The All-New Maserati Quattroporte promises to be a game changer. We head to Nice, in the not-so-sunny South East of France, to find out.
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There is a certain predictability when a manufacturer releases its latest model. You can be sure for instance that key stylistic features, give or take a few tweaks, will be carried over from the previous generation. Invariably, the new model will also be bigger in a game of one-upmanship over the outgoing model. Evolution of the species becomes a game of ‘plus one’ on that all-important spec sheet.
The new Maserati Quattroporte would at first seem to meet this criteria. On this sixth generation model the iconic mouth and gills have been retained but appear less shark-like than before. Much of the aggression of the outgoing model has been smoothed over and it has become a super-sized Quattroporte for the 21st Century. Make no mistake, this is a massive car.
The length has increased to 5,262mm (210mm longer than its predecessor) and its width, from mirror tip-to-mirror tip, is 2,100mm. You would be forgiven then for thinking that the Quattroporte had become softer and a bit more lardy in its old age.
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Maserati though has always had a knack of doing things a little differently. The new Quattroporte is actually 100kg lighter than the previous model thanks to clever use of lightweight materials; aluminium in the chassis and magnesium for the dashboard’s cross strut. The engine has also been downsized, an all-new direct injection 3.8-litre V8 replacing the previous 4.7-litre V8, although power has soared to 523bhp thanks to a pair of twin-scroll turbochargers fed individually by separate intercoolers.
The performance figures are equally as impressive with 100kph arriving in just 4.7 seconds and a top speed that comfortably breaks through the triple tonne barrier topping out at 307kph. This makes the new Quattroporte not only the fastest four-door Maserati in history, but remarkably, second quickest of all Maserati production cars behind only the mighty V12-powered MC12.
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As expected, a new look is also among the updates. Despite the Quattroporte being larger than its predecessor, the new front end is much more pointed, svelte, and – when we consider the sleek bodylines – elegant. Saying that, there’s sharpness about the new headlights and subtle bonnet ripples to which the eye is drawn almost immediately. It really is a very handsome machine.
There was, however, one thing that quite literally put a dampener on the Quattroporte’s international launch in southern France. Mother Nature was in a foul mood, and on the morning of the drive, beautiful Nice was enveloped in dank greyness and a frustratingly constant downpour.
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