One of the most eagerly awaited cars to arrive in Australia this year, the Maserati Quattroporte Automatic, is now on sale in Australia, and at the same time it is one of the stars of this week's Melbourne International Motor Show. Combining the ease of use of a full automatic gearshift with the dynamic driving excitement that has made Maserati an automotive legend, this new package is wrapped up in one of the most beautiful cars of all time.

“It may sound like an easy task to add an automatic gearbox to an existing model,” explains Edward Butler, the General Manager for Maserati in Australia and New Zealand. “But Maserati did not wish to dilute or soften any of the essential driving abilities of the Quattroporte just to give it the ease of use of an automatic gearbox. This means that the new Quattroporte is the high-revving auto in the world, with its 400 bhp V8 engine still able to scream around to 7000 rpm. Despite moving the gearbox from a transaxle to a conventional engine-attached gearbox, the new Quattroporte retains almost ideal 49/51 per cent weight balance. But,” adds Mr Butler, “perhaps the most amazing feature is that, despite all these changes and improvements, one thing hasn’t changed: The price. There is no extra charge for this remarkable, beautiful, enthralling car.”

When the Maserati Quattroporte was originally launched, it arrived with the DuoSelect gearbox, a sequential or robotized manual gearbox derived from the self-shifting gearboxes used in Formula One. This route was chosen as there was no automatic gearbox that could cope with the 7,000 rpm rev-limit of the Maserati V8 fitted to the Quattroporte. Dropping this rev-limit was a sacrifice of driving excitement that Maserati engineers simply were not prepared to make to enable a conventional automatic to be fitted.

But Maserati did not give up on the idea of an automatic Quattroporte. Its engineers continued to work with the experts at ZF to produce a gearbox that could shift gears automatically, but also maintain all the essential elements of a Maserati driving experience. Their efforts have produced the Maserati Quattroporte Automatic. The changes to the car seem minimal. There is a new automatic gearshift selector, the use of an electric parking brake has allowed a redesigned centre console with larger cup holders and there are new trims and colours launched with the new model.

However, under the skin there have been radical changes. The DuoSelect has a rear mounted gearbox in a Transaxle for optimum weight distribution. Though not impossible, placing an automatic gearbox in this position would have imposed a severe weight penalty, so this meant placing the gearbox in a conventional position, attached to the engine. Changes to the floorpan of the car have been made to accommodate the new gearbox, along with redesigning the rear suspension to cope with the loss of the transaxle and changing a number of components in the platform to ensure that the optimum rear-bias weight distribution for the sweetest handling was maintained.
 

Also, the engine had to switch from dry to wet sump lubrication and Maserati used this opportunity to up the torque output – 460 to 451 NM of torque – to absorb torque losses from the new gearbox. In addition Maserati have re-turned the suspension for a smoother, more compliant ride again, without any detrimental effects on steering turn in or chassis response. The result of this remarkable engineering effort is a car that is effortlessly easy to drive with cocoon-like comfort and isolation from the outside world when required, yet at the same time has the athletic response and dynamism of a sports car when called upon to reveal its true colours.

All of this is wrapped up in a body that has been described as the most beautiful sedan of all time, a car that is exclusive, unique and luxuriously well equipped. Completing the Maserati Quattroporte is the choice of two additional equipment and trim packages that further focus the car in particular areas, the Sport GT, which as the name suggests provides the Quattroporte with an even sharper performance edge with changes to the suspension, chassis, wheels, trim and equipment, and the Executive GT which boosts the levels of lavish comfort and refinement to new levels.

Given the Australian market’s predominantly automatic preference, Maserati expects that the new automatic version will become the dominant choice for local car buyers. For this reason it is being offered in Australia as a choice right across the range, with automatic variants of the Quattroporte, Quattroporte Sport GT and Quattroporte Executive GT.

“Ultimately we expect the automatic to account for 80 per cent of Quattroporte sales,” says Edward Butler. “This is not just a reflection on our preference for automatics, it is proof that Maserati have achieved every goal they set for themselves with this new model, a car that retains and remains everything it means to be a Maserati, yet has the convenience of an automatic gearbox – in other words, another unique and remarkable car in the history of Maserati.”

The new Maserati Quattroporte is on sale now, with a recommended retail price of AUS$269,000, the Quattroporte Sport GT has an RRP of AUS$288,000 and the RRP for the Quattroporte Executive GT is AUS$298,000, with the price the same for both the DuoSelect and the new Automatic versions.