Driven! 2010 Maserati GranCabrio

Up: That sweet, sweet exhaust note, extra fast, double clutch gearbox works great

Down: Complicated infotainment setup.

Neutral: An incredible piece of machinery…did I mention the exhaust note?

So how do you begin to review your first car that’s valued at over 5 times your net worth? You get in, turn the key, and pretend that you always drive a supercar on your day off. However, this isn’t just any bruiser built for the track, this is a gentleman’s cabriolet. It’s an elegant intertwining of Italian style and Italian muscle. This is the 2010 Maserati GranCabrio.

From the moment you get into this car you can tell it was built with elegance in mind. The seats were made of a very comfortable white leather that were fully adjustable to put the driver in “relax” or “race” mode. The dash consisted of the same white leather that was perfectly accented by brown leather and wood grain with just the right amount of black buttons that really pop. And to top it off, there is a very pretty, but mostly useless, analog clock right in between the air vents. I’ve test driven so many vehicles that just seem to be a jumble of buttons without any consideration of design or style so it was very reassuring to immediately see what the extra dollars get you.

Now the part that we really care about. How does it feel to drive a Maserati? Well I was told by the owner that I could really feel the difference in how this car responded depending on if it was in drive or sport mode but let’s be honest, I just left it in the latter. I kept off the gas for a little while not only because I wanted to get a feel for the vehicle, but because I wasn’t sure how mean it could get. Also, seeing everyone look at a young twenty-something in a Maserati during rush hour on a Wednesday was pretty awesome too.

Once I got on to *place unnamed street here* my heart started to flutter because traffic was getting scarce. This is it. Time to see, and hear, and feel my first supercar open up. When I slammed my foot down I could instantly feel the 4.7 liter V8 kick in all 433 horses and I could hear the baffles open up in the pipes to let out the most gut wrenching exhaust note screaming out of the back end. I was flying past other cars as if they were standing still! Soon I was going 1XX mph and it felt like I was only going 50… well it took the same amount of time as a normal car would to get to 50.

I knew I had to slow it down because that was the responsible thing to do and because what better time would there have been to test out the massive brakes? The huge calipers grabbed the giant discs and it wasn’t long until I was back to the speed limit. I used the remainder of my test drive to enjoy the warm fall air and to listen to some classic hip-hop on Sirius’s Backspin station. It took the rest of the night to recover from an experience that is impossible to replicate on paper.

Throughout the entire evening I kept checking the clock because I didn’t want the test drive to end. The GranCabrio offers so much excitement at any speed. Heck, even looking at it is more exciting than driving most cars that are on the road. Driving the Maserati is an experience I will never forget and it completely validated what my perception of a “dream car” is. The 2010 Maserati GranCabrio isn’t just a fine Italian supercar, it’s a work of art.

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