What's the news?
Be still our throbbing cheque books because Alfa Romeo has launched the Stelvio Quadrifoglio on the Irish market. The Quadrifoglio version gets the same 510hp twin-turbo V6 engine that you'll find in the Giulia Quadrifoglio saloon, which means that (thanks to a little Maranello help that Alfa gets in making this engine) this is the only Ferrari-powered SUV officially on sale in Ireland. Yes, we know that the Maserati Levante also uses a Ferrari-built engine, but that's not officially on sale here...
Unlike the rear-drive only Giulia saloon, the Stelgio Quadrifoglio gets Alfa's Q4 four-wheel drive system as standard, which sends 100 per cent of the engine's power to the rear wheels most of the time, shunting up to 50 per cent to the front wheels as and when it's needed.
It also gets the Chassis Domain Control unit, which is basically a computer brain taking in info from the four-wheel drive system, from the DNA sports-normal-comfort setup, from the stability control, the torque vectoring system, and the adaptive suspension dampers, which then helps you to point and squirt the Stelvio more accurately.
That magnificent engine has 600Nm of torque to go with its 510hp of power, and it can catapult the Stelvio from rest to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds, and on to a top speed of 283km/h.
The eight-speed automatic gearbox gets a more aggressive shift pattern in 'Race' mode which means it can swap cogs in just 150 milliseconds, and all of that has helped the Stelvio to a Nurburgring lap record time, for SUVs, of 7 minutes 51.7 seconds.
Standard spec includes 20-inch Quadrifoglio alloy wheels with specifically profiled wheel arches, restyled rear diffuser, sports exhaust with four outlets and bi-xenon headlamps with LED DRL. Inside, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio comes as standard with a leather dashboard and door tops, leather and Alcantara seats, leather steering wheel, carbon fibre trim and stainless steel pedals. The centre of the dashboard is dominated by the 8.8-inch Alfa Connect infotainment system, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Safety specification includes advanced Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Blind Spot Monitoring (DSM), Integrated Braking System (IBS), Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and a rear-view camera with guide lines.
The price? €118,795 which sounds a bit steep, until you remember that Porsche asks more for the (less powerful) Macan S Turbo Performance Pack. Can we call the Alfa a bargain? Please?