Piloted by Fabio Francia, who also secured the fastest sedan record around the 'Ring for Alfa Romeo with a time of seven minutes and 32 seconds in the Giulia QV last year, the record setting Stelvio QV remained mostly unchanged from the production model bar the fitment of racing seats and a roll cage.
Coming mere days after Porsche bettered the unofficial rear-wheel drive record with a time of six minutes 47.3 seconds using a 911 GT2 RS, making it also the fastest petrol production car to lap the 20.6 km Green Hell behind the electric NextEV Nio EP9 (6 min 45.9 sec), the Stelvio's time not only bettered that of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S by some eight seconds, but also made it quicker than the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S (7 min 52 sec), BMW M4 (7 min 52 sec) and the outgoing BMW M5 (7 min 55 sec).
"We specifically engineered and designed the Stelvio Quadrifoglio to set world-class benchmarks and it did not disappoint with a world-record Nürburgring lap time of 7 minutes and 51.7 seconds. We’re proud to now hold two Nürburgring lap time records with the Giulia Quadrifoglio as the fastest four-door production sedan and the Stelvio Quadrifoglio as the fastest production SUV," Alfa Romeo boss Reid Bigland said in a statement
Final pricing and indeed local availability of the Stelvio is yet to be announced.
IMAGE from autocar.co.uk
