{"id":21993,"date":"2018-03-15T19:34:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T23:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=21993"},"modified":"2018-03-15T19:34:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T23:34:35","slug":"payne-alfa-quadrifoglio-is-family-track-ute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/payne-alfa-quadrifoglio-is-family-track-ute","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Alfa Quadrifoglio is family track ute"},"content":{"rendered":"

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orget soccer moms. The 505-horsepower five-door Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio SUV is designed for track moms.<\/p>\n

The muscular all-wheel drive Italian SUV whupped Germany\u2019s legendary N\u00fcrburgring race track with a lap time of just under 7 minutes and 52 seconds, burying the previous SUV record held by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S by eight seconds (not to mention the 2006 Ford GT and 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo). Indeed, the super-ute was just 20 seconds slower than its sister sedan, the 505-horse Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio over the 13-mile lap.<\/p>\n

My laps in the twin-turbo V-6 Stelvio Quadrifoglio around the 20-turn, 3.4-mile Circuit of the Americas\u2019 Formula One track in Texas were, in turn, about 20 seconds slower than my lap times in a 150-horse Lola SCCA club-sports racer. Which in turn is about 20 seconds slower than a modern, 525-horsepower IMSA Corvette, and …<\/p>\n

Payne, have you gone mad?\u00a0<\/em>What are you doing comparing an SUV to race cars? Or to the Giulia, the best-handling sports sedan on the planet? Or for that matter, what are you doing on a race track at all with a sport utility vehicle?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, the world has turned upside-down.<\/p>\n

Track tests used to be for Porsche sports cars and BMW M3 sports sedans to show their bandwidth as weekday commuters and weekend track-letes. But in ute-crazy America, such niche performance brands \u2014 which once sold mere thousands \u2014 have figured out how to sell tens of thousands by transferring their performance DNA to Frankenstein SUV-monsters like the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5 M.<\/p>\n

I am convinced that no human being will ever take these tall SUVs out to do track laps. Yet their very existence depends on convincing customers that they share the same personality as the sports cars that made their brands household names.<\/p>\n

Mom and Dad can\u2019t justify a two-seat Alfa Romeo \u2014 where would they put the kids? \u2014 but they can buy an Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV, anchor two child seats in back and still arrive at the country club social with that legendary Trilobo grille up front. The Quadrifoglio is the steroid-fed version of Alfa\u2019s ute which begins as the best handling, most powerful entry in the premium compact class.<\/p>\n

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Thus, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio\u2019s SUV lap record around the legendary Nurburgring, which followed siblings Alfa 4C and Giulia Quadrifoglio who set the fastest lap for, respectively, an under-250-horsepower car and a sedan.<\/p>\n

Stelvio\u2019s lap eclipsed the record set by Porsche\u2019s Cayenne Frankenstein. Call it Frankenstein Jr.<\/p>\n

The 570-horsepower Cayenne Turbo S and 707-horse Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk may have insane power but they are mid-size SUVs weighing 5,000 pounds. They are a serious handful in turns even as their power induces giddy goosebumps on exit. Barreling\u00a0down Club Motorsports\u2019 main straight<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 set in Maine\u2019s White Mountains \u2014 into Turn 1 at 125 mph in a Jeep Trackhawk last fall, a voice in my head kept nagging:<\/p>\n

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The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio is the Italian automaker’s third performance car in the U.S. market, following the 4C sports car and Giulia Quadrifoglio. All three have set lap records in their class at Germany’s Nurburgring.\u00a0\u00a0Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/span><\/div>\n
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