I guess there are just different views on the subject out there. This is copied from www.autozine.org :
"Back to 1997, when Maserati went into receivership by Ferrari, the former was already developing the first all-new model since 1981's Biturbo. Although the design from Italdesign had already been signed off, it was still hardly imagine that the golden days of the original Ghibli could return.
Once Ferrari took control, it sent the team engineered the 550 Maranello to take up the development of the new Maserati. Their mission was to make the car, eventually called 3200GT, rivals Jaguar XKR, Porsche 996 Carrera etc. in terms of performance as well as refinement"
"The Maranello men claimed the 3.2 litres biturbo V8 is 90% new, which I don't believe. Counting the no. of new components used, it may be 90% new, but counting the development budget it would not be 90% of a completely new design. Anyway, the Quattroporte-sourced engine received some new features including variable-flow turbochargers (still supplied by Japan's IHI), longer induction manifold, electronic throttle which enhances throttle response and enable 550M's ASR traction control to be fitted"
"At the time Maranello offered the first road test to the journalists, the 3200GT was still under refining. Therefore the following comment about its handling and ride might be changed in the production version. Obviously, the engineers are still working on the setting of steering. One magazine reported the steering as too heavy, too center-biased and has insufficient feedback, while another described it as "over-assisted" but pin-ball accurate. However, both agreed the brake pedal had too long travel. In terms of ride, it is biased towards hard despite the existence of Ferrari's 14-setting adaptive damping"
"Back to 1997, when Maserati went into receivership by Ferrari, the former was already developing the first all-new model since 1981's Biturbo. Although the design from Italdesign had already been signed off, it was still hardly imagine that the golden days of the original Ghibli could return.
Once Ferrari took control, it sent the team engineered the 550 Maranello to take up the development of the new Maserati. Their mission was to make the car, eventually called 3200GT, rivals Jaguar XKR, Porsche 996 Carrera etc. in terms of performance as well as refinement"
"The Maranello men claimed the 3.2 litres biturbo V8 is 90% new, which I don't believe. Counting the no. of new components used, it may be 90% new, but counting the development budget it would not be 90% of a completely new design. Anyway, the Quattroporte-sourced engine received some new features including variable-flow turbochargers (still supplied by Japan's IHI), longer induction manifold, electronic throttle which enhances throttle response and enable 550M's ASR traction control to be fitted"
"At the time Maranello offered the first road test to the journalists, the 3200GT was still under refining. Therefore the following comment about its handling and ride might be changed in the production version. Obviously, the engineers are still working on the setting of steering. One magazine reported the steering as too heavy, too center-biased and has insufficient feedback, while another described it as "over-assisted" but pin-ball accurate. However, both agreed the brake pedal had too long travel. In terms of ride, it is biased towards hard despite the existence of Ferrari's 14-setting adaptive damping"
