Badge engineering

Ladies and gentlemen, please prepare your tomatoguns, as this post may cause someone's physical pain just below the back. One of the most crucial retrofit every Alfisti should consider, after purchasing Alfa Romeo, is swapping the colored badges to black ones. I assure you, this simple upgrade adds extra 10 hp per badge to every Alfa Romeo. This is the same kind of ritual as every Honda owner does.

Of course I'm joking, but to be honest, I prefer black badges over the colored ones. I did this on my previous Giulia, I want to do the same on the new one. Originally they come from Giulia GTA/GTAm, unfortunately these trims are not available in the USA. Probably that's why if you try to find these numbers in the US, you won't find anything. The OEM part numbers of these badges are:

• Front badge: 50568187 or 68550422AA
• Back badge: 50568188 or 68550423AA

But we all know where to get the parts that are not available here in the US, when we need them, right? Just look for a better price.

Both badges are simply attached with double sided tape. So, to remove the colored ones I bought steel wire from Home Depot to cut this tape on the badges back. The rear badge came off easily, for the front one I had to use plastic tools to push the wire behind the badge and cut the double sided tape gently.

Afterward, I cleaned everything with acetone and installed the new badges. Each badge comes with guides on the back, ensuring perfect centering. Now I like how black and chrome on the emblems correspond to chrome grill and the rear "Giulia" badge.

Now, get ready your tomatoguns, we'll be touching the "holy grail" of every Alfa Romeo owner - the "heritage". I'm familiar with the story behind the cloverleaf symbol and understand that only Quadrifoglio trims deserve wearing this badge. I also aware that Giulia Quadrifoglio has different fenders with the specific spots designated to these badges. And of course I know the price of the OEM cloverleaves.

But I don't care of all this, as these badges made their journey from China to Ukraine, then to the USA. These cloverleaves should have been on that black Giulia. That Giulia had a "Super" badge on its fenders and these cloverleaves should have been on top of that badge, so it could be read as "Super QV".

Before owning that black Giulia, we had a 2016 Ford Focus with weak 1.6 engine and 6 speed manual transmission. But I put a ton of money into that Focus to turn it to "Almost RS". I had similar plans on that Giulia, purchasing QV rear bumper, QV side skirts, etc. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and...

So I put these badges on this Giulia in memory of that black Giulia One. This is kind of mark for me that despite everything I'm owning Giulia again and my Giulia truly deserves wearing these badges. Thank you, black beauty, you've saved my family...

After, almost 4 years, the badges still look perfect. And I like how they appear on the red Brilliant. Thanks everyone for reading this. Stay safe and love your cars! One day they might save your life.

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