Road Test
Maserati Granturismo 4.2 V8
Test date 02 January 2008
Price as tested £78,605
For The way it looks, interior space, engine and gearbox, agile handling
AgainstSeating position, real-world performance, underwhelming brakes
For all the motor industry’s change, some things stay the same. Fuel prices go up, some car-makers make hay while others go to the wall. And Maserati finds itself flitting cyclically between plodding, and being on the fringe of a resurgence which, as often as not, starts with a fabulous-looking, desirable and enchanting coupe, and finishes with disappointing dynamics, questionable durability, or a combination of the two.
Today, following on from the GranSport (formerly the Coupé and 3200GT, which all followed recent ‘resurgence? No’ tradition) there is the GranTurismo. A new coupe, again a V8, again styled by Pininfarina...
...only this time it’s a bit different. This car is not as stunted as the 3200GT and its successors, it’s not a two-and-a-bit seat coupe with a sluggish automated manual gearchange. This is a full four-seater, a proper Grand Tourer, and an automatic at that.
What is still familiar about the GranTurismo, though, is that it’s powered by a V8 engine that revs to the other side of 7000rpm and that, if it manages to be as good as it looks, will guarantee Maserati has a nailed-on winner on its hands. Question is, can the GranTurismo deliver on the promise?
Maserati was created in 1914 but it took until 1947 and the Pininfarina styled A5 GranTurismo before it made a road car and then until the 3500GT of 1957 before it became primarily a road car manufacturer.
The staple of its range since has been high performance coupes. That the GranTurismo is called what it is, and arrived in 2007 (the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the 3500GT and A5) must be no coincidence.
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