5th Generation Maserati Quattroporte in Malaysia
Just a few months after its unveiling at the Frankfurt Autoshow, the all-new Maserati Quattroporte appeared in Kuala Lumpur today at the showroom of Next Car, the official importer for Malaysia. This is the fifth generation of the model which the Italian carmaker first launched in 1963 as an exclusive, high-performance saloon with comfortable accommodation for four.
In keeping with its past image, the latest Quattroporte is ‘a unique prestige automobile that combines performance, style and elegance’, in the words of the company. It is the ultimate Gran Turismo car with a level of luxury that is stratospheric and Maserati offers up to 4 million combinations of trim and equipment so it is likely that no two Quattroportes will be exactly the same.
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The original Quattroporte was styled by Frua and had evolved from a project he did for the Aga Khan. This fifth generation is the work of the Pininfarina studios which won the bid for the job over Guigiaro’s ItalDesign. Pininfarina, which last did a car for Maserati 50 years ago, has successfully re-interpreted the style of earlier Quattroportes in a distinctive form that is about the same size as a BMW 745i.
The front end has the familiar Maserati grille with ultra-modern lighting units and from there, the lines flow cleanly and fluidly to the rear where the short boot is topped by an aluminium lid. The car has a look that is definitely not French nor German: elegant, yet aggressive.
There are numerous innovations in this Maserati and one of them can be found in the door handles which unlatch the doors manually or with the help of small electric motors. When the latter is used, no effort is needed and the door just clicks open. However, in the event the battery is flat, then the traditional manual approach is still available.
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The interior is a mix of fine wood (a choice of rosewood, mahogany, and briarwood), leather (10 shades) and metal, each material blending well with the other in a cabin that will impress with its spaciousness.
The interior designers have included just about everything, including the mandatory cupholders which American customers will expect. In fact, the console box between the seats is a cooler box so drinks can be kept cold. Also present, as an option, is a GPS navigation system and a number of other electronic aids and of course, a high-quality Bose audio system and a Bosch Multimedia system.
The heart of the Maserati which lives under the long bonnet is set behind the front axle line and transmits power to a sports-derived transaxle rear-mounted gearbox in unit with the differential. The result is weight distribution of 47:53, considered optimum for a rear-wheel drive car.
The red rocker covers of the non-turbo 4244 cc V8 give away the origins of the engine. It’s a light unit at 183 kgs and features continuously-variable valve timing on the intake side. On a compression ratio of 11:1, the long-stroke engine produces 294 kW (400 bhp), which must be the highest output for a production luxury saloon. 451 Nm of torque are generated at 4500 rpm, the torque curve carefully tuned to provide consistent performance over a very broad speed range.
Unlike the Germans, the Italians seem to have no qualms about allowing their cars to achieve the maximum possible speed and thus do not restrict them to 250 km/h. The Quattroporte can thus be taken up to 275 km/h and can get from standstill to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds, claims Maserati.
The transmission is an electro-hydraulic 6-speed type which has many advantages over the conventional torque converter automatic transmission. ‘Paddles’ behind the steering as well as buttons on it can be used for shifting up or down, or using the short t-lever near the handbrake lever, or it can just be left to the computer to decide when to shift.
As you’d expect, the Quattroporte would have nothing less than a double-wishbone suspension layout all round, with enhanced ride and handling by the ‘Skyhook’ damping system with aluminium gas dampers and continuously-variable settings to give adaptive characteristics. Acceleration sensors monitor the movements of the wheels and the body as part of the computation for the damper settings and adjustments can be executed 10 times faster than conventional systems, it is claimed.
Though possessing superior stability in turns that will allow high cornering velocities, the Quattroporte will still be subject to the laws of physics and therefore electronic aids like the Maserati Stability Program (MSP) are needed to help the driver exploit the car’s capabilities safely. The MSP interfaces with the ABS, EBD and skid control functions to maintain the car’s stability when things are just about to get out of hand. It works by activating the brakes individually to counteract oversteer or understeer and keep the car on the chosen course.
The unit on display at Next Car is a pre-production unit which was earlier shown at the Sydney Motorshow, in Singapore and after Malaysia, it will be sent to Dubai before returning to the factory in Italy.
The first deliveries will not begin till early 2004 and according to a Next car source, the first customers in Singapore will get their cars in April or May 2004. Only 2,000 units a year are to be built and already, there are said to be 700 orders in Italy alone and it is likely that there will be a 2-year long waiting list.
The typical customer for a car like the Quattroporte is unlikely to ask about the price first but you probably will and the answer is US$90,000 (RM342,000). Not too expensive, right? Well, that is the price you would pay if you could get it in duty-free but import tax in Malaysia at this level is 300% so you would be looking at no less than RM1.026 million…
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