Background
‘Real’ Italian sportscars have two doors, so when Maserati decided to extend the versatility of its range more than half a century ago, it needed a suitably exotic name to lure potential buyers into writing a larger-than-average cheque.
It chose Quattroporte, which might sound exotic to us but simply means ‘four-door’ in its home country.
And therein lies the biggest clue to just how good the Quattroporte is: Maserati didn’t need to do anything to market it other than tell its base how many doors it had.
Everything else spoke for itself.
Introduced in 2013, the six-generation Quattroporte was the fastest the firm had ever built, all the better to fend off the challenge from rivals such as Aston Martin, Porsche, and Bentley.
Plus, a diesel because being tax-efficient needn’t mean sacrificing style.
The M156, for that’s what factory insiders call it, offered both twin-turbo V6 that was built by Ferrari as well as a twin-turbo V8 it shared with Ferrari. The petrol engines offered between 325 and 424bhp and 523 and 572bhp respectively depending on which model it was fitted to, and the top speeds started at – STARTED AT – 168mph and topped 200mph for the most powerful version.
Maserati built 4,264 cars in all before production ceased in 2021 after having been on sale for nine years.








