There’s lengthy starter whine before the Quattroporte fires with a yelp and settles to a subdued rumble. Select manual gearchanges, switch off the MSP stability control and select Sport mode to engage the transmission’s most aggressive shift mode, floor the throttle and there’s a split-second delay as the revs rise before the huge saloon lunges forwards. Our average 0-60mph time of 5.3sec could have been bettered, but as it was, the Quattroporte trailed 0.7sec behind the M5’s 4.6sec 0-60mph time, despite its 53 per cent rearward weight bias giving brilliant traction and a 0.2sec advantage to 30mph.
Short gearing means a lot of gearchanging, which is fine when driving hard, the robotised manual gearbox giving 150 millisecond changes in Sport mode. As long as you’re happy to swap ratios yourself, the third-generation DuoSelect system works well in normal use, too. It’s in Drive mode that it trips up. There’s a perceptible nodding from the occupants as each automated shift occurs, but press on and it’s a real pain, with a long wait as the software decides which gear to provide.
The Quattroporte demonstrates an appetite for corners that its size would never lead you to expect. Exceptional body control plays a big part, its adaptive dampers sensing body movements and reacting in an instant to all but eliminate roll, pitch and dive and provide nimble turn-in.
But there’s a price to pay for the Maserati’s handling and that’s a very un-limo-like ride. Our test car was fitted with the £3055 Sport Package, which offers harder settings for the adaptive dampers and lower-profile 19-inch tyres (albeit the same width as the standard 18-inchers). It’s a chassis that never settles, with a continual fidget on the motorway that becomes more intrusive as the speed drops. By the time the car has to deal with town Tarmac it’s downright uncomfortable.