MASERATI GRANTURISMO SPORT – A DREAM COME TRUE
Маserati GranTurismo Sport
a.k.a „The White Feather“
Sunshine, wind brushing my hair and the sound of a monster called “The White Feather”. This is how it all started, a test drive of a Maserati GranTurismo Sport 2015. This is a feeling that raises up your adrenaline levels so high that you can feel the rush for a few days. Once in a while I get to see fireworks and I was always amazed by how the light comes first and the sound always running behind it. This phenomena in the case of the White Feather is just the opposite. You could hear it from miles always and once would expect to see it around but it does not come for quite some time. The Feather tells you that it is coming closer and you would hold your breath to see it come and drive away quickly. It is definitely not a good pick if you would try to sneak in the White House or anywhere else without noticing you.
Besides awesome, the super car is nothing like the small coupé that I drove in the other reviews. My first impression that I could not really see anything else from the driver’s seat beside a little from the headlights and the side skirts. Do not forget that the Maserati GranTourismo Sport is almost 5 meters! Nevertheless 10 minutes later I was all used to the dimensions and size of the car even in the red revs! J Another thought that comes to my mind is “the ease of getting used to awesome stuff” especially surrounded with the red leather interior and boutique interior of this masterpiece.
The Maserati GranTourismo Sport is not a small car as I already mentioned. It could easily fit up to 4 adults without hesitation in the 2+2 separated seats in the front and back. I especially mention the 2+2 because the central console that goes in between the first two seats goes all the way back to the end of the vehicle to enhance the sense of safety. Probably for stability as well) I do particularly love that because the passengers would finally have to enter the vehicle from the right side of the car 😀
I surely turned a lot of heads driving around the city centre of Sofia. This was definitely the case when I also used the Sport button combined with the collectable version of this Maserati. It has lots of carbon elements on it like: the handles of the doors, the tips on the mufflers, the mirrors and side skirts, the little spoiler lip and all the rest is inside around the dashboard. All of that is combined with the special colour of the White Feather which besides UNIQUE is also made with 3 layers of white pearls contrasting with the red leather interior. Car like no other– freaking beautiful.
Good that I mentioned the Sport button. Besides very clickable (feeling and sound) it is situated very close to the drivers hands. This out normally be the place for Start/Stop engine buttons on other cars but here it is something else. What it actually does is to stiffen the suspension – great, make the car louder – changing the flow in the mufflers the Maserati Way J and gets the car to be even more responsive. The Maserati Gran Tourismo gets the happy tail with the rear wheel drive and the 40 hp under the bonnet. This is especially fun in on the slippery roads in the centre of Sofia (Bulgaria) and the yellow pavement where the 20” wheels would just never be wide enough.
Going into the Sport mode makes me also try the pedal shifters. You could pull the gear lever towards the driver or directly start shifting and this is when the real fun begin. The name is not a coincidence as in Bulgaria we would use the same word feather for the shifters. The Maserati would hit the rev limiter if one with drive with any hesitation. The best part of the shifting most probably the downshifting where the car would rev it up a little and make a BRUTAL rawr J It is also really nice going all the way through the revs from 1st until 4th gear where it reaches more than 200kph. Seriously … this car needs no 5th and 6th gear.
On the highway from Sofia to Riu Pravetz the car handled great. The car is heavy enough and it feels very safe and like glued to the road. Overtaking is just really easy and joyful. I already mentioned how nice it is that the car would listen to the driver if you downshift once and switch to manual. You wouldn’t need to pull the lever to manual because the gearbox already knows that the current important – temporary mode is manual. If you would drive long enough it would go back to automatic. (Especially great for tunnels and other places with great acoustics) I would suggest that keep an eye on the speedo. I caught myself speeding up to 200+ kph a few times.
We talked lots about acceleration and speed but also the contrary does not fall behind. Breaking with almost 2 ton White Feather is careless and it is even the fastest stopping car that I’ve ever driven. While doing my nails on the highway on the way to Riu Pravetz I couldn’t miss the big Brembo break callipers with 6 pistons on the front and 4 on the back wheels. I love saying :
“With great power … comes great break calipers”
On the way back to Sofia I did it again .. tunnels in SPORT, high revs with the pedal shifters in manual mode and the windows down all the way. I still wonder how the tunnel did manage to stay together. Even if it collapsed I would have been too far away to notice anything. The policemen in the end of every tunnel were amazed by the sound and greeted us with smiles and thumbs-up. 5-seconds later I’d be driving with 240kph towards the next tunnel.
The whole experience went up to 25l per 100km but all worth every drop of 100 octane petrol. Other expressions to depict the day with the Maserati could be:
- 100 smiles a second
- Skippin beats every 60 seconds
- Adrenaline in the reds
It was an absolute pleasure to add 300 more kilometres to the experience of the White Feather and bring it up a bit over 4000km in total since the creation. Big thanks to the Maserati team in Bulgaria for making all this happen. I wish many happy kilometres to the future owner of this remarkable vehicle. You can expect lots more of these stories for all the other cars in my list. If you want to ask me anything about the Maserati Gran Tourismo Sport just get in touch with me.
Raw Data:
Engine: 4.7 petrol – 4691cc.
DOCH V8 с 32 valves
Power: 453 hp @ 7000 revs
Torque: 384 @ 4750 revs
Gearbox: 6 speed automatic with pedal shifters.
0-100 kph in less than 5 seconds (4.7-5)
¼ mile under 14 seconds (13.3-13.6)
Maximum speed: 297 км/ч
Dimensions:
Length: 4881 мм
Width: 2056 мм
Height: 1353 мм
Wheelbase: 2942 мм
Weight: 1880 kilograms
Weight distribution: 49% front / 51% back
Trunk: 270 litres
Fuel tank: 87 litres
U Turn: 10.7 metres
