Large, luxurious, fast
Maserati sedan’s driving essence is pure Italian
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — If David Epstein is to be believed, nature matters much more than nurture when it comes to peak performance.
Train your whole life if you want, says the author of The Sports Gene, eat carrots and lentils till your skin turns orange, but let some dude from the Kalenjin tribe in Kenya train for just a couple of months and he’ll sweep past you at the 20- mile mark with such effortless ease you’ll swear he’s running in zero gravity boots.
If nature’s superiority over nurture indeed be the final arbiter of performance, then Maserati has a problem, at least if you place any credence in the blogosphere. Citizen reporters online are denouncing the storied Italian company’s flagship sedan ( and the new Ghibli as well) as merely a Chrysler 300 with a fancy engine from their friends in Maranello.
Never mind that the 300 itself is an offshoot of the W210 E- Class platform that Chrysler purloined back in the bad old DaimlerChrysler days, the blogosphere has deemed this the proverbial Ferrari- engine- in- a- farm- tractor mating, an aberration so offensive, say the Internet trolls, that the good name Maserati is besmirched forever.
The company’s rejoinder is that quite the opposite is true, that it is the Quattroporte’s basic underpinnings from which Chrysler will build the new 300 , the No. 1 rule of automotive marketing being that while it’s OK to build a lesser car from the parts of a luxury sled, the inverse is never a good idea . Officially, Maserati’s CEO Harald Wester told Automotive News that the only carry- over bits from the 300 was the portion of the platform where the seats are mounted as well as some air conditioning and electrical bits. The rear suspension, front suspension and engine mounting structures are all unique to the Maserati.
So, if the Quattroporte is not simply a Ferrari- ed Chrysler, then what is it? Truth be told, even after an entire weekend bombing around in Maserati’s mega- motored ( and with 523- horsepower on tap, mega is the apt description to what emanates from the engine bay), I’m still not quite sure how to pigeonhole the new GTS.
It’s most certainly not a BMW or Mercedes. There’s just a little too much ostentation to the interior decor and most certainly too much frisson from the dual tailpipes to be lopped in with the Teutons, for whom understatement is not just a design concern but a mission. Nope, the Quattroporte, especially in this V8 GTS guise, prefers to twist ( round corners) and shout ( when the throttle is prodded) more than its German competition and is clothed so sumptuously that Ermenegildo Zegna would be proud. Decry the Fiat Chrysler merger all you want, but there’s precious little American ( except perhaps the Maserati Touch Control infotainment system that looks suspiciously Grand Cherokeelike) about the Quattroporte.
That’s not to say that all is perfect. Maserati wouldn’t be Italian were all the little details tickety- boo. For one thing, the GTS’s handling will not be to everyone’s liking, combining the suspension firmness of a BMW and the strong on- centre steering feel of a Mercedes. High effort steering is synonymous with sportier handling, but one can make a 1,904- kilogram luxury sedan feel a little too truck- like, especially when all that you want to do is park the beast ( the Quattroporte’s wheelbase is some 125 millimetres longer than the already fairly gargantuan 300 if you were wondering) .
That said, the Quattroporte fairly flies down a canyon, its pace challenging even the fastest of four doors like the Aston Martin Rapide. It’s certainly far happier about being flung to and fro than a Mercedes S- Class or the squidgy BMW 750. If you’re really looking to be coddled, you really should bypass the Quattroporte altogether — and the Germans, come to think of it — for Jaguar’s sumptuous XJ. But the steering that felt a little too stiff on Rodeo Boulevard feels just right on twisty Angeles Crest highway. The GTS will do a fair impression of an Italian sports car; just make sure that’s indeed what you want.
And that engine! It may only displace 3.8 litres, but it sports no less than eight pistons, two turbochargers and 523 horsepower. That’s the very same displacement of the V6 that powers Nissan’s fearsome GT- R. There’s a whopping 524 pound- feet of torque available at 2,250 rpm, more than the GT- R . And, if anything, the Ferrari- built engine feels a bit livelier at high rpm than the Nissan supercar, unlike most turbocharged engines spinning happily to its 7,200 rpm. Because those twin turbos interrupt all that internal combusting sound waves, the 3.8L doesn’t have quite the same bark as the old 4.7L naturally aspirated V8 that it replaces . It is — blogosphere be damned — Italian after all.
My tester’s cabin was clothed in a very warm chocolate brown as opposed to the Spartan esthetic that is a typically black BMW interior. The buttonry may be a little too chromed but the Italians have always liked to push that fine line between the ornate and just plain gauche. Indeed, except for the UConnect, oops Maserati Touch Control, system, there’s precious little evidence of the Americanization of the interior that we’ve heard about.
The one exception, in fact, is one of design rather than actual engineering. For some reason, the seats appear to have been sized for someone who spends a lot of time in the drive- thru lane at McDonald’s. And considering how gloriously the GTS will romp down a twisty road, there’s precious little side bolstering to the front seats.
And lastly, while I am not sure if this is a complaint the Quattroporte is noticeably short of electronic safety nannies. It means that, in the case of this particular super sedan at least, you are, for better or for worse, in total control of those 523 horsepower. It is, after all, Italian.
And most certainly not American!