Maserati Trofeo – Finally a breath of fresh air?

Maserati has been in a steady decline. Their lineup isn´t unique enough to attract hard core enthusiasts, and not good enough to make the average buyer look at the existing market of faster luxury SUVs and sporty sedans, and think, I want something that is Italian, but without any passion and soul. It is with pain that I am writing this, because one of my absolute dream cars is the magnificent Maserati Quattroporte. Built around that heavenly v8 that sounded like if hell and heaven had a fistfight, it didn’t matter if the rest of the car had any faults, because you could sense that the designers and engineers truly loved and believed in what they created. And while that engine existed to the year 2019, a run of 12 years shows that no worthy predecessor could be made. Nonetheless, Maserati has made a crack at it with a Trofeo Ghibli, Quattroporte and Levante.

With a heart from Ferrari, a 582bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, it sounds that speed has found its way back to Maserati. 730 Nm is sent through an 8 speed ZF automatic transmission. 0-100 km/h is done in 4.3 seconds for the Ghibli, while the Quattroporte takes 4.5, and 4.1 for the Levante. For the amount of power, it does sound rather slow, but I digress. Top speed is 326 km/h for both the Ghibli and Quattroporte. No electronic restrain here, compared to the German counterparts.  

No major updates have been done to the platform to handle the new power plant. However, with the introduction of the Trofeo, there has also been a facelift. Redesigned rear lights, updated interior with a 10.1 inch screen, and some other minor stuff here and there. However, there are also some carbon fiber bits unique for each model.

It is always great to see the legendary brand producing fast and exhilarating cars, and to find that almost the entire segment is possible to get in some form of high-performance variant makes me vary happy. And to still have a v8, very daring.