Maserati GranTurismo: playboy in Barcelona
The Maserati GranTurismo and GranCabrio are a series of a grand tourers produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati. They succeeded the 2-door V8 grand tourers offered by the company, the Maserati Coupé, and Spyder.
The first generation of Maserati GranTurismo (Tipo M145) was unveiled at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, and was built between 2007 and December 2019. The GranTurismo set a record for the most quickly developed car in the auto industry, going from design to production stage in just nine months. The reason being that the proposed replacement for the Maserati Coupé looked like it was going to be too expensive to manufacture by Maserati and FIAT Chrysler Automobiles’ Ferrari division needed a small car in its range and so it was launched as the Ferrari California instead, leaving Maserati without a coupe in its range. A total of 28,805 GranTurismo coupe were produced.
The GranCabrio (GranTurismo Convertible in the United States and Canada) is a convertible version of the GranTurismo S Automatic, equipped with a canvas folding roof. The GranCabrio retains the four seat configuration of the GranTurismo coupé, and is thus Maserati’s first ever four-seater convertible.
The GranCabrio was unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, with production beginning in 2010. It is built in the Viale Ciro Menotti Maserati factory. European sales were to begin in February 2010, with the United States receiving its first cars a month later. Planned sales for 2010 were 2,100 units, of which two-thirds were intended to go stateside.
The GranCabrio is powered by the same 4.7-litre V8 engine (rated at 440 PS (324 kW; 434 hp) at 7,000 rpm and 490 N⋅m (361 lb⋅ft) at 4,750 rpm) that is fitted to the GranTurismo S Automatic. About 11,715 units of the convertible model were produced.
