Styling
Like the GranCabrio Folgore, and indeed models of the
tin-topped GranTurismo coupe variant, there's a strong element of
MC20 supercar to the way this open-topped grand tourer looks. Which is no bad thing, although there are also clear strands of DNA from the
old GranCabrio in its appearance too.
Nonetheless, it's a great-looking car, despite one of Maserati's trademarks in the form of a whopping wheelbase of 2,929mm potentially distorting its proportions. But no, the GranCabrio manages to carry it off, while it also sports the same three-metre-square 'cofango' one-piece bonnet-and-wings pressing as the Folgore. The differences, then, amount to the 'Trofeo' badging on the sides of said cofango, as well as larger air intakes in the lower front bumper and a different design of oval radiator grille. At the back, the petrol-powered model has four exhausts sticking out of its lower valance, while it also doesn't have the ungainly looking charging-port flap under one of its rear lights that sullies the Folgore's rump; instead, the Trofeo's fuel-filler cap is a neat oval on one of its flanks. Finally, the petrol Maserati has its own design of alloy wheel, although - as with the Folgore - they're still mismatched items with 20-inch front, 21-inch rear rims.
And, again just like the Folgore, the Trofeo can lower and raise its multi-layered fabric roof in anything between 14 and 16 seconds, including on the move at speeds of up to 31mph. More importantly, the big Maserati soft-top looks almost as good with its lid up as it does with it stashed away in the boot area.
Interior
There's very little to differentiate the Trofeo's superb cabin from that found in the Folgore, which is a very, very good thing, trust us. As both cars have the push-button gearbox set-up, arrayed as the traditional P-R-N-D formation on four switches sitting between the 12.3-inch infotainment screen and the 8.8-inch Comfort Display (for climate and so on) below it, and they both also have glorious great metal paddle shifters on the steering wheel (in the Trofeo they control the eight-speed ZF gearbox, in the Folgore they adjust the level of regenerative braking effort), the ambience is almost identical. About the only changes are a rev counter in the 12.2-inch digital instrument cluster of the Trofeo, and some electric-related specific displays on the central touchscreen in the Folgore.
But material quality is magnificent across the board, so the way the Maserati feels to sit in is suitably upmarket and prestigious. With a great use of tasteful Italian-type textures and designs, this is a cabin that can stand comparison with some of the finest competition in this sector, even if it perhaps doesn't quite have the outright showy craftsmanship of something like, for instance, a
Bentley Continental GTC. However, the discretion of the GranCabrio's interior is something to be admired, in many ways, so we thoroughly approve of this aspect of the Maser.
Practicality
And we thoroughly approve of this too, certainly in terms of people travelling within the Maserati, because that long wheelbase means there's more room in the back seats of the GranCabrio Trofeo than you'd give it credit for. Taller passengers are surprisingly well catered-for and can sit in the back with the roof up, which is unexpected but most welcome. We're not about to claim it is limo-like in the second row of the GranCabrio's interior, but by the standards of these supposedly four-seater big convertibles, it's about the most accommodating we've ever experienced.
There is a payoff, which is that the boot remains, on its pure measure in litres, tiny. At a rated 172 litres with the hood up and 131 litres with the hood down, it's technically better than the Folgore's numbers (151/114 litres accordingly). But, as we said with the electric Maserati convertible, the Trofeo's trunk is still smaller than that on
the electric Fiat 500 Convertible and it's also not much bigger than the strange square stowage bay under the 'bonnet' of a
Porsche 911 Cabriolet, one of its key rivals. Maserati does make an effort to retain some usability in the boot when the hood is down with a separator, but if a grand tourer's reason for being is to whisk two people away on a long journey across Europe for weeks at a time, then we'd suggest anyone living up to this romantic ideal will be slinging their cases onto the expensively tailored rear seats of the GranCabrio, rather than trying to stuff them into the minuscule cargo bay.
Performance
The GranCabrio Trofeo uses the 3.0-litre Nettuno biturbo V6 from the MC20, which is not in any way related to the 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 used in certain high-performance
Alfa Romeos. Nosiree. Absolutely not. And it means nothing that these two storied Italian carmakers are very closely aligned through the Stellantis superconglomerate, either.
Anyway, this is not a criticism, because the Alfa 690T is a magnificent engine and, guess what? So is the Nettuno. In this trim, it makes 542hp and 650Nm, more than enough to see the 1,895kg Trofeo hit 62mph from rest in just 3.6 seconds and go on to a top speed of 196mph... if you're on an empty autobahn, natch. Sending power to all four wheels - nominally, the GranCab is rear-driven, but it can shunt up to 50 per cent of the total torque to the front axle if the car needs it - via an eight-speed ZF automatic, the performance in reality is superb. There's negligible lag from the twin turbos and while the 3.0-litre has plenty of low-down torque to give it lots of flexibility, at the same time it loves to be revved out too, in classic Maserati fashion.
OK, it's not
quite as fantastic to listen to as the howling
4.7-litre V8 that used to be in the old cars, yet compared to the strange and synthetic whooshings of the Folgore, the Nettuno makes the Trofeo more, well...
Maserati-ish. Although, if you've ever driven either a Giulia or Stelvio Quadrifoglio, the gravel-voiced snarling that the petrol GranCabrio makes is remarkably familiar. Again, we're not saying this as a negative comment at all.
Of course, the Trofeo can't hope to match the Folgore's super-low running costs, because it has an official economy claim of 26.6mpg. The reality, though, is that if you're enjoying precisely what that sonorous V6 up front brings to the GranCabrio party, you'll be looking at sub-20mpg all day long. And then there's the increased maintenance costs for servicing the Nettuno and the ZF transmission, as compared to the mechanically simpler Folgore. So if you want the best drivetrain tunes in your Maserati GT soft-top, you're going to have to pay more for it in the long run - and we mean beyond the simple purchase prices in the first place, at that.
Ride & Handling
While the powertrain is a solid reason we prefer this Trofeo to the Folgore, it's actually the ride and handling which is our major preference of the two. The key issue here is weight. The cleverly packaged T-shaped battery pack and triple 300kW electric motors in the Folgore add up to a ginormous additional 445kg for its overall mass. So while a 1.9-tonne car like the GranCabrio Trofeo is not exactly what you might term a
superleggera in the grand scheme of things, for a four-seater, open-top GT of this class it's a positive featherweight.
That makes the Maserati Trofeo feel lively and alert in the corners, thanks to excellent steering and a sense of well-judged suspension balance. We say this because the GranCabrio will lean if you start pushing it, and following one hard-driven Trofeo around a hairpin bend we witnessed the inside-rear wheel gapping significantly beneath its arch, so we're not trying to say the Italian convertible has an iron grip on its body at all times. But as it is supposed to be a cross-continental cruiser more than it's a sports car, you expect the Maserati to be a little soft in the corners. Brilliantly, it is, yet it doesn't seem to lose a lot of driver interactivity as a result. There's a genuine sense out of tighter curves, for instance, that it really is shoving most of its grunt at the rear wheels, rather than all four of them.
But the crowning glory is its ride quality. Put simply, the Trofeo is smoother and more comfortable at all times than the Folgore. Perhaps the electric model has to have firmer suspension to support its extra bulk, but the Trofeo patters less on rough urban roads, it's less prone to thumping if it encounters larger surface imperfections on flowing country roads, and it proves more serene at cruising speeds too. So the summation is that, of the two new GranCabrios, the Trofeo sounds better, it handles better and it rides better, but the Folgore is a lot quicker in a straight line and should be cheaper to run. Which one of those two packages sounds more emotive and desirable to you? Yeah, thought so.
Value
Neither Maserati GranCabrio is cheap, but the Trofeo has another advantage here in that it is £16,025 less expensive than the Folgore. Obviously, anyone spending a big six figures on a car like this is probably not going to care one way or the other about saving 16 grand, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless.
However, at £169,585, the starting figure for the Maserati places it a long, long way above the likes of the aforementioned 911 Cabriolet (from £109,800) or another ideologically similar German machine, the
BMW 8 Series Convertible (from £90,990). Of course, to get similar performance to the Trofeo from either of these, you have to spend considerably more dough, with a Carrera 4 GTS Cab coming in at £149,100, while an M850i xDrive Convertible is at least £123,045, but you can still see the Italian car is pricier than either. It's perhaps better value, though, when compared to the incoming Aston Martin Vantage Roadster (prices yet to be confirmed but they'll likely be around the GranCabrio's level) and the Conti GTC, which is undergoing a switch to a new plug-in hybrid model.
Verdict
The new Maserati GranCabrio is a wonderful car in many respects, with a top-notch cabin, svelte looks and a generous amount of cabin space. It doesn't have the biggest boot on the market and it's not the sharpest-driving big convertible in the world, but there's still plenty of appeal in both the drivetrains offered for it. However, although we're inevitably moving towards electric power for cars and the Folgore is easily the greater technical achievement with regards to the type of vehicle it is, the superior grand touring soft-top out of it and this V6-propelled Trofeo is definitely the one with the petrol engine under its cofango. So while it might look retrograde of us to suggest Trofeo > Folgore, that's where we find ourselves when it comes to these Italian GTs.
