Unparalleled beauty and performance

Bob Hume reviews the Maserati Quattroporte executive.





Maserati has a strong tradition of sports car building and has fused their technology and sporting pedigree into a luxury saloon. The Executive GT Automatic is the flagship variant of the luxury four-door five-seater Quattroporte.

Styled by the famous Italian automotive designer Pininfarina, this car takes design cues from the ‘70s. There is a retrospective and nostalgic look to the rear quarter of the Quattroporte; the ‘C’ pillars and boot area are reminiscent of some of the sports saloons of thirty years ago. The front end and grille are aggressively styled and the combination of all of the curves and muscular lines, combine to make the entire car a boldly styled and achingly handsome form; this was further accentuated by the dark grey metallic finish of the Maserati press car.

Austere
The photo shoot took place in the austere setting of Newbridge Demesne, County Dublin with kind permission from the Dublin City Council’s Michael Ryan; a location which truly befitted such a beautiful and luxurious marque. During my stay in Dublin, the big Maserati drew admiring stares from pedestrians and fellow road users alike; one wide-eyed taxi driver even drew me into a conversation about the Quattroporte when I stopped beside him at a set of ‘lights – even jokingly offering me a swap!

The Maserati was astonishingly quick from standstill and through the automatic gears, especially on the tighter-geared and more throttle-sensitive ‘sport’ mode, roaring to the national speed limit with incredible urgency accompanied by a spine-tingling roar. On back roads, the car belied its size and seemed to be ‘on its toes’ and quick to react; this is mostly thanks to a remarkably good multi-link ‘Skyhook’ suspension set-up and highly developed geometry.

Fantastic
The 4244cc V8 multi-valve engine will propel almost two tonnes of Italian luxury from rest to 60 MPH in 5.6 seconds, beating several of its direct rivals. Keep you right foot down and the Quattroporte will reach a maximum speed of 167 MPH. Under heavy acceleration there is a spine-tingling symphony from the big V8, it’s almost a melodic sound to car fanatics like me. Whilst other luxury saloon manufacturers seem to have tried their best to hide the sound of the big, high-performance ‘V’ format engines, Maserati seem to celebrate and accentuate this inspiring sound.

This is a luxury car from a famous super-car car manufacturer; a beautifully finished, comfortable and beautiful luxury saloon. It will deliver you to your destination deftly and quietly but if you choose to you can make the Quattroporte bark and roar and it will cover a lot of ground with all the drama and excitement of a super-car.

The new luxury car market in Northern Ireland has developed dynamically in the last few years and demand for the luxury car segment has grown disproportionately to the rest of the market. This is an obvious indicator of the growing economy, however one effect is that certain luxury cars have become more common than you would imagine - to the extent that hardly any of them fail to turn heads any more. For the same money, or even slightly less, you can get yourself something very different and something that shows you’ve actually put a bit of thought into your choice.

Fact File

Sole Maserati dealership in Ireland:
Ian Sinnamon
Charles Hurst Specialist Cars
Boucher Road
BELFAST

Tel: 028 9038 3511