Red Devil

The Age

Saturday June 7, 2008

Ian Porter

MASERATI'S new GranTurismo S does the near impossible - increasing sportiness while retaining quiet and comfort, writes Ian Porter.

THE slightly menacing burble of the V8 bounces off the walls of the narrow medieval laneway as the Maserati calmly slips through the village towards the castle at the top of the hill.

Any occasion to ease off the throttle brings an extra deep, bubbling gurgle from the exhaust system, and a sharp blip of the throttle if the gearbox needs to seamlessly select a lower gear when in automatic mode.

The complete lack of fuss from the powerful engine at low speeds is striking. Minutes earlier, the four-seater GranTurismo S had been howling down the autostrada at speeds which could possibly have led to a jail term in Australia, the engine performing as well at 7500 rpm as it is now at 1500 rpm wending its way up the cobbled laneway to Castell' Arquato, in the Emilia-Romagna area near Parma, Italy.

The Maserati's passage was always noticed by the local Modenese, who invariably smiled when the gorgeous sleek coupes rumbled by.

And yet, if the mood is not right, the driver merely has to flick a switch and the new GranTurismo S is transformed, if not quite into a library, into a sophisticated place where normal conversations can be conducted at Italian highway speeds.

This dual personality of the GranTurismo S makes it a grand tourer in the old sense. Able to cosset four people in leather-bound comfort - although those in the back should ideally be shorter than 178 centimetres - the Maserati can also devour hundreds of kilometres with alacrity and lack of fuss.

As part of the Fiat group for 16 years, the revitalised manufacturer put a lot of work into the S, which has been released only a year after the GranTurismo burst on to the world stage to become the fastest selling Maserati yet.

The booming sales show that good looks - in this case from Pininfarina - sell cars. Together with the Quattroporte four-door sedan, the GranTurismo has pushed Maserati to record sales.

News that an S version was coming gave rise to fears that the car might be given a few more kilowatts and a stiff suspension so that the price of the sold-out GranTurismo could be raised.

But this is no chip and stiff job. Maserati has radically overhauled the drivetrain so it can offer a sports version of the GranTurismo complete with a manual transmission, instead of a torque converter with a manual override, as in the original.

Yes, an increase in engine capacity from 4.2 litres to 4.7 litres has raised power 8% - from 298 to 323 kW, but stresses in the engine have been reduced by a cut in specific output from 71 to 69 kW a litre. Fuel consumption has improved around 3% from the GranTurismo but, at 16.6 L/100 km, GranTurismo S owners should not sell their Caltex shares just yet.

Drivers are given a little buzz when starting the engine as the management system kicks the revs up to around 2000 for an instant, producing a little bark from the exhaust.

The big change in the drivetrain, however, is the adoption of a robotised manual gearbox, developed in conjunction with Graziano, to replace the automatic mounted on the back of the GranTurismo engine that gave the GranTurismo a 49:51 weight distribution front to rear.

Having made the decision to install a robotised manual, Maserati then went the whole hog and decided to move the 'box from behind the engine to the front of the rear axle, keeping the 'box rigidly connected to the engine with a torque tube that has the driveshaft spinning inside it. The transaxle layout created gives an "excellent" 47:53 weight distribution, according to the Maserati engineer Giorgio Cornacchio.

"Normally 50% on the rear wheels is considered good, so 53% for the GranTurismo S is the icing on the cake," he says.

Reorienting the car's weight is one thing, but in these days of fuel prices and emissions awareness, cutting overall weight is a prime target. Maserati appears to have done less well in this area, as the GranTurismo S still weighs in at 1880 kilograms, identical to the GranTurismo.

In fact, Cornacchio defends the new car's mass as something of an achievement.

"The car has a lot of content. If you compare cars with the same levels of content, we are as good or better," he says.

"One thing we are pushing a lot is the use of lightweight materials. Weight reduction will be done, but by taking (it) away in the right places."

Which is why the GranTurismo S has been given the same front discs as the Quattroporte GT-S, a special Brembo design that comprises two outer layers of cast iron sandwiching an inner core of aluminium. They are only used on the front wheels, but they save a handy five kilograms, which compensates for some of the extra weight that came with the torque tube.

"We want to have weight reduction, but at the same time we want to keep the axle load distribution right. We now have a really correct situation which is a good advantage," Cornacchio says.

The gearbox might be a manual, but there is no clutch and no gearstick, just paddles behind the steering wheel. And it can be set into automatic mode, with gearchanges controlled by the engine management system and accompanied by that neat blip on the throttle when going down a ratio.

When in manual mode, the driver selects the gears and the car will hold the gear selected, even if the engine reaches the red line.

The driver also can choose the "sport" setting in either automatic or manual. Sport gives the GranTurismo S its aural machismo by opening two valves in the exhaust system, essentially making it a straight-through outlet, producing a more aggressive note when the engine is pushed, plus the burbling and gurgling at lower speeds.

It also makes the gear changes faster in both modes, and opens the way for Maserati's new ''MC-shift'' system to come into play. This is the equivalent of Jekyll and Hyde switch and makes the S two cars in one.

When in manual "sport", and with the engine spinning above 5500 rpm, the MC-shift makes changes in 100 milliseconds, which is eye-blink fast and keeps the engine well up in the rev range so there is plenty of power available when the next ratio is selected.

The gear paddles on the S are still fixed to the column and do not move with the wheel. Maserati has made them larger to make it easier to change gears while steering.

The new system is much better than some earlier Fiat group robotised manuals, where drivers and passengers would lurch forward when the system disengaged a gear to make a change. There is still a trace of this hesitation in the GranTurismo S, but it is much shorter than the hesitation experienced with an ordinary manual gearbox. When the "sport" setting is off, the exhaust is almost imperceptible and the Maserati becomes a quiet, well-insulated transport capsule that handles almost all road surfaces with ease.

In time-honoured tradition, the suspension has been stiffened by around 10% and the rear anti-roll bar thickened. Customers can specify the Skyhook variable damper suspension.

The fixed-rate set-up gives a firmer ride, but Cornacchio said Maserati was keen not to compromise the essential ride quality of the coupe, which he points out is a grand tourer, not an out-and-out sports car.

Maserati has achieved a great compromise. The Maserati rides serenely over most surfaces and it has to be a big hole to transmit shocks into the cabin. The wide tyres generate a low level of road roar on coarse surfaces but overall, the cabin is a quite place to be.

On winding roads, the Maserati really shone, with the front tyres biting promptly when the steering wheel was turned. Cornering was flat and the rear wheels followed obediently. The road holding gave great confidence and the brakes also performed well under relatively modest pressure.

Around town the brakes were a pleasure to use, never grabbing suddenly, like some other high-performance setups.

Inside, the cabin is largely unchanged from the GranTurismo, the driver and front passenger sitting on seats that initially feel hard and flat, but which offer good lateral support when the G forces climb.

The instruments are clearly laid out, with large white on black dials ahead of the driver, sandwiching a generously sized data panel which has a very large readout to tell the driver what gear has been selected.

The instrument panel is quite busy and will take a little getting used to, but the overall design is pleasing, with a slash of body colour metal cutting the dashboard horizontally in red cars.

Maserati has pulled off a difficult task with the GranTurismo S.

The GranTurismo is an excellent cross-continent cruiser and, while the S model has been significantly modified and sharpened in the power and handling areas, the S still retains the ride comfort and noise suppression that made the original car such a good grand tourer in the original sense.

The S will be available early next year, priced from about $330,000.

Ian Porter travelled to Italy as a guest of Ateco.

© 2008 The Age

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