Maserati Quattroporte 2013 Review - International

Not so much:
>> Calmer engine note
>> Huge machine to park
>> Short on electronic safety systems

OVERVIEW

This time, though, the Quattroporte is Maserati’s own work, with an all-new chassis that is far larger, far longer and far wider (but no heavier!) than its predecessor.

The free-revving, raucous 4.7-litre V8s have gone, too, replaced with an all-new, twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8 that has more power and more torque but uses 20 per cent less fuel.

The gearbox woes of early Quattroportes have gone, too, replaced by an eight-speed ZF automatic unit that is 'package protected' for the coming all-wheel drive system as well.

And it’s fast, hitting 100km/h in 4.7 seconds, slipping through the old quarter mile sprint (to 400 metres) in 12.8 seconds and stretching its legs out to 307km/h.

PRICES AND EQUIPMENT

The new model will start at much the same price as the current Quattroporte and its local importer hopes to significantly grow sales Down Under. It already has pre orders in double digits – clearly there is a lot of love for the Trident badge out there.

The current Quattroporte runs from around $250,000 to circa-$300,000 and you can expect the new model to begin life in the same neighbourhood but perhaps stretch a bit further upmarket.

In terms of safety, the Quattroporte offers six airbags, including full-length curtain side bags, two-stage front airbags and further front airbags tucked beneath the seat leather.

There is also an extension of the Maserati Stability Program to keep the car on the straight and narrow, but there are some glaring technical omissions, especially in an era of German domination. The Quattroporte has no radar cruise control, it has no lane-change, blind-spot or drowsy-driver warning systems, for example. Systems of this nature take time to develop, Maserati admitted, and it will get to them… Just not yet.

While it doesn’t have a lot of the electronic safety gizmos of some of its rivals, it does have a forward-facing camera in front of the rear-view mirror, which allows it to automatically dim its LED/bi-Xenon front light combination, while the rears are all LEDs and take their design cues from the GranTurismo, rather than the outgoing Quattroporte.

It also has a rear view parking camera, which shows in its 8.4-inch central screen that also hosts the controls for just about everything in the car.

Maserati tried to minimize the number of knobs and switches and having a touchscreen system has helped it achieve the goal admirably. The touchscreen is actually disturbingly intuitive to use and covers everything from vehicle systems to entertainment, air conditioning and, of course, navigation.

While three seats are standard in the back, there is a more luxurious two-seat setup that boasts electrically reclining seats (plus the ability to move the front passenger seat forward remotely) and has its own entertainment setup as an option. All Quattroporte’s can also be turned into rolling WLAN WiFi hotspots.

There is a standard two-zone climate control setup, though a four-zone system is optional, as is a 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system (that is frankly awesome) atop the stock 11-speaker system.

MECHANICAL

One of those bits is a brand-spanking new 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8, designed by Maserati Powertrain and built just up the road in Maranello. Yes, by Maserati’s former owner, Ferrari.

It’s a 90-degree vee angle and it boasts four cam phasers (two per bank) to minutely vary the valve timing on the exhaust and inlet camshafts.

It’s an oversquare engine, with the cylinder holes much wider than they are deep. Maserati worked hard to carefully package the pair of twin-scroll turbochargers, one for each bank. Coupled to them are a pair of air-to-air intercoolers. The powertrain features bigger radiators and a 200-bar direct fuel-injection system.

It’s a mighty engine ripping out 390kW at 6800rpm and 650Nm from 2000-4000rpm. And that torque figure can be overboosted to 710Nm for up to five seconds if you need it for overtaking. It’s 19 per cent more powerful and 39 per cent torquier than the 4.7-litre V8 in the range-topping Quattroporte Sport GT S that is on sale today.

That’s one half of the coin. The other is that it’s 20 per cent more fuel efficient, too, with an ICE (Increased Control and Efficiency) mode joining the usual Sport and Normal modes and helping it to post 11.9L/100km on the combined cycle.

Joining the fray is an eight-speed automatic transmission with two overdriven gears and it’s pre-engineered for the all-wheel drive system that both the V8 and upcoming V6 twin-turbo variants will receive.

This all drives through a limited-slip rear differential surrounded by a five-link rear suspension system. The super-accurate suspension engineering is one of the Quattroporte’s highlights, along with a double wishbone front end that’s almost exclusively made of aluminium.

The new car uses a more modern interpretation of Maserati's Skyhook active suspension system which constantly adjusts the damping rates and means that you don’t really need to select the Sport mode. Simply, the big brain will figure out you’ve started to drive quickly and effectively do it anyway.

Maserati has eschewed current trends for electro-mechanical steering, sticking with a more conventional hydraulic setup with an all-new steering box to go with the new variable ratio rack. There is also less assistance in the system to give drivers more intimate feedback.

Brakes are enormous with 380mm x 32mm ventilated front discs clamped by six-piston fixed calipers and 350mm x 28mm rear ventilated discs using four-piston fixed calipers. Developed with Brembo, the brakes continue the Dual Cast technology used on the old Quattroporte. Cast iron is used for the friction surfaces and lightweight aluminium for everything else.

While 20-inch wheels and tyres are standard, Maserati offers the option of larger forged 21-inch alloys or smaller 19-inch flow-formed alloys. The logic is that the biggest wheels (with 245/35 R21 front tyres and 285/30 R21 rears) is for the hard-core sportier drivers, the standard wheels (with 245/40 fronts and 285/35 rears) are the solid middle ground, and the smaller wheels (with 245/45 front and 275/40 rear tyres) will give added comfort for those who need it.

With all this going on, Maserati has not only pulled 90kg out of the car to end up with a 1900kg dry weight, but it has maintained its 50:50 front-to-rear weight distribution.

There has also been plenty of work beneath the car to reduce aerodynamic drag. Featured is a flat floor and aero flaps on the rear suspension to smooth the airflow out, along with a rear diffuser and a small spoiler lip built into the rear boot lid.

PACKAGING

Needless to say that if you ever thought the Quattroporte was a touch tight in any single dimension, your concerns should be assuaged. Where it was once 5097mm, it’s now 165mm longer at 5262mm. It’s wider, too -- up 63mm to 1948mm -- and it’s also 58mm taller, at 1481mm.

Critically, the wheelbase is a whopping 107mm longer at 3171mm, and all bar 2mm of that has been donated to the rear passengers and their legroom.

Both the front and rear tracks are also 52mm wider, yet for all of this extra size, it’s not only lighter than before but  turns around half a metre inside the old car’s 12.3-metre turning circle.

The boot is also bigger (now 456 litres), while the fuel tank has gone the other way -- shrunk five litres to 85 (though it still delivers considerably more range).

The results are clearly very generous. The rear seat feels like an extended wheelbase version of one of the Germans (or Jaguar’s XJ, for that matter), though Maserati will only ever offer the Quattroporte with this wheelbase.

The rear seat headroom didn’t seem overtly generous, though even the tall people on the launch never rubbed their hair on the alcantara roof lining.

It's also a very easy car to climb in and out of in either the front or rear seats. The front doors open generously and not only is the steering wheel height and reach adjustable, but the pedals adjust fore and aft via a button at the front of the driver’s seat.

There are generous bins aplenty throughout the Quattroporte (a far cry from the old car) and one piece of particular genius is that the standard auto shift gate and the manual shift system operate in the same plane (you just push the M button for manual operation), which saves around 5cm of centre console width.

Both the centre console and the glovebox are air conditioned.

The boot is usefully flat, though not a patch on an Audi boot. It also comes with a cargo net and side hooks and with the three-seat rear bench fitted, there is 60:40 split folding on offer, too.

ON THE ROAD

The big Maserati is comfortable immediately, allowing its driver to settle into an easy relationship with everything in the car.

Well, almost everything. If there’s one thing that stands out as a jarring piece of ergonomics, it’s that the Quattroporte’s indicator stalk feels about 15mm too short and you can foul your fingers on the downshift gear paddle when you’re trying to get to it. But that’s it for significant issues.

The seats are immediately cosseting and there is a 'sparseness' to the cabin layout that is initially disappointing but grows on you over time. The width of the machine is undeniable, and it’s made wider by a long horizontal stretch of deep-looking timber all the way across the top of the dashboard.

There are quality materials everywhere, from the abovementioned timber to Maserati's traditional brilliance with leather and the solid chunks of metal it has used for the shift paddles (still mounted on the column, not the wheel) and the surround for the multimedia screen.

The car locks, unlocks and even fires on its remote key, and the V8 fires instantly into an even, calm rumble that’s nothing like as frightening to children and domestic animals as the old 4.7-litre V8. If your dog runs away at the sound of thunder, an outgoing Quattroporte is not the car for you.

It’s demonstrably calm around town, but you are always intimidated by its sheer size, especially in the narrow streets of Nice and the even narrower mountain roads behind it. It’s not even so much the width, but the knowledge that all that wheelbase will make kerbing one of those flow-formed 20-inch alloys very, very easy.

But the gearshifts are silken and the engine’s low-down torque means the Quattroporte is a very relaxed cruiser. It’s even more relaxed in the back seat, where legroom is ridiculous and the ride quality is immense.

The steering is quite relaxed and perhaps a little uncommunicative just off centre, but it’s better than most electric systems. Still, it almost makes you worry that the Quattroporte might have forgotten how to dance when the roads start to twist.

It’s a needless worry. When the mountain roads clear, the Quattroporte shows its real character. As soon as you push the dampers and the powertrain into Sport mode, the steering comes to life.

The Quattroporte utterly defies its heft and its size to whip through direction changes with an absurdly flat stance and a rear suspension whose accuracy has to be felt to be believed. It changes direction every bit as well as hard-core sports sedans like the BMW M5 and probably corners flatter.

The steering, like the rest of the car, becomes more intuitive the faster you drive it and suddenly, far from a 5.2-metre behemoth, it feels like you’re driving a 4-metre coupe. It’s that good.

That ultra-long wheelbase helps in unlikely ways, because when it finally runs out of grip on the slick, ice-laden roads of France, the tail moves slightly out in a wonderfully controllable little drift, while the MSP skid-control software lets it stay there just long enough for you to enjoy it.

Its braking system might not be a carbon-ceramic bundle of 400mm madness, but it feels mighty beneath the brake pedal, which remains firm and hard and is absolutely intuitive to modulate.

All the while, that mighty little V8 is working hard to seem effortless and it usually succeeds. While it doesn’t have the 4.7’s sonorous charm, it’s still pretty good for a turbo engine.

There is perhaps insufficient aural difference between its standard and sport modes, because it opens its exhaust flaps in both modes when you use wide open throttle, if for no other reason than to take the back pressure off the turbos.

That can lead to other slight issues, including some resonance at around 2000rpm on light throttle, but it’s still a charmer in tunnels and it still sounds brilliant, even if it’s not quite as sparkling as its predecessor.

It does have the outgoing V8 whipped on sheer performance, though, and it’s performance everywhere in the rev range. It’s strong from idle through to the 7200rpm redline and it delivers a monster wave of torque from as little as around 1700rpm.

It also seems to have solved the age-old turbo lag problem, because it dumps revs in an instant whenever you try to adjust your line mid corner. In fact, it’s almost as responsive as the old engine, while adding heaps more power, heaps more torque, heaps more drivability and a lot less fuel consumption.

And that’s the real beauty of this Quattroporte. There are a couple of niggling things that could be fixed – should be fixed – as production proceeds next year but the core of the car is superb.

For the first time, the Quattroporte can serve as both a driver’s sports sedan and a chauffeured limousine and switch between those two characters seamlessly.

Well played, Maserati. Well played.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…