Geneva show: S treatment for GranTurismo

ONE year ago Maserati unveiled the Pininfarina-designed GranTurismo at the Geneva motor show and this year it used the same event to reveal the high-performance ‘S’ version.

While the GranTurismo has only just gone on sale in Australia – and with orders already far exceeding supply – the Maserati GranTurismo S will not arrive here until early 2009.

The GranTurismo S is powered by a bigger 4.7-litre V8 that produces 328kW of power at 7000rpm and 490Nm of torque at 4750rpm (against 298kW and 460Nm for the regular GranTurismo’s 4.2-litre V8).

It will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds – three-tenths faster than the regular GranTurismo.

The front-mounted engine is combined with a rear-mounted six-speed electro-actuated semi-automatic transmission with MC-Shift software that Maserati claims gives its new performance flagship unbeatable gearshift times when upshifting and in Manual Sport mode.

This has been achieved by partially overlapping some of the shift operations, with gear disengagement and engagement taking place in advance of the clutch opening and closing, cutting shift times to 100 milliseconds.

The GranTurismo S rides on 20-inch alloy wheels that reveal Brembo six-piston mono-bloc callipers and dual-cast aluminium/iron discs, and the exterior treatment is completed by an integrated rear spoiler, side skirts, oval-shaped exhaust tailpipes and black grille and headlight surrounds.

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