All Entries Tagged With: "spyder"
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.
Ferrari’s Massmarket Foray
Ferrari California Presented By GranTurismo.
By Gunnar Heinrich
GOING massmarket is like going public.
You’re opening up your once closely held business to outside scrutiny and increased regulatory pressures, but in theory you’re removing the ceiling on capital generation.
While Ferrari is very much a unique part of publicly traded Fiat, it has more or less been left alone to its own devices; making precious few exotics for the precious few patrons who can afford the price of admittance (and maintenance).
Ferrari’s pressures, even during their parent company’s darkest hours, seemed to have little to do with fiscal needs but more to do with performance wants.
Luckily this laissez faire system has worked to Ferrari’s benefit. The company has never seen better days – financially.
And like Porsche’s foray into SUV-land and Aston Martin’s segue into four door saloons, Ferrari is set to test, albeit conservatively, the waters of mass-marketdom with the decidedly practical and comparatively everyday California Spyder.
As an aside, the car has a Fiat Barchetta’s front and an ass ressembling the face of some frowning newt; there’s little on first, second, or third glance that can visually recommend the California’s style.
Add the increased proportions and a roomier cabin design placed forward of a conventional trunk thanks to traditional front engine/rear drive setup and what we have are key clues to suggest that this car will have potential SL, 6-Series, 911 and Maserati GT buyers cross shopping.
No doubt that means more Ferraris will be built than ever before as a result for the demand at the $100K level is far greater than it is at even $200K. Plus, Ferrari has entered an age where it’s “brand” identity is as platinum as can be – with new orders regularly reaching into two long years’ wait on new models. Again, we’ll expect the same if not more of the same sell-out rate for the California.
But with all this success that is yet to be reaped, are we witnessing the slow but steady disolution of an elite marque into just another expensive, over-hyped brand?
[Linked: Ferrari California]
Ferrari California: Life In The Shadow Of A Legend
By Steane Klose
I often wonder what it must be like for the siblings of movie stars and famous people, living their lives in the shadow of their famous brother or sister.
With the exception of the severely introverted it would have to be an odd existence, constantly feeling like an underachiever despite their own talents in less publicly recognized fields.
What would it be like living in the shadow of a legend?
Ferrari has recently announced their first ever retractable hardtop convertible, an all new model referred to as the F149 during its development phase. Ferrari to their credit managed to keep their new cars existence largely under-wraps and even when word eventually hit the streets there was little in the way of hard fact available regarding its specification or production name.
In another first for Ferrari, the folks in Maranello established a website – ferraricalifornia.com- complete with countdown timer, with the intention of slowly and provocatively undressing their new model. Ferrari was finally embracing the marketing power of the internet and at the same time started referring to the F149 as simply the “GT”.
