Alfa Romeo Stelvio Estate

2.0 Turbo 280 Sprint 5dr AWD Auto

Quadrifoglio literally translates to four-leaf clover from Italian, and anyone driving one of the Alfa Romeo cars carrying such badging is guaranteed one thing - extra pace and plenty of it. The tiny emblem gained fame as a good luck charm on racing driver Ugo Sivocci’s car back in 1963 following a run of bad fortunes, but its connection with Alfa dates back much farther to the early 1920s.

Fast forward more than 100 years and that green badge now represents the high-performance arm of Alfa Romeo, shaped by engineers who have honed their skills in top-tier racing teams. It symbolises the flagship model, just as Mercedes has AMG, BMW has M and Audi has RS.

But these days, the focus is on electric vehicles rather than these powerhouse combustion-engined beauties and that’s why Alfa had initially announced the Stelvio’s days were numbers. However, much to the delight of the iconic brand’s faithful fanbase, the bosses announced at January’s Brussels Motor Show that production of the Stelvio and Giulia would continue until next spring.

The all-wheel drive Stelvio is sold in trims called Sprint, Veloce, Intensa and the mighty Quadrifoglio with prices starting from £52,120 and rising to £96,090.

The standard cars are powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine delivering 280hp, but the Quadrifoglio, as promised, brings lots of added firepower to the mix with a V6 2.9-litre 520hp engine. And it was that car that we put to the test for a week on a mixture of roads to see if it really lives up to all the hype.