The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio becomes the fastest production SUV around the Green Hell. The Italian SUV lapped the north loop Nordschleife in a record time of 7 minutes and 51.7 seconds.
When launched at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show, Alfa Romeo was expecting the Stelvio Quadrifoglio to go around the Nurburgring in about 7:59. But as it turned out, the Alfa’s SUV was a lot quicker. The Stelvio Quadrifoglio joins the ranks of its sibling, the Giulia Quadrifoglio which holds the record for the fastest four-door production car around the German race track. The Stelvio smashed the previous production-SUV record by a full eight seconds held by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S (7:59.74).
The Stelvio’s record run was piloted by Fabio Francia, the same driver who also set the track record for Giulia Quadrifoglio sedan in a time of just 7 minutes and 32 seconds. Powering the Quadrifoglio SUV is a twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 breathing out 500bhp and a whopping 600Nm. All the power is sent to the Q4 all-wheel-drive system via an eight-speed automatic transmission. The gearbox can shift the cog in just 150 milliseconds in the Race mode.
The Stelvio Quadrifoglio achieves the highest horsepower-per-litre in its class. The SUV comes fitted with lightweight carbonfibre Sparco racing seats as standard. Braking responsibilities are taken care by Brembo carbon-ceramic material (CCM) units.