Maserati Quattrporte Goes Automatic
December 8, 2006 by Alborz Fallah
These days, sports cars seemed to have lost their edge, only a few companies stay true to the manual heritage and refuse to release automatic versions of their ultimate performance cars, the likes of BMW, Subaru and Mitsubishi come to mind. However supercars are in a different world. Many supercars come equipped with F1 racing technology, but not many come with a proper full blown Automatic gearbox, till now.
Maserati will launch the full automatic version of the Quattroporte sports sedan in 2007. The new Maserati Quattroporte Automatic will sit along side the existing DuoSelect gearbox equipped models. Don’t worry Maserati haven’t put a four-speed in this beast, the Quattroporte Automatic is fitted with an automatic six-speed ZF gearbox.
Maserati admits that the new transmission system results in a slightly different weight distribution ratio (49% front, 51% rear, vs. 47% front 53% rear of the DuoSelect version with transaxle layout), however the new version should still preserves the high performance nature of the Quattroporte.
The Maserati Quattrporte comes equipped with a 4.2 litre 90 degree V8 Maserati engine that punches out 400 bhp. The world debut of the Quattroporte Automatic will be at the 2007 Detroit Motor Show in January and it will make its Australasian debut at the Melbourne Motor Show in March in the same year.
The new Quattrporte will go on sale in Australia and New Zealand soon afterwards. Prices are still not confirmed, more details closer to the release date.
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