A day Touring in the Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce Hybrid

My earliest memories are of Italian movies starring Lancias, Fiats, and of course, the evergreen Alfa Romeos. Alfa Montreal is one of the most beautiful cars ever made, and today I repeated a drive I once made in a Montreal, this time in the beautiful Montreal Green Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce.

Gay men love a badge, and nothing evokes a halcyon era more than Alfa Romeo, but the brand has a chequered history. It has merged, de-merged, remerged, and been taken over. In this big game of musical chairs, Alfa Romeo landed in Stellantis’ lap.

Stellantis has big manly brands like Jeep and RAM, as well cutsie-pie names like Citroën, Peugeot and DS. Some, like Lancia, all but defunct, are pale shadows of their former glory. Alfa Romeo and Maserati still shine like beacons of Italian mastery, and favourites in gays circles.

Don’t be fooled though, Alfa has had some stinkers like the thoroughly miserable Mito. That short-lived travesty limped on for far longer than it deserved. By contrast, the delectable Tonale will have a long life of pleasure and fun. It comes in 3 models, the FWD Ti and Veloce mild hybrids, and an AWD Veloce PHEV. The latter is able to spend time in pure EV modes, so it is hard to believe that our Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce is an entry level Alfa SUV.

First impressions of the Montreal Green Tonale were favourable. Alfa Romeo is going green and all future models will be electrified, either in part or in full. To assess the new Alfa, I assembled the Gay Mafia, 11 Gay Car Boys who continue to cast a critical eye over all cars presented to them.

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ABOVE: 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale, Classic Citroen Pallas, Classic Range Rover ( Max’s dream LUNAZ Range Rover shown)

The Drive:

We set off in the Tonale Veloce flanked by support cars; an old Range Rover Vogue in pristine condition, and a 1973 Citroën DS Pallas. Think of the vintage transport as the sorbet palate cleanser between doses of Italian gorgeousness.

If it highlighted one thing, it was that the cutting edge Tonale Veloce is a car of its time.

We powered through the hills around Picton, then criss-crossed some beautiful bends heading toward the coast. We descended the escarpment, where at the bottom, we can turn left to the “Nasho”, or right to Wollongong. We turned left into curvaceous Royal National Park, part of the imperiously-named Grand Pacific Drive.

Deep amidst the coastal beauty, you might expect the gap in power figures to have shown an ugly face, but not a bit of it. 85kw for the DS, 116kw in the V8 Range Rover, and 118kw Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce Hybrid, demonstrated nothing more than a natural automotive drift through 5 decades of oily development.

Our route is often part of new model launches, and as it is close to Sydney, is also a brilliant day out for locals. There are beaches and bush walks, and oodles of BBQ spots perched high above the Pacific coast.

The two oldies where really only there to stretch their legs, as they get out rarely, and can be cantankerous. On the other hand, the Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce ran like a Swiss watch, each corner dispatched with Samurai-like precision. To our surprise the DS kept up, but the Rangie wallowed like a pig in a poke, giving all and sundry a giggle that will last to next christmas.

To mark the end of the trip, we gathered at The Tudor Hotel in the heart of Redfern, and you can check their MENU here.

Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce’s hybrid system is barely detectable, but the 7-speed DCT certainly was. Under duress it was a pearler, but in town with drive mode set to normal, it was ponderous and dim-witted. Tonale may not be perfect, but all who drove it loved it for all its quirks.

The full review will come, but a day out was worth a few quick words.

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