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| Maserati - The ultimate supercar and Italian Sedan
"The new flagship saloon is a combination of Italian beauty and flawless engineering, with a spacious, luxurious interior." Here on this site you can learn more about the Maserati Marquee and even WIN one of YOUR OWN. |
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Maserati
- the ultimate supercar and Italian sedan. |
"The new flagship saloon is a combination of Italian
beauty and flawless engineering, with a spacious, luxurious
interior." Here on this site you can learn more about
the cars and even WIN one of your own.
Maserati Quattroporte
The majestic new Pininfarina-styled Maserati Quattroporte
is a curvaceous yet aggressive-looking, big, five-metre
long saloon that hails the rebirth of the "Italian
flagship car". The Quattroporte is the ultimate embodiment
of qualities for which Italy is renowned throughout the
world: an appreciation of beauty and good living, elegance,
sophisticated engineering, genuinely sporty temperament
and alluring exclusivity.
A host of other features also render this new Maserati
a truly exclusive car: a highly sophisticated, light,
compact yet thrillingly responsive 4.2-litre 90° V8
that punches out 400bhp; the Skyhook automatic damping
system; the renowned MSP (Maserati Stability Program);
electronically controlled power steering; and a powerful
braking system.
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It has
been said that, when you buy an Italian car, what you
actually get is a great engine with some other stuff thrown
in for good measure. When you buy a Maserati, of course,
you get a great deal of other stuff - really good stuff,
too, like Cambiocorsa transmission, Skyhook suspension,
Brembo brakes, Xenon headlamps, Maserati's Info Center,
the finest Italian leather upholstery, a specially-designed
Bose entertainment system, and the highest level of personalization
of any car in its class - and that's just for starters.
(And speaking of starters, don't forget the Bosch ignition
and fuel-injection management system.) But a Maserati
is, down to its core, an Italian automobile, so it is
periodically desirable to discuss that engine, although
anyone who's heard it knows it speaks wonderfully for
itself.
Underneath the hood of every Maserati you will find an
engine that is incomparable within its class - or just
about any other class. It is also a beautiful thing to
behold. It is a light and compact alloy unit forged and
assembled by hand in Maranello, Italy, side-by-side with
Ferrari's legendary engines, and it looks very much like
a work of art in red, black and silver. And in a sense,
it is very much a work of art, though not merely for the
eye or ear.
"It" is a 4.2-liter, four valve per cylinder, overhead
cam, dry-sump V8 tuned for 390 or 400-bhp depending on
the Maserati into which it is placed. "It" revs happily
and very rapidly to a marvelous and entertaining 7,600rpm.
Just based on those figures you would expect this to be
an engine capable of delivering a great deal of power.
You would be right about that, although that's only a
small part of the story. What makes this atmospheric engine
so special is not just how well it performs at high rpm
- coming far closer than any car in its class to achieving
the magical ratio of 100 bhp per liter - but how much
torque it is able to deliver at lower rpm, and how consistently
that delivery is made at any engine speed. In fact, it
delivers more than three-quarters of its prodigious 333
lb-ft of torque from just 2500 rpm.
That means you can not only drive Maseratis quicker, faster
and harder, you can also drive them more smoothly under
almost any circumstance. In its different states of tune,
the much praised 4.2 liter V8 is therefore just the right
engine for the Quattroporte, the Coupe and the GranSport,
cars that uniquely and respectively balance and combine
performance and luxury."
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