PEAK PERFORMANCE

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The front end of the GranTurismo Folgore is all intent. The bonnet swoops like a vigorous natural form over large, lively headlamps that curl to a subtle smile, while the arches and haunches speak of speed and sporting heritage. The grille has a playful sense of entitlement. It’s been inherited, after all, but also reimagined; sculpted for an electric future where air cooling is less longed-for by the engine than the brakes. Those discs behind the wheels are polished anchors, not too elegant to mean business. And it’s fast. Just at look at it: scooping a wedge of fresh air with its friendly mouth of mischief.

The GranTurismo Folgore propels us on the second half of our elemental adventures through Italy. Our circuit from Maserati’s Modena home runs south to the high Apennines where the weather is measured at Monte Cimone’s hilltop observatory. Then into Tuscan Lucca for ancient walls and the city civility that shows off the GranTurismo Folgore’s fine manners – that purr is an electronic update, sure, yet every tone is audibly a Maserati. And to look at? Well, the duomos and chiesas lay un-photographed on the day that our car was in town.

TURN UP THE HEAT

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The hills rear up again west of Lucca, the roadside offering hearty mountain gastronomy courtesy of tigelle or crescente, breads with names that echo the half-moon hairpins of the Apennines. As the weather shifts from sun to crashing storm, thunder in the hills and lightning in the clouds cause a pause. The Folgore is in its element: all is electric. In the driver’s seat, nature’s great free show is a thrill. The GranTurismo Folgore almost smiles up at its maker: could lightning strike twice? When the mercury drops, a swipe and the shift of a dial adds a little heat to the seats. The Maserati sits quietly, still hungry for the horizon.

The scenic return to Modena takes in depthless forests, mountains distant in the low sun before the plains come again and terracotta walls warm the approach to food writer Luca Cesari and the kitchen of Luca Marchini at L’Erba del Re. A simple Modenese risotto and scalloppine di maiale are perfect witness to Luca’s harnessing of fire, heat and locale, elements that mean comfort at journey’s end.

 

 

ELECTRIC DREAMS

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Hearts broken and heads turned, our twin circuits from Modena are complete yet the buzz of driving the GranTurismo Folgore lingers like a thrilling daydream.

Before the road trip’s wheels stopped turning on the tidy tarmac of Maserati’s Modena factory, Monocle had reason to pause and reflect on two routes regaled by vehicles beloved. The locals remain smitten with marques historic yet our new wheels – these two fresh Maserati models – turned heads like no other. The GranTurismo Folgore is as breathless and brooding or as beatific and calm as the driver’s heart desires. The GranCabrio Folgore was met with a chorus of “La bella machina!” from hill towns to five-star hotels. These bold and brilliant sports cars are grand and generous gestures: both harness the elements as they leave a trail of broken hearts, sure, but clean streets too.

All-wheel-drive, all-electric, all thrill. The buzz of the future sounds like rumbling thunder – and it looks like Folgore.