Hi all,
There are many forum threads on what exactly is the point of the Gran Turismo MC Stradale, as many argue that MC Stradale was simply a slight improvement over the Sport that many found the £20K+ premium hard to justify. I can now see why a Stradale is more than just the sum of its minor improvements over the Sport.
I had a fantastic ownership experience over the past 5+ years of a 2009 GT S. The driving experience, the look of the car and most importantly the exhaust note made it such an exciting experience.
I have never kept a car for more than 2 years before the Maser, and I really wanted a change, so I decided to sell my pristine condition GT S via a broker about 2 months ago. I was planning to wait until the Spring before started looking, but found myself browsing Pistonheads and Autotrader soon after I sold my car.
I have looked at the various “alternatives”, but found it impossible to find a real substitute for a Granturismo – a car that is fantastic to look at, sits 4 in comfort and most important of all, an exhaust note to die for! Well, I really could not find any plausible alternative, and before long, I started looking at Granturismo AGAIN !
A big thanks to 3Leftovercrest for his beautifully maintained 2014 Stradale, I came across his car on this forum by chance about a month ago, and I bought it last Wednesday because I simply could not resist the ownership of a Stradale. It must have been hard for 3Leftovercrest to sell the car, but having other interesting automotive legends must have made it easier to bear.
Now my experience on the Stradale compared to my GT S and a Sport that I had for a month while the dealer was trying to sort out the paper work for my GT S.
I have never driven a Stradale before my purchase, apart from admiring the sculpture carbon fibre bonnet with the elegant but aggressive vents, so I did not know what to expect when driving the car home from Canary Wharf. What an experience it was ! The Stradale is like a complete different car compared to the GT S, and a big improvement over the Sport. Yes, the car rides firmer and is definitely not as comfortable as a GT S or Sport, the gear shift is brutal in Race mode, the carbon ceramic brake is a huge improvement, and that exhaust note – just how did they tune the exhaust note to produce this symphony!! Maserati certainly has done a great job tweaking an already great Sport model to create the magnificent Stradale, the car feels more “analog” and hardcore, it feels more raw and at the same time more luxurious with all the leather and alcantara interior trims.
The set up is exactly how I like it, I have driven many high performance cars in the past, the car may not be as fast compared to the AMG, BMW M and the Porsche, but the whole package makes you feel so special behind the wheel and you would look for any excuse to take the car out for a drive.
I can now understand why there are so many loyal Maserati fans in this forum, starting from 3200, 4200, Gransport and all the way to the Maserati Stradale. It is strange that Maserati does not hold the same status as its sibling Ferrari from car collectors perspective.
A few interesting observations though that I hope you guys could shed some lights…
We should all be grateful to be able to own and drive these special machines !
There are many forum threads on what exactly is the point of the Gran Turismo MC Stradale, as many argue that MC Stradale was simply a slight improvement over the Sport that many found the £20K+ premium hard to justify. I can now see why a Stradale is more than just the sum of its minor improvements over the Sport.
I had a fantastic ownership experience over the past 5+ years of a 2009 GT S. The driving experience, the look of the car and most importantly the exhaust note made it such an exciting experience.
I have never kept a car for more than 2 years before the Maser, and I really wanted a change, so I decided to sell my pristine condition GT S via a broker about 2 months ago. I was planning to wait until the Spring before started looking, but found myself browsing Pistonheads and Autotrader soon after I sold my car.
I have looked at the various “alternatives”, but found it impossible to find a real substitute for a Granturismo – a car that is fantastic to look at, sits 4 in comfort and most important of all, an exhaust note to die for! Well, I really could not find any plausible alternative, and before long, I started looking at Granturismo AGAIN !
A big thanks to 3Leftovercrest for his beautifully maintained 2014 Stradale, I came across his car on this forum by chance about a month ago, and I bought it last Wednesday because I simply could not resist the ownership of a Stradale. It must have been hard for 3Leftovercrest to sell the car, but having other interesting automotive legends must have made it easier to bear.
Now my experience on the Stradale compared to my GT S and a Sport that I had for a month while the dealer was trying to sort out the paper work for my GT S.
I have never driven a Stradale before my purchase, apart from admiring the sculpture carbon fibre bonnet with the elegant but aggressive vents, so I did not know what to expect when driving the car home from Canary Wharf. What an experience it was ! The Stradale is like a complete different car compared to the GT S, and a big improvement over the Sport. Yes, the car rides firmer and is definitely not as comfortable as a GT S or Sport, the gear shift is brutal in Race mode, the carbon ceramic brake is a huge improvement, and that exhaust note – just how did they tune the exhaust note to produce this symphony!! Maserati certainly has done a great job tweaking an already great Sport model to create the magnificent Stradale, the car feels more “analog” and hardcore, it feels more raw and at the same time more luxurious with all the leather and alcantara interior trims.
The set up is exactly how I like it, I have driven many high performance cars in the past, the car may not be as fast compared to the AMG, BMW M and the Porsche, but the whole package makes you feel so special behind the wheel and you would look for any excuse to take the car out for a drive.
I can now understand why there are so many loyal Maserati fans in this forum, starting from 3200, 4200, Gransport and all the way to the Maserati Stradale. It is strange that Maserati does not hold the same status as its sibling Ferrari from car collectors perspective.
A few interesting observations though that I hope you guys could shed some lights…
- Why is the 1 and R gear surround not in Carbon Fibre, I don’t think there is any package that would give you this? If Maserati has even used Carbon Fibre on the window sills, surely they should have included one more piece of carbon fibre on the gear surround.
- I understand that you get the 2 red strips on the Maserati logo to signify that it is the more hardcore MC Shift model back then. Interestingly, I have got he 2 red strips on the front Maserati logo, but no red strips on the 2 logos on the side C Pillars. One of them seems to have a red dot on the logo – they ran out of paint?
- The side repeater is in orange – this looks like something they picked up from the 90’s. I think the side repeater for the Sport is clear, but the repeater for the Sport model appears different to the Stradale, anyone know how I could remove this and replace it with a clear lens?
We should all be grateful to be able to own and drive these special machines !
