I’ve driven a few Italian cars, but each and every one of them happened to be an exotic supercar. Cars like the Ferrari 488 Spider and the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato have been appropriately hair-raising; you can tell the people behind these brands care about the driving experience more than anything else, something you can seldom say about more mainstream brands. The Italians really do have passion embedded in their DNA, yet I never understood the allure of something like the 2024 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

Growing up, especially here in Canada, Alfa Romeo was unknown for me. I never saw them on the street, I never saw them in video games — I never even heard of them. As I grew older and wiser, I started paying attention to magazines and Top Gear clips, and kept hearing about this brand full of passion and racing pedigree. When the Alfa Romeo 4C came to our shores, I thought it was cool, but in a way any other sports car is cool. The 4C may have come and gone, but after spending some time with the Stelvio Quadrifoglio, I can finally say: I completely, unconditionally, get it.

The fact that a crossover has me so smitten is short-circuiting my brain. You might not have driven an Alfa, either, so you’re probably skeptical. Let me soften you up by introducing you to this Stelvio’s beating heart: it’s a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 making a generous 505 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. Interested? How about the fact that it’s actually a Ferrari-derived motor — one where Alfa takes a Ferrari V8 and chops off two cylinders? And you know what remains after those two cylinders are sliced off?  A glorious soundtrack — one that’s arguably the best exhaust note of any crossover ever. It’s loud, sonorous, silly, fun, and properly exotic. Numerous times I hit the left paddle to downshift; people would turn around to see which sports car was about to pass them, only to be greeted by a red crossover with a child seat in the back.

There’s some very Italian styling to the Stelvio as a whole. The phone-dial wheels and front end are quintessentially Alfa, looking unique compared to its German rivals. There’s a Ferrari-esque front fender shield as well, bearing a four-leaf clover instead of a prancing horse. The Stelvio Quadrifoglio looks hand-drawn in the best way. It’s not quite as cohesive as the swoopy Giulia sedan on which it’s based, but it’s a good-looking Italian nonetheless.

There’s more Ferrari-ness to the Stelvio Quadrifoglio beyond the engine and styling. The enormous aluminum paddle shifters controlling the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission are column-mounted and oh so satisfying to use. There’s also a very quick, razor-sharp steering rack that makes the already small Stelvio feel even smaller. Coupled with a marvellously tuned adaptive suspension, the Stelvio feels every bit the former Nurburgring lap record holder for crossover/SUVs — a title now held by the mighty Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT — would.

The whole package comes together in all the right ways. The power is rather ludicrous; coupled with Alfa’s all-wheel-drive system, it’s easy to put down even with the drive mode selector all the way in Race mode, which disables all the electronic nannies. The Stelvio Quadrifoglio is so confidence-inspiring that every time I started it up, I’d twist the drive mode selector to the right until Race mode lit up, then shifted into manual mode to use the paddles for every single drive. The brakes are strong, with six-piston calipers clamping down on 14.2-inch discs up front, and four-piston calipers and 13-inch discs out back. Ride quality is on the sporty side, but even in Race mode, it feels more exciting than punishing. Dialing the drive mode back relaxes the suspenders to more comfortable levels, but I was having too much fun to use anything else.

That’s the wild part of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. This is a crossover that you treat like a Sunday morning car. It’s such a joy to drive that you feel like it should sit in your garage until the weekend, where you take it out for a point-A-to-A drive. Yet there I was with a child seat in the back, a stroller stuffed into the rather small but still usable cargo hold, and my small family in tow.

Sure, the interior is less than perfect, with all the parts-sharing and whatnot with lesser Stellantis products, but none of it detracts from the Stelvio’s joyous drive. Who really cares, anyway, when all the driving touchpoints feel great? It’s easy to forgive the slightly-cheap-for-a-$100,000-vehicle materials or the slightly laggy infotainment when the seats, steering wheel, pedals, and paddle shifters are placed so perfectly. It’s far from a bad place to be, with well-bolstered seats and carbon fibre on the dashboard and centre console looking properly sporty. Still, compared to incumbents like the Porsche Macan GTS and Range Rover Velar, the interior feels a step down from a luxe perspective.

There are a couple other quirks with the Stelvio. It beeps like a microwave gone haywire, whether you’re closing the power liftgate or assists like the lane-departure warning kick on. Holy heck is it excessive. As well, the infotainment system reset itself on a drive, the auto start/stop system isn’t the most refined, the headlight warning beeps at you at night even in the auto position, and at one point, it wouldn’t shift out of park until I turned it off and back on.

But guess what? None of those quirks matter when you pull a paddle, put your foot down, and that sensational exhaust note fills the cabin before you take a corner faster than a crossover has any right to. All you care about is the passion that went into the 2024 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, and the way it brings out your passion for driving — even with a child seat, a stroller, and your family in tow. Pity, then, that this is the final year of production for the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Get one while you still can.