TridentTested
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I've been driving regularly in France since the early '80s and am familiar with the excellent quality of French roads. I know how my various cars have felt better over here but to really understand what your Maserati is about you have to get out of the UK and take it to France.
Yesterday was my first opportunity to use my Quattroporte on French roads and what a difference; it was like I was driving a different car.
I had the good luck that several factors converged to make a memorable drive. I was one-up, which meant no built-in speed-limiter from the passenger seat, I was on roads I know very well, (A-roads with great sight lines) I hit a sweet spot in the evening where any self-respecting French person, tourist, and cop already had their legs tucked under the dinner table, the roads where dry, the traffic was non-existant, the long evening light was still good.
And I made progress.
I've driven my QP on bumper to bumper London roads, on busy A-roads, on bumpy B-roads on coarse motorways, but I hadn't heard the engine properly until yesterday. French roads are smooth and silent. Tyre noise just doesn't exist. It's a car transformed. I didn't know there is a lovely little exhaust resonance at 3,800 rpm; I just hadn't heard it before. I found myself blipping up and down the gearbox just to hear the music.
After about fifty kilometres of this bliss I experienced that feeling of 'the car shrinking around you', it felt more like my Ducati than any car I've driven. Those brakes are amazing; I had no idea such a big car can arrive at a roundabout at full speed, two blips on the left paddle, a quick dab of the left pedal, and flick right-left-right with such poise and little drama. I started looking forward to the occasional slow moving bit of traffic, normally I would curse them upsetting my rhythm on a nice drive but here, just like with the motorbike, they gave an opportunity to blip down one or two gears and let the music play.
I arrived on such a high that had I not had arranged to meet people for dinner I would have turned around and driven the same hour and half again.
This is what the car was designed for. I hadn't understood until now.
From your correspondent in Normandy
Yesterday was my first opportunity to use my Quattroporte on French roads and what a difference; it was like I was driving a different car.
I had the good luck that several factors converged to make a memorable drive. I was one-up, which meant no built-in speed-limiter from the passenger seat, I was on roads I know very well, (A-roads with great sight lines) I hit a sweet spot in the evening where any self-respecting French person, tourist, and cop already had their legs tucked under the dinner table, the roads where dry, the traffic was non-existant, the long evening light was still good.
And I made progress.
I've driven my QP on bumper to bumper London roads, on busy A-roads, on bumpy B-roads on coarse motorways, but I hadn't heard the engine properly until yesterday. French roads are smooth and silent. Tyre noise just doesn't exist. It's a car transformed. I didn't know there is a lovely little exhaust resonance at 3,800 rpm; I just hadn't heard it before. I found myself blipping up and down the gearbox just to hear the music.
After about fifty kilometres of this bliss I experienced that feeling of 'the car shrinking around you', it felt more like my Ducati than any car I've driven. Those brakes are amazing; I had no idea such a big car can arrive at a roundabout at full speed, two blips on the left paddle, a quick dab of the left pedal, and flick right-left-right with such poise and little drama. I started looking forward to the occasional slow moving bit of traffic, normally I would curse them upsetting my rhythm on a nice drive but here, just like with the motorbike, they gave an opportunity to blip down one or two gears and let the music play.
I arrived on such a high that had I not had arranged to meet people for dinner I would have turned around and driven the same hour and half again.
This is what the car was designed for. I hadn't understood until now.
From your correspondent in Normandy
