The booming and growling V-8 engine broke the forest stillness, but inside the cockpit of this 2018 Maserati GranTurismo Convertible, I was listening with care to the driving coach seated alongside me. “Lift off the gas,” he said. “Now full power. Hard braking ahead. Now turn right.”
To demonstrate the car’s prowess, Maserati had arranged the closing of a stretch of SP40, a narrow, writhing section of mountainside byway. If ever the chassis would reveal deficiencies, any flexing or shuddering, it would be on this frost-heaved segment. But the open-top trident—which benefits from revised, more aerodynamic styling touches—was as steady as the men sipping grappa back at Pub la Forcella, the starting point.
Pulling up to the finish line at Restaurant des Alpes, I asked how the 2.3 miles could have gone by so quickly. “You were going more than 90 miles per hour,” my coach said.
