Tiff Needell heads over to Italy to take a look at a particular facet of the Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT…
There is only one cool executive car the maserati trebor tape it’s the most exclusive with just 170 sold in the uk it’s the best design striking but not showy it’s got the best engine a 4.2 liter v8 with strong links to ferrari and it’s the quickest nought to 60 in 5.2 seconds but i wouldn’t want one for one simple reason the gearbox it was hopeless first drives
Revealed sort of gearbox that gave flappy pedals a bad name it simply couldn’t change gear without giving you whiplash but now there’s a new version the quattroporte sport gt i don’t care that the gt comes with a black chrome grille i don’t care that they’ve changed the front bumper a bit all i care about is what’s billed as a radically overhaul gearbox and so
Ladies and gentlemen this is going to be a road test of the gearbox and it’s no ordinary auto box either this is one of those f1 style manual gearboxes with an electronic shift system if this car now changes up and down smoothly but it’s finally something i couldn’t recommend so gearchange number one that was second that was smooth where’s third well these are
Very smooth gear changes i don’t think you could expect for anything better than that they’re slow this is in the basic auto mode and i can’t see any problem driving around town it’s not going to jerk the gin and tonic out of my passengers so far so good at low speeds the automatic change works well but what happens if you’re going a bit quicker time to head out
Of town and try the sport auto mode but i think i’ve got the wrong way i in a three point term which gives me a chance to check out how quickly we can find reverse pull up one finger pedal away which the ones these flappy pedals where you had to get reversed to pull everything into neutral and panic and it would take ages you by the time you’ve been t-boned by the
Articulated lorry coming down the street so we now press our sport button which apparently speeds up the gear change now it’s about 20% faster and about 7,000 rpm it’s slick from second to third with a got a long pause but not too much of a jerk so i think if i’m really gonna use the 400 horsepower it’s time to forget all this auto stuff let’s go to manual there
Are two manual modes normal or sport and in sport the gear changes are at their very fastest the gear change is a 60% faster than in that basic manual mode of course i have to say i would still prefer a proper manual but got reporters don’t come with those and there’s still a slight concern with all these flappy-paddle gearbox is they the life expectancy of clutches
Isn’t as high as it isn’t a manual it’s always something you have to think about but in terms of smoothness the gearbox is now excellent changing up and down quickly by letting you keep both hands on the wheel at all times which is nicely reassuring when you’re pressing on in the wings so the maserati quattroporte sport gt now has one of my favourite flappy paddle
Gearbox is and it’s now a car you can buy if you’ve got eighty thousand five hundred and fifty pounds to spare you
Transcribed from video
Fifth Gear: The Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT By Fifth Gear
