Grand Tourer, or in Italian, GranTurismo – the name itself evoke images of evocative road trips and of exotic locations. Traditionally, the GT cars are meant for touring across long distance in high speed and are designed to carry the occupants and their luggage in style.

Most GTs are either 2 seater or uses 2+2 seating layout, and are made to handle spirited driving across various terrains. So, when Maserati set out to create their first GT in 2007, it was no wonder that they came up with an achingly beautiful example of how the GranTurismo cars should be.

The Maserati GranTurismo has evolved over the years and has always counted as one of the top GT cars in the world, rubbing shoulders with Ferrari, Bentley and the likes. Even though there are more than few Grand Tourer cars are available to carve your touring spirit, when it comes to marry the practicality with occasion and grandeur, there are not many which do it as good as the Maserati.

The GranTurismo is a perfect mix of elegance and class, of poised beauty and surefooted handling and unmatched performance, with a sonorous engine to boot. The ride is not overly firm (the car was not designed to run rings around a racetrack, thankfully) but offers phenomenal grip around corners so that you are never afraid to push the car, and while the car is rooted in tradition, Maserati has thankfully not shown restraint in kitting the car with modern improvements and gadgetry.

The result is a fine balance of Italian flair, wrapped in a heartbeat raising silhouette, ready to make each moment an occasion – a true choice for the discerning gentleman.

DESIGN

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The GranTurismo is built of a shortened Quattroporte chassis and is a two door coupe, which can seat four adults in comfort. The front is dominated by a striking traditional Maserati oval shaped grill with the Trident logo, flanked by two sculptured headlights. The car is styled by Pininfarina, and is inspired by the iconic Maserati Birdcage 75th concept car.

The long bonnet and the radiator grill and the LED daylight running lights give the front an aggressive air, which is accented by the air intakes placed low.

The design is tough and the powerlines on the hood and the character lines on the sides give the car a muscular stance. The design has a certain tightness, like a tailor made suit over a fine body. These lines give the coupe a silhouette that combines practicality and elegance like no other.

Viewed from side, the porthole shaped signature air intakes and the discrete skirts sets the tone of the design and aids the aerodynamic characteristic of the car. The whole design is perfected in a wind tunnel to offer very low coefficient of drag and high aerodynamic efficiency.

The rear pillar has the handsome and traditional Maserati 'Saetta' logo and the rear gets the futuristic LED taillights that are made of 96 individual elements. There is an integrated diffuser at the rear that gives the much needed downforce and aids the grip during spirited driving.

INTERIOR

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The coupe's interior is deceptively roomy – the car can seat four adults comfortably in total luxury. The inside cabin is sporty and luxurious and uses top quality materials in abundance. The design is themed on a sporty V shape, which runs across the dashboard; is airy; and sets an example of simplistic elegance.

The handcrafted interiors are painstakingly detailed, and feature lot of rich refined finishing touches that adds to the ambiance. The meaty steering wheel is clad in leather and features controls for audio, telephony and multimedia. The sporty paddle shifters lined with Alcantara adds to the sporty touch.

The dashboard houses the 7-inch high definition Maserati Multimedia System screen and various control switchgears. The car comes with dual zone auto climate system and an optional Bose sound system to please the audio enthusiasts.

The wide and sporty seats are covered by luxurious handmade Poltrona Frau Leather that takes months of hard work to produce and look better as it wears. The seats offer generous room and a host of electronic adjustments so that you can find your desired seating position without any difficulty. The seats offer easy adjustments to enable easy ingress and egress to the occupants of rear seats.

BESPOKE OFFERINGS

No luxury car is complete without customization and Maserati offers a customization program which is one of the best in the industry. The nature of Maserati production line ensures that each and every whim and fancy of the customer is catered to, in truly Maserati fashion, with utmost care and detail.

The interiors can be done up in either Poltrona Frau leather or in Alcantara, and the customer can choose from array of colors spanning 10 leather color choices and 14 stitch color choices for different surfaces. There are 9 different shades of carpets on order, which can match the interior color selection.

Other than these, the customer can choose bespoke decorative features and can choose from two different tones of chrome or four wood finishes and two varnished panels for areas such as dashboard moldings, door and rear side panels, etc.

There are wide arrays of electronic equipment to choose from as well – such as electro chromatic rear view mirrors, TPMS etc.

UNDER THE HOOD

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The GranTurismo is a sports car under the skin and it shows up in each and every aspect, once you go there. The car boasts a near perfect 49:51 weight distribution that aids the handling and the rigid frame, and the special layout of wishbone suspension keeps the car glued to the road all the time.

But this car is not designed to go fast around tracks and that is a huge plus point because the suspension is forgiving and plush, not overly firm and jarring – which is something anyone will appreciate on a daily use car. The optional computer controlled skyhook suspension takes lot of parameters into account and continuously adapts the suspension to suit the driving conditions in real time.

The car is powered by 4.2 liter V8 with a peak output of 405BHP or a 4.7 liter V8 with an output of 460BHP, depending up on the trim. All the engines are mated with 6 speed state-of-the-art auto-adaptive automatic tranny, sourced from ZF and controlled by MC Auto Shift software.

The Granturismo comes with 5 electronic handling modes, while the MC Stradale trim level has three different handling modes. In the MC Stradale guise, Maserati offers lightning fast 60 millisecond gearshifts, in the "MC Race" handling mode.

The Granturismo comes with 5 electronic handling modes, while the MC Stradale trim level has three different handling modes. In the MC Stradale guise, Maserati offers lightning fast 60 millisecond gearshifts, in the "MC Race" handling mode.