Sari Mabire Diva Driver
Maserati GranTurismo Sport 2013
I
’m in love… But I have to confess that I have a bias towards Italian sports cars. They just have that stylish wow-factor that many others try to imitate, some succeeding better than others. As soon as you get into the GranTurismo Sport, you feel that you’re stepping into a dreamy movie from the 1960s, romantically cruising down the winding mountain roads with the lovely deep blue Mediterranean Sea glittering ahead of you… So does that reverie translate into reality in the Gulf, and does it translate today? Certainly the Maserati GTS, as it is also known, is a dream to drive — absolute beauty, power and speed, perfectly combined in an elegant Italian package. With the GTS, Maserati’s glorious past is translated into 2013 with panache. Undeniably, the GranTurismo Sport is one of the most beautiful cars — inside and out — on the market today. The exterior look is sportily aggressive but not overly so. It also has an air of striking, voluptuous chic about it. It definitely attracts attention and opens the fast lane when you hit the highway. Inside, you are greeted by a luxurious mix of leather, wood and metal. You can personalise your GTS with a plethora of options to tailor the exterior, interior and the driving dynamics to your exact liking. And of course, the infotainment systems are up to the level of today’s requirements and expectations of a car in this segment. The model that I had the pleasure to experience came fitted with two buttons for changing the gears instead of a traditional stick gearshift (which is also an available option if you wish). The two buttons, one with number ‘1’ on it and the other with letter ‘R’, are found where you would normally find the gear stick. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that ‘1’ means drive and ‘R’ means reverse. You have three driving modes to choose from: Automatic, Automatic Sport and Manual Sport, which you control from buttons on the centre console. The Automatic mode is perfect for every day city driving with creamy smooth handling. Changing to Sport mode, the suspension and gear changes are calibrated for maximum performance and it wakes up the engine noise as the exhaust valves open up. The real roaring sounds are achieved with the Manual Sport mode. I put the skills that I learned from the Ferrari F1 test drivers to use with the Manual Sport mode. Changing the gears with the paddle shifts is so much fun and seeing heads turn on the sidewalks with the bellowing sounds from under the bonnet is enough to get the adrenaline pumping and make any sports car junkie happy. The GTS is powered by a 4.7-litre Ferrari derived V8 engine with up to 454 horse powers; capable of catapulting the car from zero to 100-kilometres an hour in 4.8-seconds. Lovely! Both active and passive safety systems employ the latest safety
technology available in the motoring field. Among the many systems, it comes standard fitted with stability and traction controls, ABS and hydraulic braking assistance, parking sensors, tyre pressure monitoring systems, a series of airbags and many more. Child seat anchors are also built-in on the back seats for the benefit of those with young offspring. Talking of which, you can actually fit bigger kids (and adults) on the back seats quite comfortably without having to chop off their legs like in some other supposedly fourseater GTs. The Maserati GranTurismo Sport is a fantastic choice for sports car loving ladies. Its effortless style and poise, as well as the ease and excitement of driving, will surely satisfy even the most demanding diva. Assolutamente perfetto as they say in Italy…
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