual, four-wheel drive; Brakes: 330mm ventilated discs (front) 229mm ventilated discs (rear), ABS and EBD; Suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar (front) Transverse links with toe control, coil springs, anti-roll bar (rear); Tyres: 225/50 R17; Dimensions: 4660mm (L), 1828mm (W), 1417mm (H), 2700mm (wheelbase); Kerb weight: 1740kg; Fuel consumption: 24.6mpg (combined); Top speed: 149mph; 0-62mph: 7.0sec; Price: TBA; Available: December 2005

Test by John Simister / Photos enhanced by Carrstudio