Retro review: the Maserati GranSport

This review was first published in Issue 135 of Top Gear magazine (2004)

I don’t like to think of Maserati as trying too hard to be, well, hard. Much better to scythe with style than to batter your way into an arena where your skill set isn’t really up to the market average. So the GranSport sounds like something worthy of a cringe or three. 

It’s supposed to be a more pugnacious take on the 4200 Coupe, available only with the six-speed CambioCorsa (paddles) and with suspension and aero tweaks to help it feel more connected. There is no significant horsepower hike, although the car does make 10bhp more than the standard car’s 390bhp, due to an exhaust with less contortions and producing a rather singular exhaust note from a bit lower down the rev range.

You get a Quattroporte-style mesh front grille, flanked underneath by larger cooling vents and a more jutting chin. Along the sides are extended sill panels that flare extravagantly like weeny vestigial wings, and at the back there’s mesh, more ventage and a tiny carbon boot spoiler that better manages the airflow over the 4200’s somewhat abrupt rump. Those wheels, by the way, are 19-inch items that echo the Maserati trident. A bit. Squint.

Nothing there that really surprises you is there? Seems like I’ve been telling this story a lot lately: ‘yes, it has more power thanks to better breathing and some subtle styling tweaks... blah-de-blah ad infinitum’, but there really is something more charming about this version of Maserati’s junior. It looks good. Not in the same way as a Porsche, whose pared-down sleekness is starting to look like it wants to disappear into the scenery a little too much. Rather an expression of quiet confidence. Good start.

Unfortunately, the gearbox is still just this side of rubbish, whumping home with a kind of rubbery thump, no matter how tricksy you try and be with throttle and timing, and despite another re-jig of the electronics. I recently drove a 360 (not to mention the F430) with basically the same gearbox, also mated to a V8, and it was smoother, despite a more focused remit. So we’re back at that ‘charming but flawed Maser’ again.

The 19-inch wheels should have also hurt it. The standard 4200 suffered from a standard of yaw and pitch around several axes that induced oversteer pretty early. It also didn’t ride that well. So 19s looked like a horrific idea, a grandmother in stilettos. Ditto tightening down the suspension. But the GranSport works. I’m really not sure how, or why. But it does.

For instance, coming into a corner too fast, I realise too late that what was a square-left turns out to be an almost-hairpin, and we can see nothing but trees. I hit the brakes and tyres start to make that herald-of-incipient-doom chirrupping that you get just before you have a really big accident.

I turn in anyway. It was either tree right now or tree later. I chose the latter. The GranSport came around in much the same way as the Ferrari 575GTC did a few weeks ago, which says as much about the relativistic standards of current Italian suspension tuning as it does with my apparent ability to almost-crash every other week in the Italian hills.

It digs far harder than a 4200, and maintains that initial bite far longer. To be honest, a 4200 would have seen us kebabed on an Italian pine. There is a degree of oversteer available, but it’s more forced in the GranSport, rather than a combination of extra lean and softer springs leading to an unweighted, spinning rear wheel in the 4200; it’s a firmer ride, but not overly so. The steering feels more precise, with a better initial quarter wheel, although there’s not that much real feel to be had when things get bumpy. Even the high-speed stability feels noticeably improved thanks to a better Cd and more pleasingly managed airflow, without that wallow that can accompany a 4200 like an overweight Labrador.

You still have to adapt, it’s not perfect. This car more than many others requires smoothness at the controls, a delicate touch. Wanging it around like an Evo VIII will do nothing but make it slower, not least because this is still a well-equipped, almost-four-seater.

Even inside it’s been improved. They’ve used a new technical-type fabric for the interior, which has worked well. They’ve got rid of the daft door bins and replaced them with elasticated pockets so you can now adjust the electric seat without opening the door. Yup, it will still take about 20 seconds too long to complete a harassed three-point turn because of the gearbox’s tantrums about engaging reverse, and the kids will have to be small, but more thought has gone into it. Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe I want something with a bit more character and less of the clinical efficiency. But I still want it to be reliable and do everything I ask of it. I want clinical efficiency clothed in a fluffy envelope.

The standard Maserati 4200 was never a car I got along with and, to be honest, not that much has changed fundamentally in the set-up – you can’t just inject a soft car with essence of bull testicle and expect it to come out the other side some sort of rip-snorting monster. But the GranSport has made its small changes count. Finally, just before it dies, we get a car that makes that choice between Porsche and Maserati that little bit more blurry.

Verdict: A real surprise. More heart and less fluff means it’ll, finally, compete with a 911 for your cash.

4.2-litre V8
400bhp, RWD
0-62mph in 4.8secs, max speed 180mph 
1,680kg
£66,500

Images: Lee Brimble