Maserati presents its new Quattroporte

The second generation of the world’s sultriest four-door will be officially unveiled during January’s Detroit motor show, but Italian sportscar specialist Maserati has given us a sneak peak.

This all-new Quattroporte will be the first of three new models that CEO Dr Harald Wester expects will drive Maserati sales beyond 50,000 cars a year by 2015.

“Maserati will see growth based on its values of style, elegance, quality and performance,” Dr Wester said.

“This exciting progression will make the new Maserati a true global player, with two new production sites in two different continents and a heart solidly planted in Modena, Italy, where our roots are.”

The successor to the much-loved Quattroporte will be launched with an updated version of its Maranello-built 4.7-litre petrol V8 and will still be a rear-wheel drive car with its power sliding through a six-speed automatic transmission.

The look of the new Quattroporte clearly reflects the overall design language of the outgoing car, which is widely regarded as the best looking four-door sedan in the world despite the emergence of Porsche’s Panamera and two generations of the Mercedes-Benz CLS.

The new car will be slightly longer than the old, with Maserati design head Lorenzo Ramaciotti insisting its design didn’t ape its predecessor but reinterpreted the design features of classic Maserati designs.

“Its style was born out of the guiding design principles of Maserati; harmony of shapes, dynamism of lines, Italian elegance,” he said.

“It’s more generous in size, with a design that is at once graceful and sinuous, fashioned to bring out the sporty nature of the car.

“Some of the elements characterizing the previous model have been purposely maintained: the front grille, the three side vents, the triangular C-pillar. At the same time, new features were introduced: the strong belt line that runs through the entire side of the car, giving the Quattroporte a look and feel that is at once muscular and elegant, with frameless doors and three side windows.”

The car keeps the Quattroporte’s signature grille, with its vertical ribs and its mid-mounted Trident logo, but introduces crisp crease lines in the bonnet and down its flanks that Maserati’s older technology couldn’t manage.

The design has also been pulled in-house, with the old Pininfarina-designed Quattroporte’s theme being carried over by the Torino-based Fiat Centro Stile, headed by Mr Ramaciotto.

At the rear, it will continue to adopt four menacing exhaust outlets, though it switches to a horizontal tail-light language to broaden its visual stance on the road and it integrates a lip spoiler into the bootlid to minimise high-speed aerodynamic lift.

From the profile, the Quattroporte appears to be hugely stretched, especially from the trailing edge of the front wheels to the end of the back doors, though it keeps its trademark short front overhang.

Unlike the GranTurismo coupe the Quattroporte has been designed from scratch to house a glass sunroof and has a data fin at the trailing edge of the roofline, promising a step up in its of-criticised interior technology package.

Inside, the ignition is via a remote key operation with a start button and the dashboard layout looks hugely simplified. The Quattroporte moves finally forward from its old-fashioned airbag cutouts in the doors and the dashboard.

The width of the transmission tunnel hints, too, at the continuation of the front-mid-mounted engine layout, which bestows upon the current Quattroporte its agile handling package.

However, it does seem to look a little plain and robs the front seat occupants of lateral space. The dash itself is designed to look very horizontal and wide, though it looks a little more plain and less plushly styled than the existing Quattoporte, despite its touch-screen infotainment screen and dual-zone air-conditioning system.

The transmission lever sits biased towards the driver, with a separate manual gate that maintains a forward push as a downshift. It also maintains its attachment to the steering column mounting for the paddle shifters, while the transmission, engine, traction control system and steering are all affected by a Sport button.

The seats are, as ever, stylishly Italian developments with Poltrona Frau leather trim, while the rear seats continue to have electric adjustment for both the base and the backrest.

The Quattroporte’s suspension will continue with a development of the Skyhook active suspension system, which can either be left to control itself or manually pushed into a Sport mode.

Its speedometer runs out to 360km/h, though it’s highly unlikely any production Quattroporte will ever see that kind of speed. A maximum speed of around 290-300km/h is more likely.

That’s because it retains a development of the existing 4.7-litre V8 engine, built for Maserati by Ferrari at Maranello and redlining at around 7200rpm.

While light on specifics, Maserati Powertrain Director, Paolo Martinelli, insists the engines will be more powerful than their predecessors while utilising idle-stop technology to lower fuel consumption and emissions.

“Passion and state-of-the-art technology is at the heart of all the new Maserati engines that will be mounted in the next generation of Maserati products,” he said.

“Maserati has produced engines that are not only more powerful than ever, or more exciting to drive than ever, but also more eco-friendly than ever before as well.”

Maserati is making huge claims about the Quattroporte’s ride and handling package as well, with Vehicle Development Director Roberto Corradi insisting it will deliver best-in-class comfort in a class filled with cars like Bentley’s Continental Flying Spur, Mercedes-Benz’s upcoming S-Class, Audi’s S8 and BMW’s 6 and 7 Series.

“Maserati engineers have worked in chassis design and engineering, weight reduction, ergonomic enhancement to develop a car capable of fitting different powertrain architectures and transmission configurations for the most diverse driving conditions,” he insisted.

“The result is a luxury sports sedan that reaches new heights in performance and handling, driving enjoyment as well as respect of the world we live in.

“It’s the best performance ever in the long history of Maserati’s four-door flagship.”

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