All Entries in the "MASERATI" Category
Maserati Dream Garage Runs Foul of LA Neighbors
By Gunnar Heinrich
SEEMS like yours was wrong on two counts:
1st, that the winning owner/architect of the Maserati/Architectural Digest dream garage competition parked a Porsche Boxster as his own car in his minimalist space.
In point of fact, the architect chose a grey Ferrari 512 Boxer as the ride to display in his bridge connected garage/gallery.
2nd, that greater LA would embrace the concept of a bridge connected garage/living room/art gallery with scenic overlook of Brentwood below. Quite wrong, in point of fact.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
“City planners have withdrawn permission for Schubert to use a bridge to connect his Ferrari’s third-floor resting spot with North Tigertail Road.
Neighbors complained about the bridge, alleging that the city erroneously approved its construction to create both a safety hazard and a development precedent that could degrade hillside neighborhoods throughout the city.”
Considering that the City planners previously approved the $1.5 million design, this retraction and ensuing uproar smells more rotten than a fleet of heated cats.
Thanks, J.W.!
Maserati GTC: Personality First. Then Beauty
2010 Maserati GranTurismo Convertible
By Gunnar Heinrich
YOU don’t buy a Maserati based on looks alone. Not since the Ghibli, anyway.
To illustrate the point: ever see that abysmal 2001 romantic comedy America’s Sweethearts?
Great cast. Bland premise. In the Cindarella-esque film starring Julia Roberts; Ms. Roberts plays a heavyset, dog’s-errand for her high maintenance celeb sister played, fittingly, by Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Needless to say, Ms. Roberts’ character gets fed up with her lot, drops the weight, loses the glasses, and creates whole new look and life’s vision for herself – while maintaing a down-to-Earth demeanor so as to retain the audience’s affection for that lovably sincere character which Ms. Roberts plays effortlessly.
If we were to assign car companies to adopt either role, Maserati would reflect Julia Roberts’ character whereas Ferrari would be the obvious Zeta-Jones stand-in. As in the movie, Maserati in life plays second fiddle to the Dolce Vita Ferrari, and that’s somewhat of a shame.
There’s great cause to love the Trident.
The beauty of a Maserati, in this case the $135,800 GranTurismo Convertible, is looking past the sometimes quirky Italian GT aesthetic and embracing the package in total.
Maserati is luxury + sport. Beautiful in both personality and bodacious curvature. Think of those thick Italian hides coddling you comfortably while experiencing the pleasure that each stab of the avanti pedal elicits from the sonorous Ferrari-sourced V8.
Just enough creature comforts, technological goodies, and de-tuning to separate the 2+2 high-speed tourer from hard edge performance; to mention nothing of “Sky-hook” adaptive road dampening…
In this great automotive world, the Maserati GTC represents the smarter alternative to the usual suspects. And that’s sexy.
This Week @ Coys: Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Spyder
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Coys
GIALLO. In Italian, giallo means yellow.
In Inglese, it refers to a dark but sultry genre of mystery novels. You know, the kind that mix murder and sex.
Coys (né Coys of Kensington) is the greater London based auctioneer exemplar that has – by listing this giallo over black, 1970 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Spyder – tickled us with our own thrilling Italian daydream.
It’s right to call the Spyder’s lustrous paint giallo.
The pigment, like the car’s beautiful body, is so dynamic, us English speakers might call it “sun”. It’s as if Maserati’s paint shop mixed Sicilian blood orange juice with limoncello; giving an otherwise flat hue a veritable fire!
Naturally, everything in the 70s had either an orange or brown cast; the Ghibli hardtop looked particularly striking, if period, in cocoa brown.
Coys, in classically understated Britishese, describes the effect the Ghiblis had on the public imagination.
“Introduced to an enthusiastic public at the Turin Show of 1966, the Ghibli broke with the recent Maserati tradition for conservative designs, instead displaying dramatic, purposeful lines, drawn by none other than Giorgietto Giugiaro whilst still at Ghia’s design studio. Under the bonnet was Maserati’s magnificent all alloy 4.7 litre four camshaft V8 engine, derived from the company’s sports racing car power plants and mated to a five speed gearbox. Claimed top speed was a not inconsiderable 174mph!”
What a hair-raising thought.
One hundred and seventy four miles per hour in a topless exotic… forty years old…painted in blinding orange-yellow… long bonnet surging toward an unknown horizon…così fantastico e profondo!
Ferrari Snubs Detroit Auto Show, But Shows Support For Chrysler
By Gunnar Heinrich
SIGNALING an end of days for the all-encompassing, omnipotent, omniscient, and hugely expensive auto show is nigh, Ferrari took the unusual step of announcing that its official display will not grace the upcoming the North American International Auto Show (a.k.a. “Detroit Auto Show”).
But in a curious twist, Ferrari also announced that a Ferrari 599XX will be on display at the Chrysler stand to “celebrate the Fiat-Chrysler partnership”.
It’s a strange world we live in. But then again, times were a lot stranger in earlier days.
To mark this momentous occasion and in the spirit of amity, Ferrari stablemate and Fiat subsidiary Maserati didn’t announce that they wouldn’t display a Chrysler TC by Maserati as a tribute to the Trident’s former partnership with ChryCo.
Super Car Rally @ Foxwoods
HOW could it be that whilst on the grounds of the world’s largest casino – so large it’s said that Foxwoods’ annual intake would account for 20% of Las Vegas’ gross winnings – that yours couldn’t find the time to gamble?
Not a penny slot. Not a quick turn at the roulette table. Not a few numbers in the bingo hall. Nada.
No matter, I had good cause for distraction. The best actually.
In what may go down in the history books as one of Connecticut’s largest informal gatherings of exotic cars, last Sunday SuperCarRoadTrips.com founder Manolis Christo with the help of some very enthusiastic sports car enthusiasts organized a rally spectacular that drew Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotuses, Maseratis, and the odd Pantera and McLaren SLR from across the land (or southern New England, to be more geo specific).
It was an astounding sight. Foxwoods hosted. And the Hard Rock Cafe’s Pinktober charity partnered with SuperCarRoadTrips.com in an effort to raise some awareness and support for Breast Cancer. Drivers were offered a prix-fixe $17 a head lunch at the restaurant onsite.
There were plenty of side shows. A man who seemed a little down with his lot in life showed up as Bumble Bee from Transformers providing a funny, if melancholic distraction while a team of models from 80’s fashion label Jordache posed in front of a brilliant, tutto rosso F40.
Local car dealer extraordinaire Herb Chambers made an entrance in his own, particularly rare Ferrari 275 GTB*.
The event provided for another impromptu opportunity: the reunion of none other than our very own BMW Enthusiast Trio Hardy Drackett, Newt Clark, and Richard Wolf.
The air was thick with emotion.
Of course it wouldn’t have been a true exotic rally without the requisite Sunkist yellow Italian contingent.
As well as a smart, lean = mean set of road-legal roadsters from LotusTalk.com.
There was, however, a paucity of Porsches. And somewhere else that lovely morning, stewed a bevy of bruised egos. Apparently, more than a few German car registrant hopefuls were turned down. This led to sniping in some quarters: if so ‘n so’s Porsche got rejected from taking part in the rally, then why did that Mustang or that Infiniti get accepted?
It was an Italian party, gentlemen.
Manolis, the event-planner-in-chief recently did a reverse-Clarkson and traded in his AMG SL Benz for a Ferrari F355 Spider. Not that he had a moment to enjoy his car on Sunday.
In a subsequent email, Manolis expounded a little bit on what SuperCarRoadTrips.com was really about:
“[SuperCarRoadTrips.com] packages the best possible roads and social venues in the form of well organized events,” he wrote. “I seek to attain the premiere exotic car club for the North East. The twist being that it’s free to its members and comprised of a variety of exotic car makes.”
Luckily, the owner of this Mercedes McLaren SLR made the cut.
As did our Uncle Richo’s legendaryE39 M5.
Following an hour’s jaunt through southeastern Connecticut which included Mystic seaport, the procession of prancing horses and glistening tridents made its way back to Foxwoods.
Event planner Lane Baker, a mildly stressed 348 Ferrari owner from FerrariChat.com, was elated that the rally went off more or less hitchless. At least on his watch.
It was with not a moment too soon, then, that after a morning of gawking at exotics and parading around New London County the party segued inside to Shrine Lounge at the MGM Grand.
In a final twist in events, clothing designer Andy Jacques provided a sartorial cap to the day with a brief fashion show showcasing his own singular brand of couture based on sports car themes.
Karl Lagerfeld probably won’t call, but the display was lively and well received.
Meravigliosa!
___
*Corrected
On Maserati’s Latest
Autumn in NY by Maserati
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Maserati of North America
ACCEPTING that the drive behind parting with $120K on the lovely new Maserati GranTurismo Convertible boils down to more than buying into sheer performance figures, let’s nonetheless do a quick ‘n dirty comparo of what Maserati North America’s billing as supporting statistics.
- A hand-built 4.7 liter V8 , 433hp engine | They might’ve said: “righteous & sonorous Ferrari-sourced 4.7 liter V8″. Avanti!
- Top speed 176 mph | Will see off ze Germans. But not an Aston V8 Vantage Roadster.
- 0-60 in 5.3 seconds | BMW’s M6 (con) obliterates this figure with typical M Power Sturm und Drang!
- The longest wheelbase in its segment | Hooray, the useful topless GT lives!
- The same trunk volume with the soft top either up or down | This might be a good thing. Or not.
- A racing-style aluminum undertray producing an aerodynamic coefficient of 0.35 Cd | An old Volvo 850 wagon = 0.34 Cd.
- Monocoque body stiffness with benchmark Torsional dynamic rigidity of 27.2 Hertz | Sounds good. But what’s “27.2 Hertz?”
- The roof is opened automatically in only 24 seconds | An SL does the same job in less than fifteen.
Too bad style can’t be qualified. Judging by tantalizing imagery alone, the GT decappottabile trumps every rival save for Aston Martin’s fairest.
Your Maserati’s Next Garage
Feeling at home.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG DesignDriven.us | YouTube
PARKED smartly in the sweet intersection of automotive design and home architecture, Maserati placed an advertisement recently (10/09) issue of Architectural Digest that was pretty slick.
The Italians sponsored what they called a “Design Driven” competition which asked architectural firms to submit their cutting edge designs for a garage where “a Maserati might feel at home.”
The winning bid for an existing garage was awarded architect Holger Schubert for his rectangular, minimalist, glass-fronted masterpiece set in the arid hills outside of Los Angeles – where else? It’s not clear what Mr. Schubert won other than the spread in AD.
Featuring an entrance that’s reached via a car-length-long, glass-sided bridge, the garage is an open space – like a small modern art gallery – that includes a sitting area with fireplace, bare walls, well placed lighting, a solar paneled roof which provides 100% electricity to the property (good for Cali’s rolling blackouts), and a six-inch hydraulically lifted ramp that, “allows the car to roll out without starting the ignition.”
Delicious. But, one thought: you’ve got to wonder what kind of car actually lives there.
It’d be sweet if the poetry of the ad followed reality, but my money’s on a silver Boxster.
_
[Linked: DesignDriven.us]
This Week @ Coys: Raquel Welch in Yellow
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Coys
MASERATI’S famous Ghibli has an uncanny effect on men living in their fifth or sixth decade.
It’s easy to predict that when one of these classic, 4.7 liter, V8 powered, Trident-badged exotics from the late 60s rumbles by, these guys get heart palpitations like they’d just flashed on seeing Raquel Welch naked for the 
first time – and – did you see that? She winked at them!
As for me, my Ghibli is the Ferrari F355 from the mid-to-late 90s. I get the tingle that they must get every time I see one of Maranello’s go-karts in yellow or red or black or hell, pretty much any color, they’re all beautiful.
Well, actually, I’d have a hard time with purple.
Which brings me to this greenish-yellow on black 1972 Maserati Ghibli available at British classic auto house Coys.
All those sensual Guigaro lines are still there forming what is a remarkably sexy profile. That great MaserV8 might even still get this Ghibli to 174 mph on the right road or track.
But that color…
I suppose the sacrilegious thing to do would be to buy the car then refinish it in something like jet black or 70’s brown. But that would screw with the car’s history and heaven knows you couldn’t touch that lest a covert team from Maserati Club International come in the night and daringly rescue your ill-fated original from desecration.
But then again, perhaps there is some guy out there in his 60s that doesn’t mind the color of mustard mixed with mashed peas on his Italian exotic. To him, his Raquel Welch is still sexy, even if she looks a little seasick.
[Linked: Coys]
ex. 4) Giugaro’s Boomerang
By Gunnar Heinrich
GIUGARO had a thing for edges in the early 70s.
And by any measure, Giorgetto was well ahead of the curve. Just as the world was looking forward to a replacement to the sultry curves of the 60s, the Italian designer filled the void with a space age glimpse into a hyper-realist future.
The Maserati Boomerang was one of three concepts that married the then-still-classified stealth fighter with the automobile.
Alongside the now famous Lotus Esprit (of The Spy Who Loved Me notoriety) and the DeLorean DMC-12 (of Back To The Future fame), the Boomerang featured the hardest edges of the three concepts and was meant to back up its supercar looks with mid mounted 310 horsepower V8 might.
Luckily, the folks behind the Trident only bought into certain elements of the Boomerang’s really hard-corners – a little bit of Boomerang can be seen in Maserati’s Merak.
The car pictured above is the only known Boomerang in the world.
- Tap the links for more Boomerang images -
[Linked: Maserati Crazy | AllSportAuto]
A Look At Maserati’s Quattroporte GT S
Besides tricked out wheels that echo a similar design from Porsche there’s little visually that sets the latest Trident badged saloon from the standard Quattroporte – if the most exotic luxury sedan on the market could ever be described as “standard.”
The following is from the press release:
Maserati is pumping up the aggression in its high performance luxury sedan, the Quattroporte, with the launch at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September of the Quattroporte GT S In a sedan already renowned for its performance profile, the Quattroporte GT- S provides an even more sharply honed sporting and performance edge and will stand out for its exceptional dynamic behaviour and uncompromised handling.
This result was obtained with the introduction of new suspension layout, featuring single rate dampers and a “racing” set up. The Quattroporte Sport GT S sits 10mm lower at the front and 25mm at the rear compared to other versions of the Quattroporte, and also features new, stiffer springs and dampers.
The Quattroporte Sport GT S boasts a unique braking system developed in collaboration with Brembo. This innovative technology uses dual-cast brake discs, and this is the first time such a set up has been employed on a road car.
Unlike traditional cast iron discs, dual-cast discs are made of two materials, cast iron and aluminium, to ensure optimised braking, improving performance in the most extreme conditions and providing greater resistance to fade even at the highest temperatures.
The Quattroporte Sport GT S’s new braking system also benefits from new mono-block, six-piston callipers at the front and tyres developed especially for this car (front 245/35-R20 and rear 295/30-R20).
The increased size of the rear tyres allows optimum use of the Maserati’s V8 power, whilst the new tyre compound helps the brakes and set-up to guarantee a superior level of handling and driving emotion. The Quattroporte Sport GT S’s exterior is distinguished by a more aggressive look.
Along with the black-chrome mesh front grille, a characteristic element of the top performance Maseratis, the side window trims and the two double exhaust pipes are also in black, whilst door handles are in the same colour as the body of the car. The Quattroporte Sport GT S is fitted with eye-catching dark-chrome 20″, seven spoke alloy wheels. Even the choice of material for the interior of the Quattroporte Sport GT S reflects the car’s sporty character.
Traditional Poltrona Frau leather has been combined with Alcantara, which covers the central zone of the seats, the interior door panels and the steering wheel. Maserati has previously used Alcantara for the interior of the Trofeo cars and the MC12. The dashboard is finished in new carbon fibre with aluminium treads, whilst front seats are characterised by a new, more cosseting sporty shape.
The new Maserati Quattroporte GT S will make its Australian and New Zealand debut in mid-2008, when local prices and specifications will be announced.
—–End p.r.
In other words, che bella macchina!
