Ah, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio! Even though Ferrari is working on the Purosangue, Alfa Romeo already has a luxurious crossover with the beating heart of a Prancing Horse. The twin-turbo V6 derived from the 3.9-liter engine in the California T is the tip of the iceberg, however.
As mentioned in our Giulia Quadrifoglio track test, the person responsible for the development of the Giorgio platform is Philippe Krief. As direttore tecnico at Ferrari, the head of R&D ensured that both the Giulia and Stelvio in Quadrifoglio attire handle like nothing else in their segments.
Alfa Romeo wanted to remind everyone how good the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is, and for this purpose, the compact luxury crossover lapped three of the United Kingdom’s most iconic racing circuits faster than the competition. With Q4 all-wheel drive and in Race driving mode, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio did its utmost best at Silverstone, Donington Park, and Brands Hatch.
The times posted by Alfa Romeo are 2 minutes 31 seconds, 55 seconds, and 1 minute 21 seconds. Considering the Stelvio Quadrifoglio starts at £69,510 on-the-road and no modifications were made to the vehicle for the record-setting laps, these accolades are all the more impressive.
The Stelvio Quadrifoglio also lapped the Nurburgring in 2017 in 7 minutes and 51 seconds, setting a benchmark that Mercedes-AMG surpassed with the GLC 63 S 4Matic in 7 minutes and 49 seconds. “The performance from this family SUV is astonishing,” said David Brise, the man responsible for driving the Alfa Romeo as hard as possible.
Going forward, the Italians will embrace hybridization to such an extent that even the GTV and 8C will leverage on electricity for additional performance. Fret not, however, because internal combustion remains at the forefront of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari alike.
The Prancing Horse announced in 2018 that it’s developing an all-new engine architecture with six cylinders. This would be the first V6 from Ferrari since the 65-degree Dino. The original went out of production in 1974 with the iron-block version developed by Franco Rocchi and Aurelio Lampredi.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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