A Shockingly Fast SUV: The 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio
With a Ferrari-esque 505-hp engine, carbon fiber drive shaft and multi-mode dynamic software—including Race mode—the new Stelvio Quadrifoglio represents a new breed of SUV. Dan Neil takes one on the track in Austin
I WAS AN IMAGINATIVE child but never dreamed there would ever be such a beast as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio—and I was locked in my room a lot.
This hot-rodded version of the brand’s urbane Stelvio SUV comes fully loaded with hyphens: a Ferrari-derived, 505-hp twin-turbo V6, blink-quick eight-speed transmission, carbon-fiber drive shaft, torque-vectoring all-wheel drive, four-mode vehicle-control software, dedicated-design Pirelli tires and available carbon-ceramic brakes. The Quadrifoglio also goes through intense lightweighting, with aluminum front and rear subframes and suspension components, and aluminum hood, doors, and roof.
The result is shockingly quick and troublingly fast: 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds—like a supple leather kidney punch—and a top speed of 176 mph. In September Alfa set a Nürburgring record for production SUVs (7:51.7 seconds), topping the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S by eight seconds. That’s putting the “oof” in Zuffenhausen.
Alfa Romeo is of course the historic Italian sports and racing marque, the lyric forge that produced the 8C 2900, the Tipo 33 Stradale and Dustin Hoffman’s 1600 Spider Duetto in “The Graduate.” Along the way they also made a mountain of crappy cars. In those days the company motto was Que sera, sera.
Now owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles , Alfa Romeo’s IP includes the Quadrifoglio badge, the four-leaf clover in the white triangle denoting high-performance models. This lucky charm was first painted on the race cars in 1921 by driver Ugo Sivocci, who was killed soon after. So much for metaphysics.
Fresh from a $6.25 billion reboot, Alfa returned to the United States in force with the 2017 Giulia sedan, the first of a family of new vehicles built on the Giorgio architecture (front-longitudinal engine, rear or all-wheel drive, majority-steel unit-body). The Quadrifoglio sedan notched its own Nürburgring record (7:32) and earned fawning reviews, including mine, but received merely polite applause sales-wise.
2018 ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QUADRIFOGLIO
Base Price: $79,995
Price, as Tested: $92,290
Powertrain: twin-turbocharged and intercooled, direct-injection 90-degree DOHC 2.9-liter V6 with intake and exhaust cam phasing; eight-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift paddles; rear-biased AWD with rear torque vectoring.
Power/torque: 505 hp at 6,500 rpm/443 lb-ft at 2,500-5,500 rpm
Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase: 185.1/77.0/66.3/111.0 inches
Curb Weight: 4,360 pounds
0-60 mph: 3.6 seconds
Top Speed: 176 mph
EPA Fuel Economy: 17/23/19 mpg, city/highway/combined
Cargo Capacity: 18.5/56.5 cubic feet (second row seats up/folded)
The SUV version, named for a winding pass in the Italian Alps, could outsell its sedan sibling three-to-one. At least Alfa hopes.
As with the Giulia, the Stelvio’s prices start modestly and then take a flying leap into the Chasm of Insanity. The base-model Stelvio AWD, with a 2.0-liter, 280-hp four-cylinder, starts at $41,995. The prices then rise through four trim packages to a maximum additional $4,500. Our anabolically enhanced, leather-gutted Quadrifoglio model costs another $33,500, a jump of 72%, putting it in the same ballpark as heavy-hitters such the Maserati Levante S and Porsche Macan Turbo. Too bad for them.
Alas, the price does not include the $300 million racetrack upon which to fully enjoy it. That is where you would have found me two weeks ago, boogying around the track at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas., in one of three track-prepped cars Alfa offered up for sacrifice.
Behind the fetching scudetto grille lies a 2.9-liter twin-turbo 90-degree V6, generating 443 pound-feet of torque, 505 hp at 6,500 rpm and a howl like a saw mill. Basically it’s ¾ of a Ferrari V8. No surprise, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio presents as very horsepower-forward, with lots of toe-able torque (443 lb-ft between 2,500 and 5,500 rpm) and big-league rpm lashing between breathy automated gearshifts.
From trackside the Stelvio Quadrifoglio isn’t particularly loud (thanks, EU noise regulations!), but the in-cabin soundscape—the baying of the V6, the rattling coast-down, like birdshot ricocheting on a tin roof—practically bursts through the French-stitched seams.
‘This SUV is shockingly quick and troublingly fast: 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds—like a supple leather kidney punch.’
While typically operating in rear-drive mode, the AWD box can flash up to 60% of engine torque to the front wheels, if you manage to break loose the rears. Back in the stern, the torque-vectoring rear differential spools torque left or right across the axle, depending, helping to push the car in the direction the driver asks, no matter how ridiculous.
The sport-tuned suspension is tougher than a starfish sandwich. I took advantage of the SUV’s raised ride height to amputate many of the track’s corners, sending the truck bounding and bouncing over the raised red-white gator strips, where sports cars cannot go. Upon landing, the suspension recomposed itself instantly. The Texas track also has several fast double-apex, constant-radius sections, where the truck undramatically edged up to 1+g of lateral load.
The multi-mode vehicle dynamics software, called DNA Pro, provides Dynamic, Natural, Advanced Efficiency, and—exclusive to the Quadifoglio models—Race mode. You can set the adaptive suspension damping separately, hard and harder. I’m particularly enamored of the Alfa’s fast and reactive steering (12:1 steering ratio) and the thin-rimmed wheel to wield it. Very pointable. No bad manners.
For extra ridiculousness, Alfa equipped the track cars with the optional carbon-ceramic binders ($8,000) and eraser-soft Pirelli P Zero Asimmetrico 2 tires (60 treadwear rating). Seeing as how I was blowing past the recommended braking points, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. But these track-day consumables are a bit deceiving. You could put these brakes and tires on a rickety bed frame and it would be fast for 10 laps.
The wisdom of spending nearly six figures on a hyperbaric sports truck can, of course, be debated. Just ask the spouses of Jeep Trackhawk owners. Never mind the Alfa Romeo part. But in its twisted way, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is an amazing value. From the Ferrari-esque engine to its carbon-fiber drive shaft, it represents a lot of beef on the hoof, stomping over cars costing many thousands more.
Never in my wildest imagination.
