Maserati’s GranTurismo has now been soldiering on for 10 years, but the stylish coupe – and cabrio – have now come in for a final round of upgrades to keep the car fresh until an all-new replacement finally arrives over the coming year or two.
Maserati, the brand better known as playing second-fiddle to Ferrari, is adamant to prove that it is anything but. The Italian carmaker has its own racing heritage, and therefore they currently runs their own racing series, the Maserati Trofeo MC World Series, whose final was held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi last December. During that event, we even got to hit the track in between races, with a street-legal Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale, the car on which the racing series is built.
The Maserati Trofeo one-make racing championship was launched this week for the GCC region, at an event in Dubai. The series is backed by the Maserati factory in Modena, Italy and will feature up to 16 mechanically-identical Maserati GranTurismo MC Trofeo race cars battling it out over 12 races across the Middle East.
The Maserati GranCabrio convertible has debuted just before its public display at the upcoming 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Essentially nothing more than a GranTurismo with a chopped top, this is probably the most predictable car to be revealed at the auto show.
European tuner NOVITEC TRIDENTE now offers up a kit for the Maserati GranTurismo S, and it isn’t just all looks. A newly-developed supercharged V8 engine bumps up the power to supercar levels.