Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Sets New ’Ring Record for SUVs; Alfa/Porsche Grudge Match Heats Up [Video]

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Any automobile hoping to dominate at the drag strip will need sticky tires and a ton of torque. To be tops in top speed requires horsepower and aerodynamics. But to set records at racetracks, especially a circuit as lengthy, twisty, and topographically varied as the 12.9-mile Nordschleife at Germany’s vaunted Nürburgring, any sports car, sedan, or SUV vying for the coveted King of the ’Ring status needs a lot of everything mentioned above, plus powerful and resilient brakes, a transmission that wastes no time, and a chassis with minimal tolerance for body roll. Such a vehicle also requires a telepathic relationship with the driver, allowing him or her to spend every single second pushing the car to its limits without ever exceeding them.

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Alfa Romeo test driver Fabio Francia thus tested the limits of Alfa’s new 505-hp Stelvio Quadrifoglio, cajoling the two-ton-plus performance SUV around all 12.9 miles of the Nordschleife in the span of 7 minutes and 51.7 seconds. In so doing, Alfa has set a new ’Ring record for production SUVs, beating the previous SUV record holder, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, by a remarkable eight seconds. This comes on the heels of Alfa Romeo setting a new ’Ring record among production sedans with the Giulia Quadrifoglio equipped with the same 505-hp twin-turbo V-6 and eight-speed automatic transmission as the Stelvio. That car’s record-setting time of 7:32, also set by the talented Francia, similarly trounced its predecessor with a gain of six seconds. That car, incidentally, was also a Porsche—the new Panamera Turbo, specifically—which itself had snatched its crown off the noggin of the Giulia Quadrifoglio equipped with a manual transmission.

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• Tested: Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

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• Official Photos and Info: 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio

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• Alfa Romeo Stelvio Research: Specs, Photos, and More

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The Nürburgring was a competitive enough space before this grudge match began, but you can bet that when Porsche hits the Green Hell in the 680-hp Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid and the upcoming version of the recently introduced third-generation Cayenne with the same powertrain, these rowdy Alfas will be the targets.

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