TEST Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio versus Jaguar F-Pace SVR
64 SEPTEMBER 2019 leisurewheels.co.za
ALFA ROMEO
QUADRIFOGLIO
Famed brand Alfa Romeo was born
109 years ago in Milan, Italy. Like
many other fledgling European car
companies of the time, the brand
used motorsport to build its
reputation and, ultimately, sell cars.
Alfa Romeos competed successfully
in Grand Prix, Formula One, sports
car racing, touring car races and
rallies. In 1950, the first Formula
One championship was won by
Giuseppe Farina, in the famous Alfa
Romeo 158 Alfetta.
The brand has had a long
association with another legendary
Italian brand, too, when a man called
Enzo Ferrari ran the Alfa Romeo
factory team before the Second
World War, until 1933. Enzo then
established his own Scuderia Ferrari
Grand Prix team but it didn’t go as
planned and by 1937, Ferrari
returned to the factory-backed Alfa
Corse team.
By 1940, Ferrari was back running
his own motorsport parts factory, but
the war and the subsequent bombing
of his factory saw Ferrari relocate to
Maranello. After the war, Enzo
decided to start building his own cars
and the rest, as they say, is history.(and bakkies), so Alfa clearly had to
get with the programme and create a
suitable contender to compete in the
booming compact SUV segment.
First, Alfa’s engineers created the
all-new Giulia sedan, the first Alfa
sedan in recent decades that could
compete (and realistically beat) its
German rivals.
Next, it the created the Stelvio
SUV, named after the Stelvio Pass
that links Italy and Switzerland
through 48 hairpin corners, said to
be one of the most beautiful
mountain passes in the world. This
SUV has now turned into the
proverbial tip of the spear of the
resurrection of Alfa Romeo.
The Stelvio’s beautiful body was
attached the Giulia’s underpinnings,
ensuring it had the dynamic prowess
required to do battle with (and stand
a chance to beat) the rest of the
compact SUV gang. Since 2018,
the Stelvio has become Alfa Romeo’s
top seller. In Europe it sells double
the number of Stelvios compared to
the Giulia.
The Stelvio 2.0T Super Q4 has been
on sale in South Africa for some
years. It is powered by Alfa’s two-litre
turbocharged engine that produces
206kW and 400Nm of torque, whichRight:
Attached to
the Giulia’s
underpinnings,
the Stelvio has
the prowess
to do battle
with the rest of
the SUV gang.
Opposite
page, bottom:
The interior
of the Alfa
is slightly
spartan
compared to
the Jaguar,
but it remains
well appointed
and the layout
of the controls
intuitive.
While the famous Ferrari brand has
survived some of its own troubled
waters through the years, it’s had a
relatively easy time of it compared to
Alfa Romeo.
Following years of turmoil, quality
issues and flagging sales, Alfa Romeo
was left in the doldrums until Italian
motoring giant Fiat stepped up to the
plate in 1986 and took over the brand
from the Italian government. This,
after Fiat had also acquired 50% in
Ferrari in 1969, and upped its shares
to 90% in 1988.
Despite Fiat’s best intentions, and
despite various motorsport successes,
the Alfa Romeo brand continued to
decline. The cars were okay but not
great. Much-hyped new technologies
like the brand’s Selespeed robotised
manual gearbox in the 156 sedan
looked great on paper but was dismal
in the real world, and further served
to erode the revered brand’s
reputation. Alfa’s sales continued to
slump to a low in 2015 with fewer
than 60 000 cars sold.
Finally, with the writing on the wall
for the famous brand, Fiat’s late chief
Sergio Marchionne set the wheels in
motion of a major turnaround for the
company, throwing some big money
behind the development of a new
generation of cars.
As we’ve stated before, the
motoring world is increasingly
leaning towards crossovers and SUVs