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Maserati is famous for being very Italian. It’s also famous for having an intricate and rather confusing array of models that seem to be constantly multiplying.

So here we go. Hard on the heels of the first petrol-powered version of its Levante SUV, the

321kW/580Nm 3.0-litre V6 twinturbo S, comes a second petrol version.

It’s rather informally called the

‘‘350’’ because that’s the number of horses under the bonnet.

If you’re joining us here in 2018 that’s 257kW/500Nm, which is quite a bit less than the S but also saves you $47,810.

In fact, the 350 is the new entry point to the Levante range; the cheapest diesel is nearly $10k more.

There must be a catch, right? There really isn’t. As expected, it’s slower than the S – but only by

0.8 seconds to 100kmh. The 350 is visually identical and the equipment levels across the model range are exactly the same.

Maserati justifies the massive price difference by saying that the twin-turbo engines in the 257kW and 321kW models are quite different... without being terribly specific.

The powertrain basics are the same: both still made by Ferrari and driving through an eightspeed automatic gearbox, including Maserati’s Q4 all-wheel drive system with mechanical limited-slip differential (LSD).

The Q4 system is rear-drive in normal conditions, but it can transfer up to 50 per cent of torque to the front in just 150 milliseconds. There’s also torque vectoring by braking at the rear.

It means business.