#AlfaRomeo

Following up on my previous review of the 2020 BMW X5 M Competition, I’ve got another luxurious “sporty” crossover in my crosshairs. Today’s target: The 2020 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

Except this one has at least some Italian heritage, instead of German. Trading schnitzel for stringozzi, so to speak.

Today’s Rare Ride very likely a vehicle you’ll never see in real life. Extremely expensive and limited in production, just seven were ever made.

It’s pretty spectacular.

The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider is at the end of the road in the U.S. Unlike some cases, in which models are dropped with little fanfare, FCA has decided to send the 4C out in style with the roll out of the 4C Spider 33 Stradale Tributo, a salute to the ’67 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.

Rare Rides has featured many an Alfa Romeo in past editions, but none as new as today’s 8C. With its very striking design, a limited manufacturing run, and a very high price when new, the low-slung coupe was instantly rare. A daring coupe from a small Italian manufacturer.

Let’s go.

Rare Rides occasionally features vehicles that have somehow slipped through the 25-year importation net and exist in this country as illegal immigrants. First up was a little Citroën Picasso hatchback from Arizona, and more recently we featured a bright orange Fiat Barchetta from Florida.

Today we venture into illegality once more, with the luxurious and beautiful Lancia Thesis from 2003.

Alfa Romeo has spiced up the already sexy Giulia Quadrifoglio with a limited-run GTA variant. The title is shorthand for “Gran Turismo Alleggerita” and indicates its status as a lightweight, high-performance grand tourer. According to the manufacturer, weight savings from swapping various body panels, interior components, and the driveshaft to carbon fiber has cut 220 pounds from the model’s curb weight.

Meanwhile, factory tuning has nudged the 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6’s peak output up to 540 horsepower, resulting in a leaner, meaner Alfa with a claimed 0-60 run of just 3.6 seconds.

Today we take a look at a stylish grey Alfa Romeo that is the only example of its type. With coachwork from one of the greatest names in the business, it’s Fifties artwork that moves.

An article posted yesterday on these renowned pages really got me thinking about how certain brands seem to not have much of a future in the automotive landscape of 2020 — and beyond. If you didn’t click the link there, you may be wondering which brand I’m presently speaking of. It is of course Alfa Romeo.

Let’s do some Italian-style pondering.

In the struggling Alfa Romeo brand’s near future, the subset of voices calling for sexy new sports cars will have to take a backseat to owners and would-be buyers who just want minor improvements to existing vehicles.

Exciting? Not very, but Alfa isn’t concerned with wowing the blogger crowd at this point in time. The axe taken to its future product lineup shows this pretty clearly. In response to the about-face, Alfa’s North American director claims the sky is no longer the limit, though you can expect some sexy new lower body cladding.

Alfa Romeo’s Giulia and Stelvio will receive a mid-cycle refresh for the 2020 model year. As is the norm with Italian models, the changes are being referenced by Western media as a sexification providing erotic pleasure to the eyes. In truth, Fiat Chrysler is simply offering both models with optional appearance kits and freshened interiors.

Then again, perhaps the true measure of automotive sexiness is finding a model you want to spend all of your spare time inside — as that’s often the benchmark with human beings.

As we told you last week, the Alfa Romeo brand’s near-term future contains far less excitement than initially thought. In Fiat Chrysler’s third-quarter earnings report, the automaker revealed a severely pared-down product portfolio for the struggling Italian brand. Gone are plans for a new 8C and GTV.

As the product picture becomes clear, it seems Alfa has even fewer items to dole out than once believed — which might be just the thing for a brand that’s struggling to leave the launch pad.

Sports car fans had best brace themselves for a big letdown. Fiat Chrysler, currently pursuing a merger with France’s Groupe PSA, has given investors a peak at future high-end product, and two anticipated models seem to have fallen off the drawing board.

Those products would be the reborn Alfa Romeo GTV and 8C, which are nowhere to be seen in the brand’s near-future product timeline. However, if crossovers are your thing, you’re in luck.

The exhaust note will suck you in. If you, like most readers of this fine publication, have a healthy appreciation for all things mechanical, you cannot help but be charmed by the baritone rasp of this twin-turbocharged V6.

I know that I was.

Thus, an impromptu road trip to Pittsburgh in the 2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio naturally brought me through the Fort Pitt tunnel into the city. Yes, I opened the windows, twisted the drive mode selector to Race, and slapped the paddle shifter down a couple of cogs just to hear that exhaust echo among those tile-lined walls.

Last year, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced a €5 billion plan to set the table for more palatable electric vehicles — including hybrids — and boost capacity utilization at its Italian facilities. Roughly one fifth of that total will go toward the launch of a compact crossover from Alfa Romeo and Fiat’s upcoming Panda hybrid.

Numerous Italian trade unions (AQCF, FIM, FISMIC, UGLM, and UILM), after speaking with the manufacturer, have confirmed the Pomigliano plant will undergo some retooling in preparation for the new models. Meanwhile, FCA confirmed the cost to Reuters — stipulating that the total investment for the two models would be “closer to 1 billion than 500 million euros.”

Rare Rides has featured Alfa Romeos from the Seventies (including this car’s sibling) and the Nineties, but never any from that most powdery of decades: the Eighties. That changes today, with an angular and excellently preserved GTV6.