Road Test: Maserati Quattroporte GTS

Sixth generation Maserati Quattroporte reviewed

*Photography by MR Photography

I am quite an emotional person. I mean, I cry in Pixar movies. Sometimes my emotions are played on by a car. A car which is so special and one which makes the right noises in order to tingle my spine and make me a bit unstable. From what I’ve seen and experienced, anything with a Maserati badge on the bonnet has the ability to turn me into a slushy mess, and I’m not the only one. You see one in traffic and you just can’t help but go “oooooooh”.

The Quattroporte – or ‘four doors’ – is Maserati’s flagship model and one which, in this day and age, is spearheading the brand’s profitability, alongside the soon-to-be-launched new Ghibli which has already been spotted on delivery trucks on South African roads. I had the sublime opportunity of spending a day with this latest leviathan and yes, I needed sedation.

Firstly, it’s bloody huge. At over 5.2-metres long and 2.1-metres wide, this car competes with long-wheelbase rivals from Britain and Germany, and it probably won’t fit in your garage. The looks belie its bulk, though. Sure, you can see it’s a big vehicle, but those curves and the sculpted fenders help reduce its visual substance rather well. Inside, it’s vast – especially in the rear, where thanks to the Chinese and their affection for rear legroom, there is enough space for both front and rear occupants to stretch out and get comfy.

On the design front, the new, 6^th-generation Maserati Quattroporte is an Armani suit next to the wife-beater that was the old model – a car I still adore, by the way. The new one is just much smarter and more suave – more elegant rather than brutish. I love the front end the most, with the now-convex grille playing host to the Maserati trident and flanked by those compact, sexy headlights. The latter are intelligent as well as pretty, the active bi-xenon bulbs with automatic high beam assistance following your steering inputs as you drive and adapting to speed and environmental conditions.

The standard 20-inch alloy wheels carry their own, albeit very subtle, trident cues, and lend and air of sophistication and sportiness to the side profile. Of course, the traditional three gills are on the front fender, from which a tapered crease line runs with increasing impact towards the bulbous rear arch. The rear lights are full-LED and, while they go some way to this car being mistaken for an Audi in the dark, their horizontal rather than vertical execution again emphasises width and might. This V8-powered Maserati Quattroporte GTS model features four trapezoidal exhaust outlets – and big ones, too. With good reason.

The sound this machine makes is mesmerising! While you can hear that some of the Maserati magic has been lost compared to the old version – no doubt thanks to emissions regulations and of course turbocharging – this is still a Maser. Starting it up reveals a rather sedate V8 rumble, and in truth you would never complain that this car is unnecessarily loud on the daily commute. Push the Sport button, however, and pneumatic valves open up to let the full Pavarotti roar emanate from those pipes – and it’s quite the volume increase. Not quite as loud as the GranCabrio Sport I drove a few years ago, but gosh, it’s good.

Take a listen to the pornographic sounds during a cold start and while revving (lowered rev limiter when stationary):

Complementing that aural assault is a host of wooshy induction and turbo noises from the front, which can be heard from inside as well as outside. There is a lot of air being sucked into this car’s engine, and the Maserati engineers have done a great job of playing with the left overs – which brings me neatly onto this car’s heart. It’s a Ferrari-built 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, which shoves its power to the rear wheels via an 8-speed ZF conventional automatic gearbox. It’s the same ‘box you’ll find in BMWs and Jaguars, and in the Mas it works well. That engine, though – it is rather deserving of a few expletives, let me tell you.

How does 390 kW at 6 800 rpm and a maximum of 710 Nm (overboost) at 2 250 rpm sound? Well, it’s enough to get this two-ton colossus from 0-100 km/h in 4.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 307 km/h. As Suzelle would say, “o f*k”.

And don’t for one minute think that the performance is hindered by the weight – this car never feels as heavy as it is (despite the extensive use of aluminium), being always at the ready especially in Sport mode and with gear shifts taken care of by the beautifully-weighted, real-metal shift paddles, which are mounted to the steering column rather than the wheel. There’s a button to firm up the Skyhook adaptive damping system as well, which allows for a bit more feedback but doesn’t turn the Quattroporte into a back-breaker.

Of course, this being a car of the modern age, you can also tame it down to become a calm daily commuter when you don’t feel like soiling yourself on the way to a wedding. In normal driving mode it’s quiet, comfortable and smooth, with ICE (Increased comfort and Efficiency) mode on hand to numb things down even further. I think I pushed that button only once.

Speaking of buttons, there was one major bugbear with the Maserati Quattroporte – Chrysler. In case you didn’t know this, the American conglomerate and the Fiat Group joined forces a few years ago to become Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. That means that you can buy a Chrysler Grand Voyager in Europe with a Lancia badge on the front, and the Dodge Journey is also known as the Fiat Freemont. It also means that the Maserati Quattroporte GTS is full of switches and buttons and tech from the FCA parts bin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because those parts (now) work. However, there was something slightly disappointing about the indicator stalk, infotainment system and other bits and pieces you’ll find in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, for example. Oh, and the steering wheel-mounted buttons for cruise control and trip computer adjustment were almost impossible to use without swearing.

Does this really matter, though, in a Maserati? Some might say yes, but I argue no. Yes, I know, this car faces some stiff competition in the form of the Audi A8 L W12, BMW 760Li, Porsche Panamera Turbo, Jaguar XJ L and the Mercedes-Benz S600L and yes, with a sticker price of R2 477 000 without options, the niggles might be a bit make-or-break. However, emotions are the overriding factor with this car. I’ve driven the Audi and the Jaguar, and they are perfect examples of the yin-yang at play here. The Audi is superbly refined, extremely well-built and will probably never go wrong, while the Jaguar is probably less reliable and rougher around the edges, but it has purple velvet innards and causes movement in one’s trousers.

The Maserati Quattroporte is like the Jag. It’s been designed with passion and nostalgia, with a Ferrari heart and over fifty years of Quattroporte behind it. It doesn’t matter that the starter button is from a Jeep, or that the gear lever is exceptionally annoying to operate, or that the wind noise from the frameless windows can be annoying. Part of this car’s purpose is to be flawed, and if it wasn’t flawed, I would be suspicious. Italian cars are never perfect, and that’s what makes them great. You can see the money has been spent on the emotional experience! This is not a car you buy so that your driver can take you to business meetings. This is a car you buy because you love driving, and you want a car that can raise your heartbeat the moment you turn it on.

Comments

comments