MASERATI’S newest GranTurismo is on the road, months ahead of its official reveal. The high-performance Super GT coupé is very visible, zooming along Italy’s many long provincial roads and negotiating its narrow city streets driven mostly by a selected number of employees from the Maserati Family.
It will initially come in the Modena and Trofeo trims fitted with the V6 Nettuno engine, the same one fitted in the Grecale SUV and the MC20 supercar. However, based on Maserati’s available powertrains, the Super GT may get a hybrid and even a full-electric option.
The excitement created by GranTurismo’s street reveal shows its heritage. Part of the livery of the car is a specially designed and crafted decal showing the number “75th” juxtaposed by Maserati’s famous trident. This is to highlight the GranTurismo’s longevity as enters its seventy-fifth year in the Italian car maker’s stable.
The first GranTourismo was launched in 1947 at the Geneva Motor Show, almost every iteration of the vehicle was launched at this same show throughout its history. Many automotive journalists speculate that Maserati wanted the latest iteration to be released again in Switzerland on February 2023. Due to geo-political and COVID-19 related issues, however, many car companies failed to commit to the Swiss leg of the Geneva Motor Show, thus it was canceled. As the organizers skipped Palexpo, it instead focused on Doha, Qatar on November 23.
This could be one reason why Maserati has been overtly doing its test drives in the open without masking the car or its details. And having select employees enjoy the ride too.
Despite the availability of a line of super powerful internal combustion engines, the electric GranTourismo may prove to be the most exciting, as it can easily be the quickest version of the car. Maserati already has an electric powertrain with 105kW battery pack and a motor that spins up to produce 800 Nm of torque and will travel about 560kms on a single charge.
The GranTourismo’s DNA has never changed since the first technologically-advanced, ultra-limited A6 1500 Gran Turismo of which only 61 were produced. The idea came about after WWII, during the Italian economic boom, when the country presented to the world its outstanding products, strength, optimism and carefree attitude. “The will to work but also to enjoy ourselves,” said Maserati’s press statement.
The sculpted, Pinin Farina-penned dropping roofline, wide stance, the rounded nose and rear profile, the accents to this overall look remain–its silhouette almost untouched from day 1. It also received, in every iteration, the best, most powerful engine available. The car has always been enthusiastically received by the motoring press.
Aside from the aerodynamics of the design, the first GranTourismo had an overhead-cam engine with a sophisticated valvetrain and tubular frame to craft the body on. The coupe was way ahead of its time. The A6 Gran Turismo signaled the marque’s beginning as a maker of luxurious sports cars. Maserati considers the GT as a formula that solved a near-impossible query and developed “a new concept of luxury mobility, capable of bringing together performance and comfort.”
“Today, the energy of the new Maserati GranTurismo generation is now ready to take the Brand ahead into the future, emboldened by its unique style and driven by an innate propensity for innovation,” Maserati said.
