Alfa Romeo, Jeep at Emerald Speed Fest

In its 110th anniversary year, Alfa Romeo stormed the adrenaline-filled speed fest with its supercar disguised as a SUV. The inaugural event took place at the Emerald Resort and Casino in Vanderbijlpark along a custom-made 1.6km track where high-performance, modern, historic and supercars competed.The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q surprised many, proudly wearing the brands Quadrifoglio, reserved solely for its fastest performance models. It’s the fastest SUV around the Nurburgring, which stood it in good stead for the storm up the Emerald Speed Fest track.The Stelvio Q’s innovative Q4 all-wheel drive system usually puts all 375kW available straight to the rear wheels, but when the limits are approached and traction requires it, the drivetrain can spread 50% of the drive to the front wheels as well. Off the line in race mode, the Stelvio Q will reach 100km/h in 3.8 seconds and change gears in 150 milliseconds – all valuable time in the sprint to the finish.Taming the beastTaming the beast was seasoned Alfa Romeo endurance driver, Bradley Scorer, who is no stranger to powerful Alfas. He also drove the Mopar Endurance Championship-winning Alfa Romeo Giulietta. The highly-developed racer is based on Alfa Romeo’s Giulietta QV, powered by the acclaimed 1750 Turbo Petrol mated to a sequential gearbox, amongst other significant suspension and aerodynamic upgrades. In no mean feat of reliability and performance, the Giulietta took a clean sweep of class victories in 2018 to win the prestigious Index of Performance championship and made a spectacular sight on the challenging Emerald Speed Fest track.Packing a punchPacking a completely different punch, Jeep’s Grand Cherokee Trackhawk might have you guessing muscle car when you hear it off the line without realising its statuesque 4x4 drag. At 522kW, it’s the most powerful production SUV in the world, providing a great opportunity to be mastered by one of South Africa’s shining motorsport lights. International young-gun and Sauber Motorsport team member, Stuart White from Bloemfontein, put the Trackhawk’s standard Launch Control to the test off the line in the race to become the “Master of the Mile”. - Quickpic

Alfa Romeo, Jeep at Emerald Speed Fest

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Alfa Romeo, Jeep at Emerald Speed Fest

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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