New Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo review – Aston Martin DB12 rival gets more intense
Maserati’s four-seat grand tourer has been updated, with increased power, better software and interior tweaks
Maserati’s second-generation GranTurismo has been on sale now for three years. It’s a sporting grand tourer with enormous appeal but it’s not been a sales success. In a market that increasingly responds to overtness over subtlety, the elegant old-school sports GT, and Maserati’s image as a whole, has long needed an injection of bravado to move the dial.
That’s where this update comes in. It adds a more aggressive visual identity courtesy of cues established by the MCXtrema track car and GT2 Stradale supercar as well as increased customisation options made possible now production has returned to Modena. There’s also a ramp-up in engine aggression and refinements to both the interior and the software that defines the character of the car.
Is the new GranTurismo Trofeo enough of a flagship star to fend off Aston Martin’s DB12 S and Bentley’s Continental GT S?
Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo – more power and noise
At the heart of this generation GranTurismo has always been Maserati’s Nettuno V6 engine, complete with pre-chamber combustion tech that instead of a traditional spark, uses a smaller explosion to ignite the fuel and air in the cylinder. The result is a more efficient, intense and evenly-spread burn across the combustion chamber.
The engine’s potential is fully realised (in road form) in the MCPura supercar (previously the MC20), with a full 621bhp and 538lb ft. The version in the GranTurismo, even in flagship Trofeo form, has always been held back, with just 542bhp and 479lb ft, and the dry-sump oiling system of the supercars missing. While this new car keeps that torque figure, power is up to 583bhp, coming in at 6500rpm and breathing through a more aggressive exhaust. The system completely removes a central silencer, with redesigned resonators in the rear mufflers.
The new GranTurismo also gets detail changes to the calibration of the air suspension and adaptive damping. The hardware is more or less the same, but the GT mode has been refined in terms of gear shift logic, ride and body control, to make the car more responsive and intuitive. Corsa mode features a commensurate rise in tension too - although we were provided no specific figures in terms of spring rate and damping stiffness. There’s a new ‘Country Mode’ suspension setting for Modena-spec cars (and being considered for the Trofeo) that raises the car up by 20mm at speeds up to 74mph, for country estate traversal.
Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo interior
Climb aboard the new GranTurismo and GranCabrio and the immediate noticeable change is to how you put it in gear. Initial images suggested the regrettable buttons of the first-generation car had made way for individual toggles. In-person experience shows these are fixed to a full-width panel, the whole thing flexing whether you’re selecting drive, manual, reverse, neutral or park.
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They’re more intuitive, easier to use when not looking at them and the haptic thump through them does the job, but they’re not the bump in tactility I was hoping for and perhaps indicative of a tighter-than-ideal budget for this update. It’s a disappointment, especially as it’s one of the first interactions you have with the car before you get underway. Happily, you can now bounce between drive and reverse at low speeds just using the paddles.
Also new is the octagonal steering wheel, with the sides trimmed in Alcantara in Trofeo models. There are thankfully still physical buttons on the wheel but while it’s intuitive to use, they’re not the highest-quality items. The signature central clock of the GranTurismo has now also gone digital. Though it’s not touch-sensitive, it’s a multi-function display. It’s not the most expensive thing to look at however, the screen sitting within a Patek-from-Temu bezel.
The rest of the cabin is as before, the design is superficially nice and reasonable quality to the touch, but a little thin in some areas. Your regular touch points as the driver however – the wheel and the column-mounted paddles – all feel special. The view around is more saloon-like. The GT’s cabin is enviably airy in feel (not to mention spacious in the back) compared to, say, a DB12, though the hemmed-in cockpit of the Aston is more sporting and special in feel.
Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo – performance, ride and handling
Fire up the engine and you’re greeted with a raucous, textureful sound that’s still recognisably the Nettuno V6. There’s still a disconcerting diesel-esque resonance at idle and when lugging the car at low revs, but through the rev range, there’s a more full-bodied, multi-dimensional and expressive vocal baritone.
As the revs rise and the boost forces the virtual needle up towards the redline, the whole car feels excited with the texture of the gasses tumbling beneath you. It’s a sound more befitting its exotic positioning, though it still won’t gratify Instagram reels addicts used to 911 GT3 RSs or Lamborghinis with Gintani exhausts, as it’s more appreciable in person than on video. What will turn heads are the rapturous cracks from the exhaust as you ramp up through the gears.
The extra power is nominally noticeable, not necessarily in performance – 0-62mph is an unchanged 3.5sec, as is the 199mph top speed – but in character. It has some extra edge and urgency and a hunger for maximum revs that’s familiar to the MC20 and MCPura. While the torque is unchanged, the engine’s increase in eagerness comes from the figure arriving at 2500rpm, some 500rpm sooner than before. The Trofeo had a bit of split-personality appeal before, as a GT with the heart of a supercar and that Jekyll-and-Hyde effect is only intensified with this update.
When you’re on the move normally, there’s an increased sense of togetherness in this car. The eight-speed transmission and engine work in perfect harmony, always with the right gear at the right time, always delivering the exact performance you ask for through the right pedal.
There’s a bit more tension to the ride, but it’s a communication not an irritation. Sudden jolts come as a shock – potholes, protruding manhole covers and the like – but the car glides in GT mode everywhere else, especially once you get over 30mph. It’s just a pleasant thing to pilot around a northern Italian seaside town, then up into the hills, the consummate cruiser with a wafer of edge, always eliciting smiles and looks of admiration from passers-by.
Twist the dial from GT into Sport mode and the Trofeo tautens further, but it’s Corsa mode (which switches off the ESC and lowers the car by 17mm) that you want for proper driving, even on the road. That’s because while the whole car, from the steering to the suspension and powertrain, is in its most aggressive form, the damper button can wind things back should you require.
Except you rarely do. Twisting off the prescribed route, across the Italian border onto a distinctly British-feeling Slovenian mountain road, the Trofeo feels more alive than before. Its more aggressive engine has a collaborative (if not DCT-sharp) gearbox with which to conduct it and dynamically, it feels all of a piece.
The crags and ruts race beneath the car, the wheels and suspension handling the jolting forces without dislocating the car above them in concert. Then as the road smoothes out and you dig into long sweeping corners, the car takes a reassuring stance, leaning just enough, loading up the sidewalls equally on these 10mm wider trident wheels
Turn-in is positive and responsive – not supercar or sports car sharp but well-judged – with a silky feel and reassuring heft. The electronic differential at the rear uses the power to twist the car inward and even rotate with excess throttle. It’s a fundamentally neutral, often rear-driven balance. The new GranTurismo Trofeo can more effectively uncork its horns and play the gratifying driver’s car, more naturally and readily than Bentley’s Continental GT.
It has its limits, the sports car act only good up to a certain pace before the weight and considered controls can’t keep up. But it telegraphs its deficits with honesty. The brakes haven’t been upgraded and so don’t have the longevity or endurance to conquer longer, more demanding mountain passes with consistency at high speed. Nonetheless, you quickly find the Trofeo’s goldilocks zone and it’s a satisfying and appropriate place to be, given the car’s billing.
Price and rivals
The top-flight £151,680 Trofeo comfortably undercuts Aston Martin’s Vantage on price, nevermind the £197,500 DB12. It’s also a full-bodied £50,000 cheaper than even Bentley’s core GT models, let alone the £212,500 Continental GT S it would stand comparison with.
Dynamically, Ferrari’s £202,459 Amalfi and Aston Martin’s £211,500 DB12 S go further to justifying their premium compared to the Maserati, even if the Ferrari’s engine isn’t as exciting and the Aston isn’t as practical as a GT, though it is now consummately refined.
Nonetheless, the GranTurismo Trofeo remains a value proposition in this market, worthy of more attention and wider consideration than it’s gotten previously. Whether its more aggressive looks, increased customisability and elevated character will deliver remains to be seen.
