Alfa Romeo’s Quadrifoglio Super Sport Models Pay Tribute To The Company’s Sporting Past

The hot Quadrifoglio versions of the Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio are two of our very favourite performance cars around right now, and given that they’re basically on borrowed time, we’ll take any opportunity we can to celebrate them, even if that’s in the form of special editions that largely amount to a few flashes of carbon fibre and some new badges.

That’s what we’ve got here in the form of the Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglio Super Sport. They’re apparently inspired by Alfa’s first ever victory in the Mille Miglia, the legendary race that was run competitively between 1927 and 1957, taking in 1000 miles of dicey Italian tarmac.

Alfa won 11 of the race’s 24 runnings, more than any other manufacturer, with the first coming in 1928 with the Zagato-bodied 6C 1500 Supersport. It’s not entirely clear what this has to do with the Quadrifoglio Super Sports, but like we say, we’re not going to complain.

The new limited-run cars are mechanically identical to the recently-updated, and still brilliant, standard versions of the Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglio. That means they both get Alfa’s snarling 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 churning out 513bhp. That power’s sent solely to the rear wheels on the Giulia, and via a rear-biased four-wheel drive system on the Stelvio, and both cars have an eight-speed automatic.

Other changes for the facelift that carry over onto the Super Sports are an updated infotainment system and a new digital TFT instrument cluster. Both cars also now have a proper mechanical limited-slip diff, rather than the slightly troublesome electric item from earlier Quadrifoglios.

So what’s special about the Super Sports? Well, lots of carbon fibre, for a start. The surround of the V-shaped scudetto grille and the door mirror caps are both finished in it, and you can spec an unpainted carbon roof on the Giulia. There are splashes of red carbon fibre throughout the interior, too.

The biggest change, though, is (we hope you’re sitting down) the cloverleaf logo that represents the Quadrifoglio performance brand: it’s now on a black background, rather than white. Truly seismic stuff.

275 Giulia Quadrifoglio Super Sports will be built, and the Stelvio will be rarer still, with 175 units planned. While the Quadrifoglios will live on for a little while yet in Europe, they're being dropped imminently in North America, where the Super Sports also serve as run-out specials. They’re available now, with the Giulia starting at £82,815 and the Stelvio £91,835. So, are they an ever so slightly cynical marketing exercise designed to shift a few extra units? Quite possibly. Do we care? Not one bit.