2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Sprint on 2040-cars

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Chrysler appoints new heads of Alfa Romeo and Ram

Chrysler has announced to two key appointments to its senior leadership, both of them taking immediate effect. First up is Reid Bigland, who has been named head of the Alfa Romeo brand for North America. Bigland has served until now as head of the Ram Truck brand, a portfolio he now hands over to Robert Hegbloom, who had served until now as its director.
As a result of the appointments, both Bigland and Hegbloom will take up seats on Chrysler's NAFTA Leadership Team, and Bigland will also join the Fiat Chrysler Group Executive Council - the highest decision-making body in the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire.
As per Sergio Marchionne's leadership style, Bigland will continue to serve in two major capacities, maintaining his role as president and CEO of Chrysler Canada. Other senior executives who hold multiple key portfolios include Harald Wester (who serves as the group's Chief Technology Officer and also overseas Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Abarth), Olivier Francois (group Chief Marketing Officer and head of the Fiat brand) and Michael Manley (head of the Asia-Pacific region and the Jeep brand).

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio is new SUV king of the 'Ring

It's been a couple years since the last Nurburgring SUV lap record was set by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, a quick time of 7 minutes and 59 seconds making it the first SUV to pull off a sub-8 minute time. The Cayenne's glory days are over, though, as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio just obliterated that time. Alfa's wild SUV with its Ferrari-based 510-horsepower twin-turbo V6 managed to whip around the north loop of the 'Ring in just 7 minutes and 51 seconds. Not only does that make it 8 seconds quicker than the Cayenne, it's an insane 23 seconds faster than the Land Rover Range Rover SVR, the record holder before Porsche. The Stelvio also was working with a notable power disadvantage compared with the Cayenne and the Range Rover. The Porsche packed 565 horsepower, and the Land Rover had 542 horsepower. View 9 Photos Alfa Romeo also got the whole lap on film, which you can view up above. The video also shows that the Stelvio had an aftermarket roll cage fitted for an extra layer of safety. Alfa didn't say anything about how that might affect performance or what may have been done to offset it. But as we always point out with these records, they shouldn't be taken too seriously, especially for the SUV segment, in which we can virtually guarantee no one will be attempting to replicate this lap time with their personal Stelvios. Related Video:

Marchionne uses racial epithet to describe what must power future Alfa Romeo models

Sergio Marchionne and his Fiat empire have a lot riding on the US return of the Alfa Romeo brand. The endeavor has been in progress for what feels like a lifetime - certainly for as long as Fiat has had the Chrysler brand under its Italian wing.
It's not surprising that Fiat CEO Marchionne needs a perfect first Alfa to mark a return to America. And here's where things get dicey. Nobody would argue with Marchionne's insistence that Alfa Romeo's be powered by Italian engines - as Marchionne himself is quoted to have said at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, "There are some things that are well done in Italy."
If not what he said, then, it's how he said it that has eyebrows raised. "I cannot come up with a schlock product, I just won't. I won't put an American engine into that car. With all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine." Wait, what's that?