You’ve got to give it to the Italians. Who else would even think of colour co-ordinating your car’s interior with your tailored suit and perhaps also your snazzy leather shoes?
If this service were offered by almost anyone else, it could feel gimmicky but when a car maker the likes of Maserati launches its new Quattroporte saloon and announces a three-year partnership with a label the likes of Ermenegildo Zegna at the same time, you’ve got to stand back and admire them.
The Quattroporte has long been the style master of the large executive saloon, combining a heady mix of beautiful coachwork on the outside, hand-stitched Italian leather along with timbre grain on the inside and racetrack engineering underneath.
After all, it was Maserati that invented the concept of a luxury sports sedan when it designed its one-off, four-door 5000WP model for Prince Karim Aga Khan, back in 1962. So beautiful was this tailor-made prototype that the factory decided to put a version of it, equipped with one of the 3.8-litre, quad-carburettor V12 engines they used in their race cars, into production. Twelve months later in 1963, the Quattroporte made its debut and the large, comfortable luxury four-door saloon was born.
Long before the Porsche Panamera, the Aston Martin Rapide, the AMG S-Class Mercedes’ or the Audi A8s and M-powered 7-Series BMWs, the Quattroporte stood alone as the only alternative for the buyer in search of both luxury and high-performance in one sensuous package – as well as the Statesman-like conveyance of choice for the Cosa Nostra for over 20 years.
Now, a snazzy pair of wing tips tanned to match the Maserati Blue of your car and a sharp suit that complements its interior is something of which Don Corleone would surely have approved but when we took it for a spin, our Quattroporte was an intimidating black and sported a matching dark leather interior.
Perhaps the roll-up privacy blinds concealed in the rear door windows and power-operated one in the rear window contributed to its air of mystery but either way, pulling up at the lights, our Quattroporte drew more attention from rubber-neckers nearby than anything short of a Ferrari 458 Italia.
I’m a huge fan of the old Quattroporte and after eight years on the market, I was curious to see if Maserati could pull it off again, and produce a look just as captivating. To my relief, it appears they can.
The leather is the same as that used by sister company Ferrari and its stance on the road is helped by the option of 19, 20 or even 21-inch alloy wheels. Generous customisation options - in terms of colour, material, style, piping, contrasting and more – means it’s unlikely that any two Quattroporte will look the same.
It’s also now longer than ever, at just over five metres, allowing it to challenge the 7-Series and S-Class head on. Completely new from top to tail, it has new Ferrari-designed engines, both interior and body.
And it needs to be good. The Quattroporte is the first of a new breed of Maserati alongside the smaller Ghibli and the Levant SUV which, when combined, needs to boost total sales from last year’s 6,200 units to 50,000 by 2015.
Regionally, exact figures are hard to obtain but Maserati Middle East appears to be on track to double its volume this year and that’s before even taking sales of the Ghibli or the Levant into account.
For its part, the Ghibli will take on the CLS Mercedes and BMW GranCoupe and Maserati expects it will match the Quattroporte’s ambitious new targets to give the company two volume-leading models. When the Jeep Grand Cherokee-based SUV becomes reality, those figures should only keep rising.
No wonder then that the Maserati boys smile so optimistically these days, though it must be said, this is in equal measure to the cold sweat beading the brows of their sales managers.
The sixth generation Quattroporte offers the choice of two new twin-turbocharged, direct injection petrol engines built by Ferrari. Initially, that will be the 3.8-litre V8, which we drove and which reaches 523bhp. A little later, this model will be joined by a 3.0-litre V6, which will punch out a respectable 407bhp, which isn’t far off the old V8’s figures. Both models will drive through silky smooth eight-speed ZF automatic transmission, which will hopefully consign Maserati’s old Achilles heel to the history books.
Unfortunately, the transition to the new ZF box has also meant the loss of some of the Quattroporte’s roar but it still sounds much more enjoyable to the ear than its competitors. I’d suggest you keep the Sport button engaged, roll down the windows and see what envy looks like when you pass the driver of a Lexus LS460, riding along in silence.
Where the new car excels above all is in its interior, which is leaps and bounds ahead of the old model. Gone are the outdated switches, LCD panels and fob keys for the doors and ignition. In their place comes keyless entry and start, a snazzy centre console screen that binds all the vitals for entertainment, climate control and trip computer in a modern, sleek dash. Then there’s the custom Bowers & Wilkins stereo, another new collaboration for Maserati.
The best parts of the old model’s interior, like its all-leather seats with their traditionally styled ribbed inserts, still look and feel beautiful but the best news is that any fear you might have had about size impinging on driving quality dissolves the moment you close the door. The seats hold you well and the driving position - low and long - feels ideal for driving and despite being bigger than the old model, the new Quattroporte is just as sporting as ever.
The 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8 is an absolute gem that doesn’t know when to stop revving. To change up at its 7,200rpm red line from rest is to hurl 1,900kg of car from 0 to 100km/h in just 4.7 seconds. That’s as good as the best sports coupés, as is the top speed of 305km/h.
One small snark. As much as I am captivated by the looks of the new model (and I am), my crush for the previous Quattroporte remains. Does that sound perverse? Possibly but a classic is always a classic. After all, Sophia Loren may not have made a film for decades but does that make her any less desirable today?
Each of the five previous Quattroportes have proven to be benchmark cars and the last one won over 50 awards during its eight-year reign, so designing a worthy successor can’t have been easy but if our brief taste of it is anything to go by, the boys at Maserati can keep on smiling.
