Maserati Quattroporte

After lots of speculations of many kinds, the Italian luxury automaker decided to release the first official information of their famous sedan. Looking at these pictures leads to think about how nice it is to change some parameters from what we see every day. When something is said about sports cars, for instance, the very first word that comes to many minds is “Ferrari”. And when it comes to luxury cars, the German trio doesn’t take long to appear. But how about finding out what happens when we invert those relations?

Maserati is a very traditional brand, both among urban and race cars. They have decades of expertise not only at their cars’ performance and a irresistible style, most with the urban ones, but specially at conciling it with elegance. Maybe this impression comes also from the fact that this brand was never too much disclosed. There were many Maserati sports cars which became very famous, such as Bora, Ghibli and Merak, not to mention Quattroporte (Italian for “four doors”), but they never became too famous – that point where everyone knows it and has posters, desktop wallpapers and similar stuff with it, like Ferrari F40 and F50 at the 1990s. With that, their cars avoid the excessive exposition, and therefore maintain a distinct value. This is very appreciated for most of the luxury customers, who prefer the discretion when driving their cars, rather than taking all the attentions wherever they go. This makes them deserve a deeper look, because this set of characteristics is very hard to find at the current cars. With Quattroporte you can forget the strong straight lines of the German cars, along with the clean shapes and the names involving letters and numbers. And at the same time, this sedan proves that an Italian car doesn’t need to come in bright red or yellow, and not necessarily uses the coupe or convertible body style.

This sedan brings a very classy design, with organic lines creating all the needed surfaces smoothly, without many cuts and folds, but this description could actually fit the previous Quattroporte without problems. What is impressive to see is how the Italians achieved to reinterpretate that style in a way that looks modern but never forgetting from whom the inspiration was taken. Maserati proves one more time that if a style has earned the customers’ approval, staying up-to-date doesn’t need to imply heavy changes. The biggest changes were at both its front and the rear, whose new lights and bumpers received a more aggressive design than the 2004’s ones, resulting in a more casual look. Those details earn big importance when remembering a constant problem faced while drawing every top-class sedan: the enormous internal space demands a big length, which is hard to draw without making the car look like an old-fashioned limousine. The Germans solve this problem with those strong lines and some spoilers to give a more dynamic look, but Maserati leaves the explicit sportiness to GranCabrio and GranTurismo, and gives to their sedan well-sculpted volumes in order to give both solidness and dynamism to the overall appearance.

Quattroporte has changed its platform, with new materials to lose weight and some dimension changes: it became 6.3 inch longer and 2.5 inch wider than the previous generation. When it comes to engines, the most recent information reveals that the entry trim level will have a gasoline 3.0 V6 with 400 hp, capable of taking this sedan from 0 to 60 mph in 5s1, with 177 mph of top speed. But if you want even more power, the attentions should go to the 3.8 V8 twin-turbo, whose 520 hp takes those records respectively to 4s7 and 191 mph. Both engines will be controlled by an automatic ZF eight-speed transmission using rear-wheel traction, but the smaller option can also use AWD: this will be the first Maserati to ever bring this kind of traction.