Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio | Alps Attack

10 January 2023 Redazione News, Stories, Tested

It’s almost like putting that one coin into the most desired videogame at the mall, almost like resetting your brain and taking advantage of a complete absence of people and cars. I set into Race mode, the Akrapovic exhaust forcefully enters the cockpit and the carousel finally takes life.

ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QUADRIFOGLIO

Words Alessandro Marrone / Photos Bruno Serra

Over time you learn the so-called tricks that can completely change the experience. And if we are talking about the annual Alps Attack rendez-vous, the past editions have taught me that if summer is the ideal occasion to take advantage of my beloved mountain roads, the price to pay is the possibility to find traffic even on the higher peaks. That’s why this year I decided to gamble and wait until the meadows start to turn orange and covered in leaves that have reached the end of their life cycle. Autumn is the season of a thousand colors, but it warns you about unstable weather conditions, fewer hours of sunlight and that icy breeze that above two thousand meters can quickly turn into snow. However, there are factors that manage to align to such an extent that halfway between pure luck and the most maniacal calculations they manage to give life to the ultimate day for putting a car that deserves much more than simply being driven to the test.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio has recently been updated and like its sister Giulia (Quadrifoglio, of course) it has not needed who knows what upheavals. When we have driven the first incarnation of the super-SUV from Arese years ago, we were struck by its innate ability to transfer the emotions of a pure sports car into the body of a 4.7-metre long SUV. Looking at it from the side, the image of a compact sedan literally resting on two pairs of stilts still remains, an almost unnatural position swept away as soon as you approach the first corner, a moment in which every preconception is turned upside down and where the Stelvio Quadrifoglio has amply demonstrated its skills, far more than any other opponent in the same segment.

Let us immediately remove all doubts, the update sees small interventions mainly relegated to the badges and burnished headlight frames, a renewed infotainment system which now also integrates a series of screens useful for keeping the performance nature of the Quadrifoglio under control and some details inside the passenger compartment. The gold-colored paintwork of the car entrusted to us by Alfa Romeo stands out in any situation, but it is the Akrapovic exhaust system – an absolutely must-have option – that radically changes the experience behind the wheel, especially when in Race mode it transforms even the moments most relaxed driving commutes in a napalm bombing of everyday streets. Imagine what kind of adventure my upcoming climb in the Alps is about to be.

The big day has arrived and the sky does not promise anything good. A thick veil of clouds covers our heads, managing to suffocate the sun almost suggesting it would be better to postpone everything and emptying the spacious load compartment of the Stelvio. It is still an SUV and despite its admittedly sporty nature, it is fully capable of carrying out those tasks that you would expect from a five-door five-seater capable of adapting to the week at the office, or to the Sunday mornings shopping. Not even time to think properly and I press the start button located on the steering wheel, just like a Ferrari, the bulky relative who contributes to the magic that takes place under the hood.

Once the 2.9-litre V6 comes to life and I flip the drive mode selector to Dynamic, all arguments about giving up are gone. Off we go, the Alps Attack finally begins. The skill with which we devour kilometers on the motorway is impressive. In fact, the Stelvio manages to show a comfortable side, especially if set to All-Weather, where even a road surface soaked with water and puddles does not worry the tranquility of driving, thus making us pass the city of Cuneo, then pointing to the mountains. The sky seems to give a little respite and at least the rain has stopped wetting the golden body of the car. Another fill up of petrol, one of many, but after all it’s part of the game and given the premises we know that the carousel will soon start to get serious.

We pass the last remote villages that divide us from our first stage and so, after Pontechianale, our climb up the Col Agnel can get underway. It’s almost like putting that one coin into the most desired videogame at the mall, almost like resetting your brain and taking advantage of a complete absence of people and cars. I set into Race mode, the Akrapovic exhaust forcefully enters the cockpit and it almost seems to feel how the suspension stiffens. The steering becomes harder and more precise and each gear change pinched through the enormous aluminum paddles is like a mortar shot that interrupts the stillness of the mountains in just 150 milliseconds. I hadn’t forgotten the speed abilities of the Stelvio, but I didn’t even remember that it was such a pleasure. You’re sitting low, you can perceive how the center of gravity is close to the ground and how the weight balance is magically split 50% between front and rear.

The intelligent Q4 traction is then the icing on the cake and if in normal driving it behaves like a normal rear wheeler, it is what allows the SUV to dispense traction to the front axle just enough to be pulled out of the corners, but at the same time it does so with a significant taste for powersliding. Ours is a frantic, breathless ride to the next bend. The road is narrow, but the only living beings besides us are a few grazing cows and some ibexes seen in the distance. The incredible noise definitely awakens the valley, while with each gear change we are pushed higher and higher and give life to an emotion that is difficult to describe with simple words. These are almost onomatopoeic sensations, hyperbolic shivers that are lost as soon as you turn the hairpin bend and the spectacle of the wildest nature like that of the high mountains in the first days of autumn appears in front of your eyes. There is a wild flavor all around, but at the moment I’m too busy gripping the magnificent steering wheel trying to keep the nose of the Stelvio straight, making sure that the serpent of Arese darts fast towards the summit.

The mechanical ticking replaces the war unleashed by the 510 horsepower of the twin-turbo Quadrifoglio. Just a moment’s respite to let the legs stop shaking, the heart slow down and the brain allow us to realize where we are, given that a thick bank of fog is rising from the French side. There are patches of sleet on the side of the road and the total sense of isolation seems to wink at the fact that I have preferred the Stelvio to the Giulia. The break at the summit of Col Agnel lasts for a few minutes and while Bruno captures the moment, I set the next checkpoint on the navigation system integrated into the central 8.8-inch screen. The air at 2,744 meters is as thin as a razor blade, it penetrates your bones and the strong wind of this stormy day suggests that we hurry off again, hoping above all that the sun will be waiting for us on the next mountain pass.

The reward for such ungrateful weather is the complete absence of traffic. This translates into the possibility of keeping a pace more in tune with the four-leaf clover displayed on the front wheel arches, with the V6 bellowing its 510 horsepower and a torque of 600 Nm that pushes very hard starting from just 2,500 rpm. The performance of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is incredible, I would define it as embarrassing, especially when referring to those traditional supercars which on a road like this would struggle to stay glued to its exhausts. 0-100 kph in 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 283 per hour. Numbers, simple numbers that don’t do justice to the blind violence with which you are tossed from one curve to another, hugged in the sports seats and clinging to a steering wheel that seems capable of communicating with the asphalt thanks to the power of thought. We pass Arvieux and while the first bends of the Col d’Izoard can be glimpsed, we finally welcome a shy sun.

The Quadrifoglio mechanics are superb, as can be seen from the fact that the engine is made entirely of aluminum, from the torque vectoring that acts in symbiosis with the two clutches of the rear differential, or more simply from the feedback that is transmitted from the chassis to the driver’s body. It’s like wearing a rough glove that becomes an integral part of your body within a few hours. You can’t do without it, just as you can’t help but press the throttle to the floor on the straightest stretches of the valley at the foot of the Izoard. The rain is now out of the game and although the ground is not completely dry, the tires manage to bite the asphalt enough to allow us to increase the pace, exploiting the propensity to widen the rear through the corners with greater visibility.

After a few minutes we reach the 2,360m summit of the Izoard. Once again there is not a living soul, but unfortunately the renovation works of the rest area prevent us from stopping next to the monument for the usual photo. The truth is that I don’t care, because despite the ancestral majesty of the Casse Deserte and the absurd shape of the rocks that embrace the winding asphalt snake of this mountain pass, this time my eyes always turn towards the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Then, at a certain point, the shadow peeps over the east ridge and the sun’s rays are once again extinguished. The rain falls, initially light and within a few minutes almost torrential.

Common sense requires you to find shelter on board and after deliberately forgetting traction control, a handful of hairpin bends suggest that it is better to select the most suitable mode for these terrible weather conditions and set off again heading south. Taking advantage of the torrential rain and listening to the groans of our stomachs, we stop in a picnic area, find shelter under a canopy and have lunch waiting for an improvement. The last mini-croissant sanctions the green light for the restart and in the meantime the heavy rain has decreased in intensity, however entailing the obligation to pay close attention to a soaked asphalt even more than it was in the early hours of the morning. Another detour, after having argued for a few minutes with the satellite navigator and we return to the Izoard, just because we haven’t devoured enough hairpin bends so far.

The fog limits visibility and the digestive phase requires a slightly more relaxed pace than before. The kilometers go by fast, in the same way that the petrol indicator goes down, especially when you go hard on the gas pedal. A few photo stops later we reach Vars, a still dormant tourist resort awaiting the imminent winter season which will see it open its gates to winter sports enthusiasts from all over Europe. The beauty of the mountain is that just as the weather can get worse at any moment, it can also get better. And in fact, as we are preparing to climb towards the Col de Vars, the sun comes out. Its rays almost completely dry the ground and allow us to declare war on the kilometers that divide us from the next stage, located at 2,108 metres.

The Col de Vars won’t be as scenic as the two mountain passes we have just passed, but it’s an incredible succession of fast corners, wide straights and with an almost perfect road surface. I was finally able to use up the power reserve of the Stelvio, exploiting every centimeter of throttle travel and letting the gears of the 8-speed automatic fire one after the other. The behavior becomes nervous, but remains incredibly precise. The front end is inserted right where you had in mind and counter-steerings are controlled with your fingertips, just before you fiddle with the paddles and let the Akrapovic behind to sing a V6 caliber symphony. The ticket price (starting from at least €106,000) is perfectly justified, even if it increases considerably ticking the indispensable exhaust system here, the carbon-ceramic brakes and perhaps the seats with visible carbon shells from the list of options. After all, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is not only one of those cars that can act as an SUV and a sports car, but it is undoubtedly one of those that is able to do it best. Also because this isn’t an SUV, it’s a supercar.

The climb to the top of the Col de Vars brought out the true essence of the Quadrifoglio, made up not only of fun and eye-popping performance, but of superfine dynamics that, at least on paper, should be extraneous to the world of SUV, like that of sedans. It is something on its own, a car that seems to have come here from another planet to take our breath away and dust off that long-forgotten “cuore sportivo” on the trophy shelf. Fuel consumption at these speeds is embarrassing, but it’s part of the game and other than that I don’t think I’ve found any faults.

There are still a few dozen kilometers from here to our chalet, there is still time to fully experience an adventure that consecrates this car as one of the best of the last twenty years and probably also of the next thirty. No, I don’t exaggerate, I don’t get carried away by enthusiasm. Because days before and days after, on the less enthralling journey from home to the office, I felt the same devotion to this Quadrifoglio. A sense of completeness that if ever translated into the body of a coupe would give any supercar endless nightmares. A tumult in the middle of the chest leaving breathless.