2008 Maserati Quattroporte

Review

I've always been susceptible to beauty, and in Monterey, California, where some of the world's most beautiful coastal vistas join up to an assortment of equally enchanting canyon roadways, it's beauty

that can be felt as much as seen. Maserati understands this quality perfectly, having developed what many consider the most beautifully shaped four-door on the planet. It's a car that's also blessed with beauty on the inside, and I'm not just talking about its resplendent cabin decor, but more so its ability to transcend mere people-carrying duties to performance-oriented realms that border on supercar status.

You'll find it difficult to find a better balanced sedan on the market, for any money. The Quattroporte is as fine as four-doors get, delivering up handling that's so freakishly nimble you'll swear its two sizes smaller thanks to a rigid structure and Maserati's exclusive Skyhook adaptive suspension, and now that Maserati's inserted a real automatic transmission between the front seats there's nothing that mars the overall experience.

Don't

get me wrong. As part of me laments the loss of the sequential-manual for 2009; it will no longer be available if you hadn't already heard. It's a great gearbox that delivers more sport than most anything else in this class, but fortunately for Maserati and not for the DuoSelect transmission, the co-developed ZF six-speed is as good as automatics get.

My tester came with the paddle-shifters that weren't available when I last tested the Quattroporte in and around the principality of Monaco a little over a year ago. And while Monterey's Oceanview Crescent is hardly the wealthiest neighborhood on the planet, it's nowhere near low rent and therefore qualifies as the right demographic for Maserati. I crawled up the picturesque roadway at speeds that must have made the Q look stealthy, a dark gray panther slinking along the beachside ready to pounce on any prey that dared enter its line of sight. While hardly stimulating from a driving perspective, Oceanview Crescent is a must-see for travelers and during my late April drive, stunning in

full pink bloom. Fabulous for photos, I took every opportunity to stop and snag a shot of the Quattroporte against this breathtaking backdrop, and further along where numerous viewpoints provide handy pullouts for would-be gawkers, I parked the Q for just one more photo shoot.

Once off Oceanview I meandered through town, up onto the highway south and then inward, towards some mountainous passes I got to know earlier that day while piloting the gorgeous new GranTurismo... yes, Maserati does know beauty. The Quattroporte feels stoically stable at highway speeds, by the way, managing quick lane changes with the kind of rock steady poise expected of cars in its luxury sedan class, but turning off the four-lane freeway, through a circuitous canyon road and then up into the mountains, this machine turns from luxury car to super sedan faster than you can downshift to a lower gear via the leftmost steering column mounted paddle. I slight tap on the big discs applies a

little more weight to the front tires, an old habit I now do without thought (I wish my left-foot braking was so instinctive), that causes the front tires to grip the tarmac more aggressively, although probably not needed with a car that boasts such an ideally neutral weight distribution of 49 percent front and 51 percent rear. There's no push at the front tires like an Audi A8 and nothing like the feel of technological overkill produced by the BMW 7, no isolation to the point of numbness like the Lexus LS or body sway like the big Merc, no, nothing but brilliant at-the-limit balance, off-camber curve after undulating straightway, this is a car for those who love driving as an art form. It'll reward non-professionals too, of course, making them more capable at the wheel than in most other cars, and that's a very good thing considering the trouble a person could easily get into by giving way to a tempted right foot.

The Ferrari-derived 4.2-liter V8, which is now a wet sump mill when mated to the automatic transmission instead of the dry sump setup when paired off to the DuoSelect gearbox, mixes

sweet melodious riffs with Metallica levels of harmonic distortion that'll stand the hair up on the back of any mechanically-minded enthusiast's neck, sending 400 eager horses prancing up to its sonorous 7,500 rpm redline. Whew, does it ever sound sensational up here, although peak power comes around a bit sooner at 7,000 rpm, and the engine's 339 lb-ft of maximum torque, up from 332 for the engine mated to the DuoSelect gearbox, can be had at a slightly more tractable 4,250 rpm rather than the other engine's 4,500. In fact, more than 75-percent of the revised engine's torque arrives at a rather leisurely 2,500 rpm, so you don't always have to be hard on the throttle to extract the thrust needed for spirited driving. Keep your foot pegged and the big Italian will shoot to 100 km/h in only 5.6 seconds and max out at a top speed of 270 km/h (168 mph). Sure there are faster cars, but not many. In fact, all German cars, no matter their horsepower rating, are electronically limited to 250 km/h (155 mph). But really, simply judging a car by how fast it goes is child's banter. The Quattroporte is much more about the balance of sport and luxury.

Look

around the cabin and you'll be impressed, I'm certain. Even onetime president/owner Alejandro de Tomaso (1928 - 2003) understood this aspect of the grand Italian brand when he came out with his Maserati for the masses, dubbed Biturbo. Its interior, especially after the first run of 1984 cars, was a cut above anything from the model's German rivals, with rich woods, a gorgeous analog clock and leather or suede just about everywhere... even the roofliner. The third-generation Quattroporte ('79 – '90) of the same era and much older Maseratis didn't hold back on luxury either, with the original '63 through ‘69 Quattroporte, considered the fastest four-door of its time, incidentally, filled with beautiful wool carpeting, stunning wood trim and even pig skin seats and door accents in top line models.

The new Quattroporte holds little back too, with soft, supple leathers featuring contrasting piping, finely detailed metalwork, and more gorgeous wood than even the British can muster, unless you move beyond the Quattroporte's price bracket into

Bentley and Rolls-Royce Territory. Actually, this brings up an interesting point. Maserati has carved out a unique niche for the Quattroporte, above the everyday premium brands from America, Britain, Japan and Germany, for the most part, and below the ultra-premium marques just mentioned. It's seen that way in buyers' minds too. Toss Maserati into a conversation about the Audi A8, BMW 7-Series, Cadillac STS, Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS 460 or Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and people will look at you as if you're out of your mind. The Trident brand is perceived as being worth much more than what its cars are sold for, even when discussing top-line models of some of the German brands that escalate into much loftier territory than the Maser, and resale prices often reflect this. What this also means is that Quattroporte owners enjoy greater status for their money than those buying into more mainstream premium brands. And with that comes a certain exclusivity normally associated with elite nameplates. Truly, on a sale per sale basis, you're just as likely to see a Bentley Flying Spur as a Quattroporte, and the guy parking your Q at the club will give you the same level of respect as he would someone driving one of the ultra-luxury rides - and he gets to use an electronic parking brake now, to enhance the experience.

Maserati has also been effective in creating exclusive trim levels within a given model range, and with respect to the Quattroporte there's no shortage of specialty offerings. Two thousand and eight models can be had in base Quattroporte form, which is hardly a “base” car with suede-like Alcantara roof lining, Maserati's Comfort Pack seats with massage and ventilation built-in, plus rear seat climate controls and privacy screens on the windows, although the Quattroporte Executive GT in these photos ups the ante with more luxury and other interior upgrades, plus a few exterior embellishments in bright metal to highlight key styling details. New for this year is the Quattroporte Sport GT S, featuring carbon fiber trim woven with aluminum thread, 20-inch Dark Chrome wheels, dual-cast cross-drilled brakes with six-piston calipers, and a

lowered and more aggressively tuned suspension for even more assertive handling characteristics, and quicker shift ratios for more engaging acceleration. I recommend going to www.maseratiamerica.com and configuring one for yourself, as this is the best car builder online and the possibilities for individual expression are almost limitless... ok, not quite limitless but more than four million color and trim combinations is pretty impressive.

Exclusivity doesn't matter to everybody, I know, and neither do luxury appointments, but combine these attributes with jaw dropping performance, neck-snapping good looks and an enviable record for reliability, not to mention all of the safety features expected in a modern car, and Maserati has created one of the most desirable sedans anywhere. The only thing that could make this car better would be a little more power, a few interior upgrades and maybe a dash of the GranTurismo's design character to update the look. All I can say about that is stay tuned, the 2009 Quattroporte won't disappoint.