Traditionally, the four-door Maserati hasn’t been a beautiful car. The original was fair, the second dull and the third resembled a bloated Hyundai Stellar. At least the fourth-generation car was striking, in a square-edged way. It has taken Pininfarina to deliver a truly attractive Quattroporte with this model.
There is no bold styling theme – instead lithe, flowing lines cleverly mask its considerable 5052mm length and incorporate cues from Maseratis past – noticeably a thick, Quattroporte 1-echoing rear pillar and A6-style square wing vents and jutting nose.
Maserati has ploughed over £140m into development of the Quattroporte and its M139 platform. The steel monocoque is conventional, only the bonnet and bootlid being made of weight-saving aluminium, but the tiny front overhang and long area aft of the front wheels subtly betray the effort that has been made in optimising the car’s mechanical balance.
The front/mid-mounted engine is the same 4244cc V8 that powers the Coupé and Spyder, but with revised camshafts and modified mapping to boost low-end torque. With twin cams for each bank and 32 variably timed valves, the dry-sump unit produces 394bhp at 7000rpm and 333lb ft of torque at 4500rpm. Those numbers are outgunned by every one of the Maserati’s rivals.
To further improve weight distribution, drive heads to the back wheels through a rear-mounted six-speed transaxle. The transmission offers fully automatic gearchanges or clutchless sequential manual operation via paddles mounted either side of the steering column.
Suspension is by coil springs and double wishbones all round, controlled by Maserati’s ‘Skyhook’ electronic adaptive dampers. A button on the dash switches between normal and Sport modes, adjusting the aggression of the damping and gearshift speeds, as well as the degree of intervention from the stability control.