Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio shows it’s a Performance SUV to be taken seriously with RECORD Nurburgring lap

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio – the performance version of Alfa’s new SUV – sets a record-breaking lap time for a production SUV at the Nurburgring.

It’s getting on for a year since the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio became the first version of Alfa’s SUV to be revealed, followed by the rest of the range, to show that Alfa really meant business with their first sporty SUV.

Now, to emphasise just how able the Stelvio Quadrifoglio really is, Alfa has been out playing at the Nurburgring and has managed to break the track record for a production SUV.

The record set by the Stelvio Quadrifoglio was an impressive 7 minutes 51.7 seconds, beating the previous record time – set by a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S – by a mightily impressive eight seconds.

It proves the performance of the 2.9 litre twin-turbo V6 with 503bhp under the Stelvio’s nose isn’t just straight-line grunt, but that the Stelvio really is a proper ALfa sports car on stilts.

The time was helped by the Stelvio Quadrifoglio’s adaptive suspension which kept the Stelvio gripping around the Nurburgring’s less than perfect surface, torque vectoring diff, a relatively low weight and a perfect 50/50 weight distribution.

Despite being the first Stelvio to be revealed, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio won’t actually be available in the UK until 2018, when you’ll be able to spec stuff like carbon fibre racing seats and ceramic brakes.

No prices have yet been announced for the Stelvio Quadrifoglio, but £65k sounds about right.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Nurburgring Record Video