The car showcases Italian design flair at its best, with a shark-nose grille and triple side air-vents grabbing attention!
The car also features triangular C-pillars in the vein of other four-door Maseratis. According to the company’s Design Chief Lorenzo Ramaciotti, the car is faithful to Maserati’s guiding design principles of ‘harmony of shapes, dynamism of lines and Italian elegance’.
The new car is longer than the 5,097 millimetres of the current model, which liberates more cabin space and a 30 per cent larger boot. The frame-less doors open to a spacious interior with improved rear legroom and lush leather and wood lining. Surprisingly, this has been achieved with a 90-kg weight reduction over the current car, though the new car still weighs in at 1.9 tonnes!
The new Quattroporte will be powered by a new family of engines co-developed by Ferrari and Maserati. Twin petrol engines – a 3.8-litre V8 engine with 537.3 PS and a 3.0-litre V6 turbo with 415.6 PS – will do duty on the new car, with a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel with 334.5 PS being available in Europe from 2014. ZF’s eight-speed automatic transmission will drive the power to the rear wheels only or to all wheels (4wd) for different models. The top speed for the V8 petrol will be 308.9 km/h.
The American markets get the left-hand drive V8 version in March 2013, with right-hand drive versions coming only in June. The cheaper (from the current £ 81,000 price) V6 model also will be available from June, which makes it a real threat to the S-Class.
The new Quattroporte marks the beginning of Maserati’s challenge to the German makes, with two more launches to follow soon – a smaller and cheaper Ghibli M5 rival to be launched next autumn and the Levante SUV (based on the Jeep) a year later. Maserati hope these launches will push their sales by a nine-fold increase to 50,000 units by 2015.
