GRR Garage: Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio – early mornings

Except this time I’m not going to wax lyrical about the boot space, although it remains capacious, or the ability to clear an hour’s worth of country lanes in no time whatsoever allowing more time in the airport lounge before a nine-hour schlep across the Atlantic.

Nope, I’m for once going to talk about the Stelvio when it’s all calmed down. When the last thing you need is all six cylinders howling their way across Surrey. Because it’s 5am, and neither I, nor my neighbours, really want to experience that right now.

The Stelvio Quadrifoglio may always have over 500 horsepower, that will not go away just because you want to be a little more genteel. But what it also has is a light-when-it-needs-to-be and fiendishly quick steering rack. Suspension that, while firm, is controlled and unjarring. And low torque to just get you away from, well, everything.

People at 5am on the roads of Britain could be best described as slightly on the slow side. So the fact that, should you find yourself on the receiving end of some bleary-eyed wanderings, you know for a fact that you’ll be able to pull yourself right out of there without too much fuss, is comforting.

Also comforting is automatic cruise control, automatic wipers, automatic lights, and a pretty effective climate control system (although sadly those polemicised carbon-fibre seats are not heated), which all make the early morning experience all the easier.

In fact, although the Stelvio is less than pleasant to drive at speeds under five mph, so parking at the end is an adventure, an early morning rush across to an airport is actually rather relaxing if you want it to be. At the end of it you almost don’t want the journey to end. 

Another whip around the block at Gatwick anyone?

MPG this week: 21.6