Alfa Romeo is intent on establishing themselves as a modern performance-orientated luxury superpower – the complete package. But you don’t take down automotive giants without setting a few records in the process. Alfa has already notched up a Nurburgring lap record with the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, but its SUV sibling, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio has gotten in on the party – lapping the Nurburgring Nordschleife quicker than a BMW M4…
The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, complete with a 375kW, 600Nm 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 and Q4 all-wheel drive, lapped the Nordschleife in a time of 7 minutes, 51.7 seconds, 0.3 seconds quicker than the BMW M4 and quick enough to make it the fastest production SUV to lap the famous 20.8km Northern Loop. The new lap record is a full 8 seconds quicker than the previous SUV lap record held by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S.
The record was set by Fabio Francia, an Alfa Romeo factory driver and the same man responsible for the record set in the Giulia Quadrifoglio. However, unlike the lap record set in the Giulia, this time Francia was wearing a full race suit with helmet, and the Stelvio was equipped with a roll-cage. This once again calls into question the validity of Nurburgring lap times and the claims that vehicles are ‘production spec’.
