Maserati GranTurismo 2016 Review

Maserati GranTurismo MC Sportline
Road Test

Maserati has given its four-seater GranTurismo coupe, more overtly sporting touches borrowed from the racing version such as a vented, lightweight aluminium bonnet and carbon-fibre seat backs. The Maserati GranTurismo is priced from $295,000 (plus on-road costs).

When testing a car like the Maserati GranTurismo MC Sportline it pays to change ones's mindset. You have put yourself in the soft leather shoes of an owner, think of this $300,000 car as one you would buy.

There's little point being a lickspittle, even though this is a car worth a lifetime's tax returns. I'm going to try my very best to analyse the GrandTurismo MC Sportline as if it were a potential buyer loaned the car for a week.

So bear with me while I chomp through what I imagine would be a typical owner's day driving the GranTurismo MC Sportline, with a side order of impartial assessment.

After a light breakfast of grapefruit, pressed orange juice and stewed compote, I stroll out to the 'Maser'.

I imagine that the owner of a car like this would have it set up on a turntable in a tightly packed garage of exotics, ready to drive off. I have instead manually turn-tabled the Maser in the street and reversed it down my driveway. It was a tight fit, at 2056mm wide (including the mirrors) and at 4881mm long it's not quite at dual-cab lankiness, but it felt close.

This sheetmetal first pressed and welded together in 2007 no longer appears as crisply ironed as it once did, yet yields no obvious wrinkles. The sharp lines and soft curves somehow marry in complementary partnership, and the long bonnet abutted by the cabin and stubby boot reminds me of the Jaguar E-Type and Ferrari Daytona.

Grabbing the handle and waiting for the auto unlock feature to clunk the locks free didn't work. The Maser, unlike most cars $50k and up doesn't have one; instead I retrieved the blue key fob from my silk-lined pocket (that is, lined with the hanky mum gave me last Christmas) and press the unlock button.

The cabin is a bit tight, but forget the space, enjoy the looks. It is wrapped in beige leather with blue piping to match the outside's blue paint. The leather is by Poltrona Frau. Clearly Frau Poltrona is a woman who knows how to shape and knead leather in wonderful ways.

The GranTurismo’s dash has more buttons than a shirt shop, but there is not autonomous braking, lane departure warning or any other stuff that might distract you from being focussed on the art of driving.

After pressing a few of the dozens of buttons on the dash I realise that this car doesn't have keyless start. No problem; I smoothly flick the key blade open and quickly slide it into the ignition receptacle. This is all very familiar because the key and lock look identical to more humble Italian cars, like the Fiat 500.

There have been reams written about the aural pleasure of the GranTurismo's 4.7-litre V8, Ferrari-built engine. I won't burn characters here on this, only to say that there are probably dozens of V8 owners at exhaust shops right now who'll never get the sweet note this car delivers.

After firing up the V8 and letting it settle to a burbling idle, I pair up my phone. Except that I can't. The information screen — the font and operation of which is suspiciously like my old 2005 Alfa 166 — gets me right to the cusp of pairing and leaves me there. I pair my phone in a different car every few weeks, but just the same, maybe it was just me.

Many Maser owners would no doubt be domiciled in prime real estate abutting the water, so I point the GranTurismo towards the local seaside cafe. I then realise that the nearest body of water is the neighbour's green-algae gold fish pond so an inner-west Sydney cafe will have to do.

As I settled in behind the wheel on an example of Frau Poltrona's excellent work, I decided against a muffin with my coffee. The way the seat bolstering has reshaped my body is not uncomfortable, but these seats were obviously intended for those of a leaner persuasion. The muffin, top of my list for a bite, was replaced by a celery stick.

The 2942mm wheelbase and low-slung body conspire to kiss the undercarriage on concrete. This is one of the few cars I drove like an off-roader on the road, picking the right lines to avoid getting hung up. Mostly, it worked.

The Maser rode smoothly on the pockmarked road and felt solid. At 1780kg dry weight, it should. The feeling of driving something big and heavy soon dissipated. Parallel parking was easy, thanks to the phalanx of parking sensors front and rear. Only, annoyingly, the sensors still beeped when Park had been selected, and sometimes it didn't seem to sense stuff at close proximity.

After a morning coffee followed by a celery cleanser, it was time to visit some of my time-share property portfolio via several twisting roads. Here the Maserati could finally show what it's supposed to be good at. Forget the lack of electronic this and that.

I was in a hurry so I launched off the lights into the welcoming arms of a 100km/h zone. As the accelerator was thumped against the firewall, the GT leapt off the line with the engine flaring to 3000rpm. The tacho then flicked to redline with a satisfying shove in the back and the sublime wail of that V8.

Then off into the sinuous two-lane roads by the coast. Here, on the patchy bitumen, the Maser's damping is really good, containing movement without being too firm. It's one thing to be able to keep a heavy car tied down at speed but another to be able to keep ride smooth. The GT does both.

Steering is not any of this modern electrickery; the hydraulic steering responds well and delivers great feedback.

The gearshift paddles are positive in engagement, with the engine rev-matching on downshift. Gear changes are very quick, and never clunky.

The brakes a little wooden at low speeds but get some heat into them and they wash off speed really well and with a progressive pedal.

You don't get a heavy, V8 coupe like this and expect parsimony at the fuel bowser. So the 12.9L/100km averaged over a week in the GranTurismo was pretty good.

As I returned to my sprawling Sydney blond-brick mansion on its one-eighth-acre block, I reflected on how the GranTurismo MC Sportline should really have better driver-assistance gear, and more of it.

Yet in how it looks and how it drives, the Maserati doesn't need much if anything extra at all. It is an engaging, beautiful-looking grand touring coupe.

2016 Maserati GranTurismo MC Sportline pricing and specifications:
Price: $295,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 4.7-litre eight-cylinder petrol
Output: 338kW/520Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 14.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 331g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A

Also consider:
>> BMW M6 (from $292,600 plus ORCs)
>> Aston Martin V8 Vantage S (from $254,200 plus ORCs)
>> Mercedes-Benz AMG GT <<<   >>> (from $294,610 plus ORCs)