WHILE other brands find themselves bickering over the technicalities of who builds the quickest SUV, Alfa Romeo has quietly gone and shown them all up by smashing the Nurburgring lap Record for ‘fastest sport utility’ – and with its first-ever attempt at an SUV, no less.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, or QV for short, has lapped the 20.8-kilometre Nordschleife in a stonking 7:51.7. Eight seconds faster than the previous record-holding high-riding wagon.

In the wake of yesterday’s announcement by Porsche that the 911 GT2 RS completed the same lap in 6:47.3, the Stelvio’s lap may seem a little…pedestrian.

But that’s because the headline figure from the GT2 RS doesn’t give you the right context.

In fact, it smashes the Range Rover Sport SVR by roughly 23 seconds, and previous record holder Porsche Cayenne’s lap by 8 seconds.

MORE 2017 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Ireland drive

It’s also only 8 seconds off the time set by the Honda Civic Type R. Nevertheless, the Stelvio is still a fair whack slower than the Giulia QV – the Stelvio’s sedan stablemate recorded a blistering 7:32 lap time at the hands of Fabio Francia, the same man who set the Stelvio’s record-setting lap. There’s no escaping the laws of physics.

The new BMW X3 M, Audi RS Q5, and Jaguar F-Pace, and next-gen Cayenne will all be wanting to top the Stelvio QV when they are released.