Posted on Wednesday 26 September 2007
We’ve already shown you lots of pictures of Maserati’s new coupe, but this video highlights the beauty of the car while in motion. Designed by Pininfarina, the GranTurismo borrows from historic Maseratis - especially in the concave front grille slats which are reminiscent of 1940s and 1950s-style race cars, and tri-vents on the front guards. Its 4.2-litre V8 engine produces 405bhp (around 302kW) at 7100rpm, and a maximum torque of 460Nm at 4750rpm, of which 75 per cent is already achievable at 2500rpm. Check out the video after the jump.
Via Autoblog.it
Lovely car yes and a grille steeped in history, but where will one affix the number plate? Peculiar how in every single picture of this car it is shown sans a front number plate. Even the press cars that were driven around did not have front plates (and thus drove around illegally anywhere were they were within the borders of the EU). On the Quattroporte Maserati at least provides two screw mounts on the lowest lip to fix a plate to. And even if you fix a plate there it will sit too low and is surely to be ripped off in the first multi storey car park you enter. Mount it higher and it obscures the Maserati Trident. Stick it on the bodywork Jaguar E-type style perhaps? But then it will have to be off centre. What a mess that will make of a great design. But then is it a great design if they could not even think of a proper position for the number plate? I think this smacks of style over function and a designer hell-bent on getting a bit of history in his design and completely forgetting about day to day practicalities.
Beautiful car.
And front number plates can be affixed using a small sticker to the left front bumper. It’s how the Ferrari 612 does it.
Front number plates are stupid anyhow. I haven’t had one on my car in 20 years here in California, and it’s illegal here!
I’m sure this car will fill a hole in the $100K US market. It’s a sporty everyday coupe. I’ve had a Nissan 200 SX ‘84 and a ‘90 Ford Probe. This is similar in principle, a sports oriented 2X2 coupe. Both of these others were very popular in their respective price classes. This fits comfortably between the BMW/Audi and the 911/’vette formats. I test drove a Quattroporte and moved between that and my ‘98 Explorer 160 bhp with no problem in comfort mode. The longer distances in the US compared to the EU will make this one a hit as a car that is at home on crowded city parkways and the Interstates. I love the wood steering wheel feel, very polished but with good grip.
I’ll keep the Explorer, I live in central NY snow country. The GT will definitely fill the bill for everyday use. This car is a great combination of sport performance, eyecatching Pinninfarina style and roomy, luxury interior. I ordered a red one, 20″ black wheels, biege interior w/cuoio carpets, red stitching to match the exterior, aluminum metal trim and walnut wood trim/steering wheel. Try that in the configurator. There’ll be no trouble finding this one in the parking lot.