Maserati's 433-hp Quattroporte GT S Hitting Detroit

To many car enthusiasts, Maserati's Quattroporte is the ultimate sport sedan. It looks exotic, is powered by a revised Ferrari

V8, and if a four-door Ferrari ever came into being it would probably handle much like the Trident-badged car. So why bother making it even sportier? With all of the components already sitting on the shelf from use in the Gran Turismo S, it simply would be wrong not to use them to stimulate the new Quattroporte GT S.

The new GT S, which gets officially introduced today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, features an upgraded version of the brand's sonorous V8 that makes 433-horsepower and mates it to a modified six-speed automatic with steering column-mounted paddle shifters. Revisions to the smooth and quick-shifting gearbox include shorter initial intervals for quicker acceleration.

A sportier exhaust system should make the car even more arousing, which some might find hard to believe considering Maserati's V8 in stock form is stimulating enough to give more women heightened sexual arousal than any other engine, as tested by a UK scientific study in September involving white lab coats, audio recordings of powerful engines and saliva swabs (see September 8, 2008, for "Scientists Prove Powerful Engines Get a Woman's Motor Running").

Underneath

the car, modified spring rates and single rather than variable dampers form a stiffer, quicker reacting chassis, augmented by sizeable 20-inch alloys on lower profile Z-rated rubber.

Maserati has enhanced the interior with suede-like Alcantara trim on the seat insets to allow more grip during aggressive cornering, plus the usual plethora of hand-finished wood is replaced by hand-finished black lacquer.

So why debut the very special car in Detroit, where Maserati is likely to sell few if any new Quattroporte GT S models and many of its peers, including its sibling brand Ferrari, have totally vacated Cobo Hall? For one reason, much of the world's press are at the show which up until recently was the most prestigious of its kind on the North American calendar, pens in hand and looking for something interesting to write about, and for a second reason, Maserati is celebrating its 70th anniversary of winning the storied Indianapolis 500. Wilbur Shaw piloted an 8C TF to victory at the big oval "Brickyard" in 1939 and then again in 1940, so why not remind everyone about the legendary Italian marque's American motorsport heritage?