A Carrara roadtrip

Rock & roll
Part one of two 

Source materials

Making a masterpiece begins with a vision. The sculptor sees a version of the finished form in the mass of raw material, already planning the path from which a heavenly body will be rendered from a hill of rock. Driving south from Maserati’s Modena home to the marble quarries at Carrara is to witness the forging of new forms, animated and electrified where elements collide. Plains into hills, into the Apennines and down into a Ligurian Sea crowned with heat haze, where rock becomes sand, into sea, into vapour, somewhere becoming rain. And then a swipe in the calm of the cockpit recoils the GranCabrio Folgore roof. Any shower, however refreshing, can be weathered.

But we’re onward, Maserati’s electric pace thrilling us towards the white shimmer of Carrara. Michelangelo would sculpt with nothing other than the white magic that was mined here for millennia and where a busy community of artists, such as Valeria Greco, continue to chisel and wonder at the hill’s manna. Slowing the GranCabrio Folgore to a stop, surrounded by cliffs of marble yet to become works of art, is to be blinded by a brilliance both natural and man-made.

Causing a ripple

Harnessing the elements always leave a little waste. It’s a nod to God that we’re happy not to steal his thunder. But we’re leaving the heavy weather behind to embrace the ideal end of the Italian summer, when the lazy sun’s hazy fruitfulness brings a golden shimmer to all in thrall to its rays. The GranCabrio Folgore’s roof is neatly stowed away as we race from the arrow-straight beaches of Viareggio past the geometrical lounger layouts at Forte dei Marmi; out of Tuscany towards the historic towns of Liguria’s Cinque Terre for a sunset marked with a splash, more elements mixing their magic for our photographer’s lens. At Manarola, the stacked old houses seem to sigh at sundown as divers plunge into the blue and the surf raises a ripple of applause. The cliff roads wind and whirl us towards vistas unchanging and some too wild to be charted. The GranCabrio Folgore’s power and poise has shifted horizons from hills to shorelines and there is nothing in our mirrors but the road’s sweet memory.

With the GranCabrio Folgore, we went in search of summer and chased the season until we saw its elements evolve into dazzling dark blue skies, heavy with heat, tempered by cotton clouds. We witnessed landscapes right at the horizon’s edge, zipping into history in our mirrors. The GranCabrio Folgore is a velvet glove that grasps the might of Maserati’s all-electric, all-wheel-drive powertrain that delivers 761hp.

It leaps to a peak in seconds or cossets at cruising speeds in a cabin of phenomenal comfort and quality, subtle in leather and conscious in Econyl recycled nylon. The roar and rumble for which Maserati is beloved has been acoustically engineered, enhanced electronically rather than lost to the four winds forever. The marque springs eternal. Elements harnessed once again.

As late summer’s leaves turn, we engage the roof and connect our charger. Around the corner, another elemental adventure awaits.

A Lucca roadtrip

Horizon Hungry
Part two of two 

Peak performance

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

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

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.