Maserati GranTurismo Sport 2012 Review

Not so much
>> Clunky switchgear
>> Dash layout illogical and dated?
>> Lacks Germany’s mid-range punch?
?

OVERVIEW?

For all that, it’s also not a technical powerhouse and can run the risk of being overwhelmed by those who are, particularly those sitting above Italy’s northern border.

That’s why, when key rivals have just had major upgrades, Maserati is letting us in to its GranTurismo Sport. Unveiled at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the GranTurismo Sport picks up from where the old GranTurismo S left off.

Somehow, Maserati has found a bit more power, fitted new lights and eked more rear legroom and called it a new car. Available both with the MC Auto Shift automatic gearbox and the harder, snappier MC Shift robotized manual, it’s fast, sophisticated and, well, a Maserati.

See more photos of Maserati GranTurismo Sport at www.motoring.com.au

The first is around the nose, where a small crease now runs from the lights into the grille, while LED daytime running lights are the most obvious feature of headlights that are essentially all-new inside.

Even though they retain their external shape, the headlights have a Xenon cluster that turns up to 15 degrees to track the steering wheel.

There’s also a deeper front splitter, along with better aerodynamics and brake cooling for the dual-cast front brakes.

While it’s the mid-ranger of the GranTurismo family (it’s flanked by the 4.2-litre base version and the top-shelf MC Stradale, though for now it’s the most powerful model), the Sport gets the red accents on the grille’s trident to signify that it totes the most power.

Side skirts have become standard to improve the car’s aerodynamic effectiveness and Maserati has made the side grilles slightly larger to eke the hot air out of the engine bay a bit faster.

There is cruise control inside, but don’t expect to find an active radar sensor, because there isn’t one. There is, however, dual-zone air-conditioning and a cupholder for every seat.

There is also an option list as long as your arm, and it mostly involves paint, leather, carpet and trim choices.

MECHANICAL?

At its heart is a 4.7-litre 90-degree V8. All alloy, it’s clean of such fizzy nonsense as turbochargers or superchargers and the engine prospers on as much air as the nose-mounted intake can catch.

Maserati claims the V8 has already become a classic, and it’s difficult to argue once you hear one, regardless of whether it’s idling by or on full song.

There have been hardware and software changes that lift the automatic version’s torque by 30Nm to 520Nm and lift the power by 20 old-school horsepower (Cavalli, in Italian), to 338kW.

In the GranTurismo Sport with the robotized gearbox, the hike is only 10 cavalli and 20Nm, because they slightly detuned the engine in the old GranTurismo S auto, but that’s no longer necessary.

It tells only part of the story, though, because while the power figure arrives at 7000rpm and the engine doesn’t hit its limiter until 7200, the torque peak isn’t there until 4750. Maserati says 80 per cent of the torque is there at 2000rpm, but it doesn’t punch from lazy engine speeds like the turbo-powered V8s from M or AMG.

Based on info gleaned during the MC Stradale launch, there are changes to the variable valve timing at higher revs, fiddles with the engine mapping and new, stronger pistons. And it’s still built for Maserati to Maserati’s specifications by Ferrari.

Not for Maserati the BMW, Porsche and AMG trick of either synthesizing or amplifying (or both) the engine note to make it louder in the cabin. In the GranTurismo Sport you just push the Sport button to give the exhaust gases a straight-through flow and the noise jumps instantly.

While the GranTurismo Sport’s engine is mid-mounted, it’s more mid-mounted in some than in others. While the automatic version is expected to out-sell the electro-actuated MC Shift by about four to one, the clunkier system still has its advantages for the enthusiastic.

For starters, its engine sits slightly further back and slightly lower in the engine bay and the gearbox itself sits in a transaxle unit just ahead of the rear axle. This gives is a superb 47:53 front-to-rear weight distribution, with a 20mm single-piece steel driveshaft, supported by four bearings, running from the engine to the gearbox via a stiff torque tube.

With triple-cone synchromesh on the first two gears and double-cone synchronizers on the rest of the forward gears, they are hydraulically engaged after you pull one of the steering column-mounted shift paddles.

There’s a limited-slip differential driving the rear wheels, too, with 25 per cent lock-up under acceleration and 45 per cent lock-up under deceleration for added stability.

The automatic version, dubbed MC Auto Shift, has had the bigger tweak, though, and while it’s still mid-mounted, it sits just far enough forward that Maserati could attach the ZF-sourced six-speeder to the rear of the engine.

It sends its drive to the same limited-slip diff, but uses a two-piece, 69mm steel driveshaft and has been strengthened to cope with the same power and torque as the MC Shift unit.

The developments haven’t just been hardware-related, either, because it also has five different operating modes, can hold on to the rev-limiter in the manual mode and shifts in half the time of the GranTurismo S auto. It now also has a launch-control mode and it even blips the throttle on downshifts now. It’s quite the theatrical operator…

The Skyhook suspension system has been retuned, too, there are stiffer springs and the rear stabiliser bar is 2mm thicker (and 12 per cent stiffer). Based around a four-corner double-wishbone set-up, the Skyhook system now thinks faster and changes the damping rates quicker, too.

It is all anchored by cross-drilled and ventilated Brembo brake discs, with six-piston front calipers and four-piston rears

PACKAGING?

The switchgear remains as it was, so that means it carries over the indicator and wiper stalks that clunk like they came out of a base-model Fiat. It still has the awkward satellite-navigation system that’s as hard to read as it is to use. It still has a steering wheel laden with switches you need to break your thumbs to use.

But the upside is the way the cabin looks and feels. The curved dashboard, designed to reflect the vee notch in the top of the radiator grille, is still a joy to behold, as is the analogue clock.

The steering wheel is now flat at the bottom to give more knee room beneath it.

The seats themselves are trimmed in rich leather and stitched together perfectly and the head restraints are now integrated into the seat. They’re also more body-hugging and the backrests have been redesigned to give the rear passengers 20mm more legroom – and the GranTurismo S was already the best in the class for that.

COMPETITORS

Yet the Porsche is a four-seater in name only, where the Maserati can carry four adults in genuine comfort.

Jaguar’s XK also puts its hand up, though it too has only moderate space in the rear.

The BMW 6 Series is closer to the GranTurismo Sport for rear legroom, though doesn’t quite get there. It can be had with quite a bit more gristle, though many a Maserati fan will be put off by a badge that also sits atop the 1 Series.

It’s simply about the experience, not the bragging rights, and there are very few cars in the world that leave an ache in your soul and a craving for more like a GranTurismo Sport.

There are faster cars, as Maserati readily admits, because the MC Shift hits 100km/h in 4.7 seconds and tops out at 300km/h, while the auto is a tenth slower and falls 2km/h shy of 300km/h.

The thing is, the Maserati feels faster than that, most of the time, and everything about it has a way of making the driver feel like a superhero, especially now that the suspension is more settled in its work.

It’s not a featherweight, at 1780kg, so it can suffer at low rpm while it’s waiting for its torque peak to arrive.

That’s a problem that can be easily resolved, though, by plucking the long gearshift paddles for a lower cog. And that’s never a chore to do.

The reason for that is that one or two supercars might claim to have an equally beautiful engine note on sale today, but none surpass the emotion-dripping sophisticated brutality that oozes from every ignition stroke of the V8.

It’s there from the second you turn the key and, once you’ve slipped into Sport mode or, especially, the Sport Manual mode – which keeps the exhaust bypass open – you’ve essentially got a very angry tenor.

Maserati actually enlists a composer from Milano’s famed La Scala opera house to help it tune its engine note and it shows.

From the second you prod the drilled aluminium throttle pedal, the engine blips so quickly you’d swear there was no flywheel at all. It drops the revs just as quickly, which hints at the throttle response to come.

But it’s the sound that charms, teases, taunts and begs you to give in and hit the throttle again. Or drop it down a gear just to hear it blip a downshift or burble and pop and gargle on its over-run.

It’s an astonishing piece of theatre and, by comparison, it makes M5 or AMG V8s sound like unsophisticated thugs.

The twin-turbo engines from north of the Italian border go harder, of course, and they go harder from every point of the rev range. But they don’t pull you in until you’re part of the show, sucking you so close to the inner workings that you are saturated in every whir of the fuel pump or tap on the limiter.

The naturally aspirated nature of the Maserati means it’s also a beautifully linear engine in the way it delivers its power, utterly predictable and extremely simple and accurate to adjust mid-corner.

It’s a nicer daily driver with the MC Auto Shift, but it’s faster with the MC Shift gearbox, even if you wonder at the point of sacrificing so much comfort for a tenth here or there when it’s already half a second down on an M5.

Its suspension adds to the charm and introduces a level of compliance over broken ground that the old car never had. The steering still lacks weight, but it’s accurate and the chassis just settles down and refuses to let the road’s worst imperfections throw it off line. It’s wonderfully reassuring.

It’s become a very fluid machine in the way it attacks long corners or switchbacks, with a confident lean on the outside rear corner under power and the promise of progression at the limit.

It delivers a sense of unadulterated joy to the driver that for most of us disappeared with adolescence, and the MC Shift is faster all the time, thanks to its better weight distribution as much as its slightly lower weight and faster shifts.

Move away from the extremes, though, and the auto is the better option, as its suspension is slightly softer. Unlike the MC Shift unit, its gear changes are also just as happy whether you’re fully engaged in the drive or not.

Its ride quality is pretty good, too, and you can make it quieter by turning off the Sport mode to just relax and enjoy the seats.

There’s little doubt you’d usually be quicker in something German, but you’d rarely enjoy the experience more. And those that know that will never judge you harshly for your choice.

See more photos of Maserati GranTurismo Sport at www.motoring.com.au

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