Maserati Quattroporte

MASERATI'S four-door luxury sedan arrived in late 2004, as the Ferrari-owned brand’s rival against the likes of Audi’s A8.

Described as "the world’s most bespoke luxury saloon", the Pininfarina-designed, hand-built four-door offers a wide range of paint, wood and leather choices, plus options like reclining, heated and air-conditioned rear seats, a rear DVD and personalised engraving.

The five-metre-long Quattroporte features a 4.2-litre V8 mounted behind the front axle and, combined with a rear transaxle gearbox and unusually long wheelbase providing the four-seater with limousine-like interior dimensions, claims an optimal 48/52 front/rear weight splitThe Executive GT from late 2005 offers more luxury than the standard Quattroporte via wood-veneer interior highlights, Alcantara headlining, extra rear-seat accessories, a chrome mesh grille, side chrome grilles, an external identification plate and nine-spoke 19-inch ball-polished wheels.

Meantime, the Sport GT delivers more performance courtesy of carbon-fibre interior highlights, sports steering wheel, new-design 20-inch alloy wheels, an external identification plate, 35 per cent faster transmission electronics, a new exhaust and specific software for Quattroporte’s Skyhook electronic suspension damping system.

Both GT variants will be powered by the same 294kW/451Nm 4.2-litre V8, which propels both GT coupes to 100km/h in claimed 5.2 seconds.

The GT variants are positioned above the standard Quattroporte sedan.

MASERATI launched a full automatic version of its Quattroporte sports sedan in 2007. The smooth six-speed ZF auto unit, is offered in addition to the current DuoSelect automated manual gearbox, which has come in for some criticism for its jerky changes.

Fitting the ZF unit was not without its problems. The car's existing automated-manual transmission is located at the rear differential while the new ZF transmission is mounted directly to the rear of the engine.

In addition to re-packaging the underside of the car, weight distribution has changed from 47 per cent front/53 per cent rear to 49/51.