Maserati GranCabrio is even prettier as a convertible than as a coupe.
With arguably the world’s most beautiful coupe as a starting point, was there ever any doubt that the GranTurismo’s topless sibling, the Maserati GranCabrio, would be anything but spectacular?
You’d scarcely have thought it possible, but the feline, sculpted shape of the coupe has been improved by the removal of its roof.
That endless, flowing shoulder line is more apparent, the oh-so-Italian air of nonchalant decadence so much more pronounced when the car is roofless and the beautiful, leather-trimmed cabin is flaunted.
Maserati GranCabrio’s cabin can be customised with any combination of colours you like.
The Maserati GranCabrio is still a proper four-seater, with enough legroom for full-sized adults to be comfortable in the back.
The two rear seats are slightly closer together than they are in the coupe, but that’s no hardship.
But the boot is abysmal – oddly shaped, and fit for soft bags only. Recognising this, Maserati is selling an accompanying luggage set, tailor-made to fit into the contorted boot space.
Structural rigidity feels every bit as good as that of the coupe, and it handles just as sharply; not with sports car-like immediacy, but with the keen, linear turn-in and effortless mid-bend stability and confidence of the best grand tourers. And the ride is good, too.
Top-down, there’s some buffeting at speed, but this can be partly quelled by raising the windows, or completely eradicated by fitting an optional net-like wind-stop over the rear cabin (only possible if there are no rear passengers).
Top-up, the Maserati GranCabrio is every bit as cocoon-like as the coupe.
Plenty of room for adults in the back of the Maserati GranCabrio, but only pretty ones.
But you don’t buy the Maserati GranCabrio to cower under its exquisitely trimmed multi-layered fabric roof, you buy it to experience the liberating thrill of having nothing but blue sky overhead as you cross 4000rpm and the exhaust valves fling themselves open.
Unfiltered by a metal roof, the engine’s stirring, metallic war cry is so much purer and more visceral.
Hit the Sport button and the aural drama starts even earlier, at 3000rpm, and in this mode there’s further fun to be had when changing gear, the 6-speed ZF autobox whipping through upchanges with furious urgency and blipping the engine extravagantly on downchanges effected via the big horn sprouting from the steering column.
The 4.7-litre V8 in the Maserati GranCabrio delivers 440bhp at full chat and 490Nm of torque.
Full-bore acceleration is very strong, if not as ferocious as the sheer output figures might suggest.
Two reasons for this: first, despite its lithe form, the Maserati GranCabrio is a heavy car, with a kerb weight verging on two tonnes; and second, the engine needs to be revved to deliver (max power and torque arrive at 7000rpm and 4750rpm respectively), so there’s no rush of effortless mid-range thrust.
Still, the Maserati GranCabrio hits 100km/h in 5.3 seconds, and in any case, with such an aurally entertaining engine, taking it to its redline is a heady indulgence, not a chore.
In fact, the whole car is an indulgence, an extravagance.
Truly, who needs a limo-length four-seater cabrio? But having experienced the Maserati GranCabrio, I now know what its back seats are for – they’re where you leave all logic behind, as you surrender to the car’s gloriously irrational appeal.
Maserati GranCabrio 4.7 (A)
ENGINE 4691cc, 32-valves, V8
MAX POWER 440bhp at 7000rpm
MAX TORQUE 490Nm at 4750rpm
GEARBOX 6-speed automatic with manual select
0-100KM/H 5.3 seconds
TOP SPEED 283km/h
CONSUMPTION 6.5km/L (combined)
PRICE INCL. COE $530,000
Check out the latest GranCabrio
