STELVIO QUADRIFOGLIO By Maarten Hoffmann
A
s the mantra goes “If you have never owned an Alfa Romeo, you are not really a petrol
head”. Silly mantra really as they used to be stylish Italian models that were totally rubbish, broke down on a daily basis and rusted in front of your eyes. The regular joke was “Why do Alfas have heated rear windows? To keep your hands warm whilst pushing it”. I have to admit to owning a GTV back in the day and when it went, it was great - it just didn’t ‘go’ very often - but l had very toasty hands!
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So that was the 70’s and 80’s but it is a very different proposition today. The Fiat Chrysler Group purchased the brand in 1986, along with Lancia, and things started to change. Having been founded in 1909 by Alexandre Darracq, the company struggled for many years but following the acquisition, reliability greatly improved and they retained a fair portion of the Italian style that made Alfa what it was. The Stelvio, the first SUV ever produced with that famous badge, is named after one of the best driving
roads in Europe - the Stelvio Pass in Italy. It is a very competent car but with so much competition in this sector, it took the adding of the Quadrifoglio badge to set it apart. Quadrifoglio means four-leaf clover and has adorned many of the company’s historic racing cars over the years. It aligns with Audi’s RS, Mercedes AMG and Jaguars SVR as the hot version of the standard car - and hot it certainly is. Porsche have dominated the small SUV sector for a while with the Macan
