Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Q4: an SUV that thrills

Name: Alfa Romeo Stelvio 2018
Brand: Stelvio

Ramiro Mansanet @RamiroMansanet 23 August 2018 8 min.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Q4: an SUV that thrills

Alfa Romeo reinvents itself once again, SUVs included. With this Stelvio Quadrifoglio Q4 and its 510 CV of power, we can only pay tribute to a brand that, when it sets its mind to it, thrills like few others.

The surge in power is exhilarating: it stimulates, it intimidates, and it presents itself as a challenge… Will I be able to drive, or get the most out of, a car that offers more than 500 CV? That is the appeal Alfa Romeo offers us with the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. A sublime SUV, by design, by chassis, by engine and by technology applied in the service of driving pleasure. An SUV that has earned, on its own merits, a place in our Top 10 of the most sporty SUVs on the market.

If we take a legalistic view, it is hard to know what the Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio is really capable of. Unless we set aside the tedious rules and escape from them: on a marvellous German autobahn, the kind where you can give free rein to your dreams and your right foot. Or, without going that far, driving on a race track where there are no speed cameras, helicopters or tripods. An environment that at first glance doesn’t seem the most natural or logical for an SUV.

The most powerful Stelvio is on sale from 104,000 euros with spectacular equipment.

In the end, the circuit is the only setting in which to squeeze out its performance. Only there can we make the most of those 510 overwhelming, almost brutal horsepower. Only there can we fully unleash the imposing 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. A work of art for its balanced shapes and for the technology and the way it transmits its overwhelming force.

An SUV built to shine on the circuit

The Italian brand’s drivers have given ample proof of this. They have enjoyed it like no one else, setting the lap record at the Nürburgring circuit for this type of car at seven minutes and fifty-one seconds. A high-performance SUV, a niche in which the main brands are represented, and a segment where at present no joking is tolerated and a fierce rivalry exists: Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Audi… Without going to the extremes of the abusive use that drivers made of its qualities on the old Nürburgring, the truth is that the Stelvio Quadrifoglio produces a heavenly music. And it is not necessary to reach 6,500 rpm, which is when those 510 CV are achieved.

An engine like this becomes enormous even with its most humble description. Made of aluminium and with cutting-edge technical details, more common in the world of competition than in showrooms. Among them, the use of a dry sump that ensures optimal internal lubrication and allows the engine’s centre of gravity to be lowered, and therefore that of the car, which in an SUV is greatly appreciated simply because of its higher ride height. Everything adds up to containing its greater dynamic “clumsiness”, I insist, on paper and compared with a lower car.

A commanding engine

The V6 incorporates the latest developments, such as the electronic disconnection of one of the cylinder banks to reduce consumption when the driver does not need so much power. Just because there are 510 CV under the bonnet does not mean you have to always go flat out, and it is extremely pleasant to drive it “gently”. And to achieve the nine litres per 100 km average consumption it offers. It is true that it cost us quite a bit, but we managed it. Of course, what truly pleases us is its introduction in terms of performance. Going from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds and reaching 283 km/h is within the reach of very few SUVs.

At the pace the engine and chassis allow, it is also welcome that, to dissipate heat, there are elements as costly yet useful as sodium-filled valves. And even some of the exterior design details that serve to differentiate it from its siblings in the range. These features alert the curious but knowledgeable that this car is no ordinary thing. They also help dissipate some of the enormous heat generated by the engine and brakes, thanks to the vents on the bonnet and the quad exhaust outlet, which is striking for its diameter.

Even more attractive is the design of the spectacular twenty-inch alloy wheels with an exclusive design. They have been drawn with large circular openings, perfect for venting the heat generated by the huge brake discs. If the user wishes, they can be ceramic, which are far more powerful, durable and light, but also considerably more expensive. In any case, recommendable depending on how the car will be used.

8-speed automatic sequential gearbox and Q4 all-wheel drive

These are not just details; they are arguments, and the figures are conclusive. Such as the 510 CV available at 6,500 rpm and, more importantly, the 600 Nm that are fully operative and stable between 2,500 and 5,000 rpm. Put like that it seems simple; on paper it is staggering. And at the wheel… it is the excellence of an engine with an intoxicating sound that admits no objection, because it always gives far more than one expects, at every moment. It is a dream of an engine.

But if the Stelvio Quadrifoglio’s engine is good, what surrounds it is just as good or better. We are referring to the eight-speed automatic gearbox, the same one fitted to the Giulia Quadrifoglio sports saloon, with which this Stelvio shares the entire engine and transmission package. A well-spaced gearbox that tolerates no wheelspin and invites the driver to exploit its power through large paddles to operate the gearbox with absolute ease.

The whole package is excellent, and it becomes sublime in combination with the all-wheel drive. Because unlike the Giulia Quadrifoglio, which is rear-wheel drive, the Stelvio uses the Q4 all-wheel drive system of Alfa Romeo. In this way, under normal conditions the torque is sent only to the rear wheels to preserve the Stelvio’s optimal dynamism, as if it were a genuine rear-wheel-drive car. But depending on the slip produced at these wheels, the system will send up to fifty percent of the torque to the front wheels.

Besides sending this significant proportion of torque, the key lies in the electronics, which can coordinate with millimetre precision the action of the two clutches that distribute torque between the rear axle wheels. These are what achieve optimal agility for an SUV. A Stelvio that also has the added advantage of its weight distribution, close to fifty percent on each axle thanks to the engine sitting behind the front axle.

Its drawback… almost to say something, and let us say only as a reasonable disadvantage, is its weight. Because 1,830 kilos is no small thing, although it has been kept down a lot thanks to the use of aluminium and even carbon fibre in some elements. But pushed to the limit, sliding around a circuit, the car reminds us of its height and bulk on the tarmac.

Driving modes: a la carte driving

There is another “perk”, and there are already quite a few, this one in the electronics section, which is undoubtedly very notable and very pleasant day to day. It is the driving mode selector, the same thing that, for example, in Ferrari is known as the “manettino”, and which in the case of the Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio allows you to choose between four programmes: Efficiency, Natural, Dynamic and Race.

The first is ideal for getting around the city and reducing consumption to the minimum, because it uses the selective cylinder deactivation system. Nobody should look for the 500 CV here; they are there, but they arrive in a different way. The second is the normal mode, the balanced mode for “intelligent” drivers. In this position, in which one cylinder bank can also be disconnected, the Stelvio moves very well.

At the wheel, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio does not feel like an SUV, given its performance range, its agility and how little it rolls.

Then comes the Dynamic mode, and here things get serious. The green and blue of the instrument panel give way to red, and the driver’s pulse quickens. And that happens even though it is not specified in the car’s equipment. There the electronics already put all the power right at the surface. Just brushing the accelerator, the noise changes, becoming challenging, and the gear changes come one after another as if in a competition car. Exhaust detonations arrive, the damping and steering change register, everything firms up, the emotion behind the wheel multiplies… until we switch to RACE mode, race mode.

Here everything is multiplied a hundredfold in sensations and twofold in electronics, now everything is twice as violent. The exhaust sounds as if a dozen GTs had been let loose around us, and everything starts to happen very fast. The stability control electronics soften but remain latent, and you will have to insist to disable them completely. In these conditions we have in our hands a Stelvio Quadrifoglio “raw”, and that is serious stuff: an SUV capable of outperforming on a circuit many cars that boast of being sporty.