The Maserati GranTurismo seduces with its Italian flair and urgency from under the hood in Trofeo mode

Maserati is in renewal mode, and part of that is bringing back the iconic GranTurismo name. It returns as a powerful, luxurious grand-tourer, capable of covering long distances at a great pace in style and comfort. It was designed in Italy and specifically built in Turin to epitomize the idea of Italian luxury and performance.

There are three powertrains available, the third being electric in the shape of the GranTurismo Folgore, as Maserati has taken the approach of designing its cars to be fitted with either gas or electric-powered drivetrains. The other two are versions of its technologically advanced 3.0-liter twin-turbo Nettuno V6. As standard, it produces already impressive specs of 483 horsepower – but in the high-performance Trofeo version, it makes a stupendous 542 hp.

Exterior: Beauty On Wheels

If you commanded a machine-learning image generator to come up with the most Italian-looking of coupes, you would get something comical. Ask Italy’s finest to come up with the most Italian-looking of coupes, then you get this. It’s an evolution of the old GranTurismo’s curvy silhouette and dripping with style, but it never ventures into being ostentatious, even with the elongated nose and large grille sucking in air to the engine. To our eyes, the GranTurismo is timeless; it gives off the same vibes that we’d imagine wearing a pair of white linen trousers on a huge yacht floating down the Italian Riviera would.

Interior: Worthy Of The Maserati Name

Our tester, the Trofeo version of the GranTurismo, arrived with a beautiful red leather interior with a noticeable increase in build quality from older models we’ve reviewed before. The GranTurismo is a four seater, but unlike a few of the Grand Tourers we’ve driven lately, you can actually fit two people in the back seats without cutting their legs off at the knees. A six-footer wouldn’t be happy about it, but a couple of kids will have a great time; the adults may briefly worry about the leather getting damaged by unruly kids, but only because the cabin feels that special.

There’s a surprisingly good amount of storage space in the cabin, but the trunk is even more surprising – it’s 20% larger than the previous generation, and you won’t have to make tough decisions about what to leave behind on a long weekend road trip.

Infotainment: Screens!

We sometimes waiver on whether we want big screens in a grand tourer or not, but whichever way you fall, the GranTurismo comes with a 12.3-inch infotainment screen and an 8.8-inch screen below that for climate controls, a 12.2-inch digital instrument cluster for the driver, and a central clock in an analog style, but it’s digital and can be changed to show a compass, a stopwatch, or a G-force meter.

The infotainment system isn’t our favorite in terms of responsiveness and intuitive usability, but it works well and supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Having climate controls on a touchscreen sounds like a worse idea than it is, but everything is right there, and it’s simple to use in the GranTurismo.

Powertrain: The Right Kind Of Terrific

Off the bat, the Nettuno V6 doesn’t sound as good as Maserati’s old V8, and we didn’t expect it to as the latter was one of the finest engine sounds on the road, in our opinion. The 3.0-liter Nettuno is… fine, in terms of sound. The payoff is a huge amount of horsepower and torque (542 hp and 479 lb-ft) delivered to all four wheels.

While it doesn’t sound amazing to our ears, the Nettuno mechanical heart is a worthy engine. It’s a detuned version of the one you’ll also find under the hood of the MC20, and in the GranTurismo, it can be either a complete animal of an engine or a torque monster that’s happy to push you along at pace, or keep on accelerating towards numbers that will land you some jail time.

Yes, the new GranTurismo is all-wheel-drive, but it generally defaults to the rear wheels. Up to 50% of the torque can be delivered to the front axle, and if you drive like an Italian test driver on a back road after an espresso, the tail will step out, but the front will help rein it back in quickly.

On the Road: Perfect Manners – Until You Unleash It

The Trofeo has four drive modes – one more than the Modena base model: Comfort, GT, Sport, and Corsa, with Corsa best saved for the track. If Comfort could be translated as “contented sigh” mode, Corsa would be “shriek” mode.

In comfort mode, the suspension is at its most supple and throttle response at its least urgent, releasing the GranTurismo into relaxed driving situations that feel sublime; it’s a pleasure to drive around town. Considering what happens as you twist the dial further, it’s amazing how refined the air suspension is in Comfort.

GT mode is beautifully dialed in for picking up the pace while enjoying a long drive, with the throttle response happy to push out of a corner with relish, and the transmission to gleefully downshift to overtake dawdlers. Body control is excellent while bumps are still soaked up without drama, and the electronic diff does its job under braking, helping to churn the GranTurismo out of corners.

The steering feels great, and there’s an old-school feeling of a car that wants to push forward. With the engine set so far back, it loves to turn in and then hold a corner.

That’s the GranTurismo’s happy place. But if you’re on your own and want to have some fun, Sport mode hardens things up properly and the engine starts to snarl, the transmission wants to coax aggression from the engine and pop through its much more eager programming. It’s best enjoyed using the paddles to change gear while getting into the rhythm and getting accustomed to the brakes; it takes a lot to challenge the six-piston Brembo calipers, 15-inch cross-drilled rotors in the front, and four-piston units with 13.8-inch cross-drilled rotors at the back.

If you’re hoping for more info about Corsa mode, suffice it to say that we’re serious when we say it should be restricted to track use.

Conclusion: Perfect Super GT

We think most would be happy with Modena version of the GranTurismo as the Trofeo doesn’t quite satisfy in Sport and Corsa modes. The suspension doesn’t damp as you would want it to when thrashing down a tight road, and the initial bite in the brakes is too soft. The brake thing is tough for engineers to crack, as you don’t want the hard initial bite on a GT car, but it’s important for a pure sports car or something with a track mode. However, the suspension is a tuning issue. If you’re hard-pressed for a track car, though, you’re likely better off with a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS.

Everything else, though, left us in love with the GranTurismo Trofeo. It’s one of the finest GT cars we’ve driven and it has decent trunk and passenger space. It’s as comfortable as it is fast, and it’s crazy fast if you push it. The transmission is terrific with the programming up to snuff as well – it can change without jarring backs, or it can snap off a gear change in an instant. And that engine… it just keeps on pulling.

• 

  
  2024 Maserati GranTurismo Modena
  

  Modena

  MSRP

  $158,000

  Engine

  3.0L Twin-Turbo V6 Gas

  Drivetrain

  All-Wheel Drive

  Transmission

  8-Speed Automatic

  Horsepower

  483 hp

  Torque

  442 lb-ft peak torque

  0-60 MPH

  3.7 seconds

  Top Speed

  188 mph

• 

  
  2024 Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo
  

  Trofeo

  MSRP

  $190,000

  Engine

  3.0L Twin-Turbo V6 Gas

  Drivetrain

  All-Wheel Drive

  Transmission

  8-Speed Automatic

  Horsepower

  542 hp

  Torque

  479 lb-ft peak torque

  0-60 MPH

  3.3 seconds

  Top Speed

  199 mph

Add to that the loveliness of the car – not just the looks, but the feel of sitting in an Italian GT – and we understand the $190,000-plus price tag asked of the Trofeo. For the most part, though, the glorious nature of the GranTurismo can be had for around $30k cheaper in the Modena model.