You can now buy a normal Alfa Romeo Stelvio

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV was revealed to much fanfare in November 2016 in range-topping, Cayenne turbo-bothering 503bhp Quadrifoglio costume. Now we can bring you, with less fanfare but possibly more importance, the normal Stelvio. This is the Stelvio First Edition, and shorn of the QF’s angrier bumpers and telephone dial wheels, it’s a lot less aggressive. But still fairly handsome for an SUV, wouldn’t you say?

Brilliantly, Alfa has announced its vastly important new SUV is open for order without actually announcing how much it costs. That’s some proper Italian logic right there. So, you’d better see if you want it first. The Stelvio First Edition is still quite quick, actually, so that ought to get a few punters trickling out of Porsche and Jaguar dealerships with interest. 

With a 276bhp 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine on-board, this Stelvio will run to 62mph in 5.7 seconds, and reach a top speed of 143mph. Part of the reason it’s so zesty off the line is that it gets the same Q4 all-wheel drive gubbins as the top-dog QF model. So, it’s totally rear drive right up until the moment wheelspin is detected, at which point a maximum of 50 per cent drive gets shoved to the front wheels. 20-inchers, since you ask.

Inside, you still get the 8.8-inch infotainment set-up, aluminium paddleshifters (fixed to the steering column, not the flattened wheel) for playing with the eight-speed automatic ’box, and the use of wood trim instead of carbon lets on this is the more relaxed model. 

All in all, it seems the Stelvio’s survived being stripped of ultimate performance credentials, on paper at least. Now it’s time to see if it’ll tempt folks from Jaguar F-Paces and Porsche Macans.