Maserati's Quattroporte: The Tip of the Autoberg...

Just as Jaguar has methodically increased its model range in the past five years, taking a larger slice of the global prestige car market and gaining brand awareness, Maserati is taking its first tentative steps on a similar journey with an impressive new V8-powered saloon.

Up until now, the exotic Italiano car maker had a stable of just two cars - the Spyder and Coupé, both of which use what is essentially the same body and internals.

Both are reportedly stellar vehicles, involving the driver like any good Italian exotic should, but, with only two doors they miss out on more lucrative market segments.

Enter the Quattroporte, first seen at the 2003 Frankfurt Motorshow. It looked great and caused many a heart to flutter, though detailed information wasn't exactly flowing like the Murray.

Maserati has now come clean on all things Quattroporte, and this third model will strike a chord with traditional buyers of large, powerful, Euro luxury saloons such as Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-series and Audi A8.

For starters, this is one big Italian car, measuring just over 5.0 metres in length (about the size of a Statesman or Fairlane) and close to 2.0 metres in width [1,895 mm].

It has four doors - hence the name - seats five and packs a Ferrari-built 4.2-litre V8 just for good measure. Despite a torrid turning circle of 12.3 metres, it makes up for this with an above average 450 litres of boot space and a big 90 litre fuel tank, perfect for (grand) touring.

While the chassis is largely fabricated from steel, the bonnet and boot areas are made from aluminium and the independent double wishbone suspension (front & rear) features such techno wizardry as antidive/antisquat mechanisms and continuously variable damping for a super smooth ride.

The Quattroporte sits on 18-inch [11-spoke] light alloy wheel rims, or can be optioned with bigger 19-inch alloys [9-spoke] and, it has to be said, looks pretty good for a first attempt at a large top-shelf sedan.

Designed by Pininfarina, the new look is almost a little too curvaceous, the result of which can often result in cars looking smaller than they actually are - perhaps this was the idea?

From whichever angle you look at it, the Quattroporte is intrinsically Italian, though the front grille has a little English influence, perhaps from the Aston Martin garages.

While the Quattroporte may take time to mature visually in the minds of wealthy luxo-barge buyers, there's no doubting that the new Maz' has class-topping performance.

At it's core sits the quick spinning Ferrari-built 4.2-litre V8, which pumps out an exuberant 294kW @ 7000rpm and 451Nm of torque @ 4500rpm.

Such an extensive powerband (spanning 2500rpm) is possible thanks to a few Ferrari forging secrets, and also a hardened aluminium silicon alloy crankcase and cylinder head.

With quad overhead camshafts, 4-valves per cylinder, continuous valve timing control and a forged and refined steel crankshaft, the rather tubby 1930kg Maserati sprints to 100km/h in a claimed 5.2 seconds, which is hard to believe considering the combined weight and power outputs.

The front-mounted 4244cc, 90° V8 engine has a very high compression ratio of 11:1, and is operated by a "Drive-by-Wire" electronic acceleration control. Most engine functions, such as fuel injection mapping, are handled by a state-of-the-art Bosch Motronic ME7 system.

Recording a top speed 275km/h [171mph], the Quattroporte will stomp all over its Germanic luxury cruiser competitors on the Autobahns and Autostradas, what their idiosyncratic (read: purpose defeating) 250km/h speed governers.

The transmission, dubbed MDS [Maserati DuoSelect], is based on a Maserati-built gearbox, which couples with a segmented self-locking differential and offers six ratios. Like many other twin-clutch semi-auto gearboxes, it offers the ease of push-button changes but with the performance of a manual, and negates the need for power sapping torque convertors too.

Though the new Maserati is now one of the quickest four-door luxury sedans on the market, it's comes with a quartet of dinner plate-sized discs in order to decrease braking time.

A Brembo braking system, with four cross-drilled ventilating discs - 330mm fronts, 316mm rears - takes care of deceleration, with four piston callipers up front and twin-pots at the rear. Bosch VDC 5.7 ABS anti-lock braking software rounds out the brake package.

Maserati's Quattroporte is an engineering benchmark, capable of extremely high levels of performance for its large size and considerable bulk, and the interior - from the design of the seats to the opulent wood trim - is also looking fairly impressive, but by no means best-in-class.

The hefty Maserati seeks to achieve an ideal marriage of two distinct personalities: a large luxury saloon with the performance of a GT. Conversely, Mercedes V8 S-Class models in particular are more focussed on sheer comfort, rather than a mixture of this and of apex-slicing enjoyment.

Step inside the Quattroporte, and it's interesting to see how it makes innovative use of classic wood trim, using it to cover large surfaces rather than for small decorative stripe inserts. The use of wood is a citation of the most classical Italian tradition, from Stradivarius violins to the luxury boats, but also of the Maseratis of the past.

The centre console between the driver and passenger areas is one of the richest features of the cockpit, with its soft, flowing lines and exquisite workmanship. On a smaller scale, the same finishes appear on the rear console, again signifying the attention given to rear seat passengers.

Furthermore, potential buyers have a choice of 15 exterior paint finishes, with a number of combinations far surpassing those offered by its competition. An equally wide selection exists for the interior leathers, with 10-colour palette that puts the Quattroporte at the top of its market segment.

Also noteworthy are the number and expanse of customisable interior surfaces (seats and door panels, steering wheel, dashboard, wood trim, stitching, roof lining, floor mats, the list goes on), allowing each customer to "construct" a custom car tailored to his personal tastes, from what Maserati types reckon is a total of 4 million possible combinations. Spoilt for choice indeed...

So, the question is: Can Maserati muscle in on the lucrative European prestige saloon market? From what we've seen so far, most definitely, yes. Interior room looks good, mechanically the Quattroporte is well above par and the price? Well, price isn't as significant in this instance.

With all this in mind, Maserati's first tentative step on the way to a bigger, more profitable business with a growing models portfolio appears to be steady, and watch out for a Kubang-inspired AWD wagon in the near future too. But, along with this new-found confidence, the Germans and Brits will surely be looking to trip up the now former niche Italian automaker, make no mistake.