The car is smooth and luxurious at high speeds, but most importantly it corners like a sports car. This is down to the superb chassis, designed by Philippe Krief, and the electronic stability control which maintains just the right independent wheel speed, active suspension and braking. Alfa Chassis Domain Control oversees all of this in realtime, so that a jacked up two/ four wheel drive car feels like a low ride sportster, even in the corners. No roll, just cornering excellence.
Another point to mention is the car sits up pretty high over the wheels, so it performs superbly off road as it does on road. Not sure a lot of people will be using it for that but it's worth keeping in mind as a worthy contender for the Paris Dakar. It would keep up with the supercars, and leave them standing when it came to some of the trickier parts of the route, plus the comfort…and space.
Right, let’s address the giant pachyderm in the room. Yes, Race mode, why the hell does an SUV have what is effectively a track mode... ridiculous. Yet every time I drive this Quadrifoglio it taunts me with its unbelievable performance. So good that
I’m itching to throw it around a track, more than any other car, just to see what a sports tank like this will do. Nürburgring anyone? It would be exhilarating, plus you would actually see those corners coming from up on high, so have more time to adjust your line.
The Stelvio Quadrifoglio is already a Nürburgring champion with a time of 7.51.7 minutes, beating cars such as the Lamborghini Gallardo (2004), BMW M4 (2015) and the Porsche 911 GT3 (2003). Seriously that’s amazing.
This is a high performance supercar masquerading as a family SUV and as pleasurable as an Aston Martin to drive. As Vinnie Jones might put it, Alfa's are emotional, they bring more excitement to driving than any other brand. This passion is reflected in Alfa Romeo's approach. “La Meccanica delle Emozioni”, indeed. Also it never felt oversized on the outside, whilst being large and spacious on the inside. I guess it’s the Italian response to Doctor Who’s Tardis. Read the next line in an Italian accent: “Yes, but we make it really, really fast and look magnificent, yes, not like a postbox!”
Starting from £69,510, this model had £15,740 of extra options bringing it to £85,240.
www.alfaromeo.co.uk/models/ quadrifoglio/stelvio-quadrifoglio
Yves de Contades
surreymagazineonline.co.uk 55
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