Maserati Gran Sport Car Review | Top Gear

we last tested the Maserati coupe a three years ago and we didn't much care for him we didn't like the psychotic handling all the looks or the interior most of all we didn't like the flappy paddle gear great gearboxes these in fact the only thing we did like was the engine that's not exactly a long list of plus points still if Maserati is giving it another go so should we this is the new one it's called the Grand Sport and straightaway you can tell that this is more hardcore it's got a bigger meaner grille that should stack up a spectacular fly kit these side skirts are like surf board then age call a huge 19-inch wheel the volume really is nudging up towards 11 you get more power to an extra 10 bhp from the 4.2 litre v8 which brings it up to a nice meaty 346 so naught to 60 4.8 seconds top speed and enormous 180 miles an hour all of which is frankly worried because from past experience the last thing this car needed was more power quite frankly it was already a bit of a wild and unruly beast with what it already but you know what here today now in this grand sport I think they've practiced the whole car has been lowered the suspensions been stiffened all the computer software that controls the chassis has been modified and improved and I can tell you all of those fads but what's hard to describe is just how different just how much better this one time mongrel now feels it's grown-up it all comes together and works it feels confident planted sure-footed and now I can use all out even the extra back there's a button down here marked sport press in which will and wonderful things happen the suspension is stiff enough and as a little flap in the exhaust that opens so the noise that is sporty Maserati has also had a crack and improving the interior new seats are fantastic and there's carbon fiber on the center console the dash in this weird shaped steering wheel that gives you a clear view of the clocks then really odd thing is this material it's a sort of space-age tweed and I just don't see the point of it not unless James May becomes an astronaut this Maserati is starting to look like the car it should always be and there's something else the badge is now cool Bonner has bought a quat reporting jamieoliver savior of schoolchildren he's a Maserati this car costs sixty six thousand pounds or the same price as a Porsche Carrera S and in the past I'd have said no contest by the Porsche now though the Maserati is a real contender but there is one issue still to settle the flappy-paddle gearbox this was the Achilles heel of the old car it was as sluggish and jerky is going to work on a camp thing is though it's all controlled by computer software and blokes with lots of pins in the top pocket I've been fiddling with it so and their changes worked to find out I've come to the Verano de melegari circuit they test Maseratis here and it's somewhere that allows me free rein to really give the Grand Sport as spanking this place is thick with second and third gear corners that'll show us whether you really can teach some old cogs new tricks and just to spice things up I'm gonna see how close I can get my lap time to that of Maseratis chief test driver Gabriele Tarquini so no pressure there tell Queenie laid down a time yeah he's pretty quick flat on these chicken a rather quick time that wasn't bad do it Harry's wall this your tune thank you so much but now let him watching them I'm breaking as hard as I possibly can up to the first corner turn in this is not an automatic gearbox remember it is a manual gearbox when you change gear using these flappy paddles you have to accept there's an automatic mode but it's still a manual Giver a bit too late on the throttle right and you know what I like him the first time finally I'm happy with a flappy paddle gearbox finishing line ahead this is our bugs for my time bein can I just ask can I just ask can you have this thing with a proper gearbox no it's flappy-paddle only I'm afraid but I know it works I like in this car well I mean they work on a track fine but have you ever tried parking with a flappy-paddle gearbox cuz you've got no clutch you either roll into the car in front or drive at very high speed into the car behind that's all you can be tricky but in this car oh wow do you well no I don't wait to argue that's the fact but for once I don't argue it if you carry on arguing I'm going to show everyone here the telemetry from your lap no but the he's arguing this wants to see the telemetry from here here we go please accuse buta printer from the car about how fast you're going and what you were doing when you were steering and it's far too complicated to work on the television and we won't understand it so I don't think we should bother I think we will understand it ladies and gentlemen here it is okay now this blue line here this was set by Tarquini basically is a middle-aged bald man who once crashed a touring car okay and that's his line and then the red line is that's mine basically if you look at the blue line is right and I am consistently at no point on it although in your defense here momentarily you are faster cuz this is speed this is your force look at what happened afterwards I'm then in a complete mess for the next three corners he's a result that's true my favourite though my favourite is the braking what happened here I think he's fully on the brakes you're yet I think I might have left the track and gone shopping at that I think I was pulling up outside a shoe shop its effect is go the fact is your time yes you were and this isn't bad you were only what was it four or seconds four seconds a lap slower and I was quite pleased until it worked out on the way home four seconds on a one-minute lab which means in a 70 lap race he'd have lapped me five times you

Channel: Top Gear

Views: 938,886

Rating: 4.882894 out of 5

Keywords: maserati gran, gran maserati, maserati gran review, top gear maserati gran, maserati gran top gear, maserati, top gear maserati, maserati review, top gear maserati review, maserati car review, top gear, bbc top gear, top gear bbc, bbc

Id: Bfiuv8HbByw

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/Bamfor07]

It’s still an excellent looking car.