Maseratis on ice

It's the season for 'fast cars on ice' stories - latest into the arena is a sideways Maserati Levante

"Are you free on Monday? Maserati has invited one of us to test the Levante and its Q4 system on an ice drive experience, fancy it?" One slight problem - I've never driven on snow before. Or ice. The sheer drops will surely keep me on my toes though, won't they? To the Alps!

Upon arrival in Courmayeur, it was clear Maserati was very keen on showing off the Levante in key winter locations, revealing just how confident it is about its capability over tricky terrain. So, here we are, starting the event by learning a bit more about the Q4 system and how its various modes differ. It has four modes; Normal, Sport, Off-Road and I.C.E. Torque distribution is the same in every drive mode, with a standard 0:100 per cent front/rear set up which can vary up to 50:50 in just 100 milliseconds. Normal mode is just that, for normal driving on the road, with pedal response, gearbox aggression and ride firmness somewhere in the middle of the four modes. Sport mode does as you would expect and stiffens spring rates/lowers the ride height, sharpens the throttle response and gear changes and, in the diesel, gives you some blasphemous V8 exhaust noise! Off-Road mode elevates the ride height to an impressive 247mm. A greater front-wheel drive bias in this mode allows prospective owners to tackle every difficult ascent they will undoubtedly never encounter. I.C.E. mode (Increased Control and Efficiency mode) is for more relaxed driving and low grip conditions, along with improved fuel efficiency. In this mode the gearbox is in auto only, and changes as gently as possible to avoiding overwhelming the tyres' grip. Still with me?

Our next adventure was to find the illusive ice track! We wandered down to Maserati's season base camp and found two diesel Levantes waiting for us, one in Blu Emozione and one in Rame (brown to you and me). The journey consisted of both mundane Autostrada and spectacular winding (and very bumpy) mountain roads on which the car performed faultlessly. See Matt's roadtest earlier last year here for a more in-depth review. We finally arrived at the icy, snow-covered proving grounds situated in the beautiful Breuil basin and shadowed by incredible sheer rock face mountains. Ascents and descents, sweeping corners and tight hairpins, all lined with... soft, fluffy snow? Nope. Hard, icy banks actually. Gulp.

We had assumed we would just be using the diesel Levante on this trip, but much to our delight, the glorious sounding 435hp twin-turbo V6 was the model of choice for ice driving! Just what I needed, more power to propel me to my icy demise. First things first, a hot lap with 1987 World Rally Champion, Alex Fiorio. Unsurprisingly, he made it look fantastically easy, drifting around the icy hairpins and thick snowy roundabouts, all while switching through the modes and explaining their differences. His effortless slides had me itching to get out there myself, surely I'd be just as good as this, it looks so easy!

My first laps were in a Levante equipped with road snow/winter tyres, allowing the occupants to feel the car move around quite freely beneath them. However, with the Q4 system and tyres being as impressive as they are, not a lot happened. So what is the natural reaction to not moving a great deal? More power, obviously. Now, it was incredibly impressive how the Q4 system handles over 400hp on ice and snow, even in sport mode, but this didn't account for the chump behind the wheel getting a little too friendly with the accelerator pedal, power sliding towards a large bank of solid ice. Luckily, I caught the slide, with the electronics helping me out and Alex now suitably awake, I took heed and carried on a little more cautiously, finishing my laps without any further brown trouser moments.

Next up was a Levante fitted with studded tyres. These allowed the Q4 system to show off its tricks in deeper detail, and the difference was rather amazing; much less understeer around the slower, tighter hairpins, substantially more feel and control through the faster bends and stronger ascents now being achievable. Starting off in Normal mode, we had an average ride height, reasonably gentle gear changes and some slip allowed, but understeer was the name of the game here, so the icy sections were slightly tricky to get right. We switched to Off-Road which suited the terrain better - we bounced over deeper ruts and hefty bumps, powered up the inclines with ease and accelerated harder out of the previously tricky corners as the additional variable torque up front worked its magic.

Sport mode is where things got properly exciting though! The exhaust flaps on the twin turbo V6 now fully open, a rear-wheel drive bias and quite a lot more slip allowed, making for an interesting, and very fun, lap... Once again, a tiny bit too much power (due to enjoying the shouty exhaust) caused a bit of a tank-slapper. Lots of Italian hand gestures and bit of a telling off later, my time on the ice was almost up. So, finally, we switched to I.C.E mode, which reined in my heavy foot and enabled a rather graceful and uneventful final lap! I'm sure it's not surprising to learn that the mode designed for low grip conditions and "Increased Control" was best suited to the slippery ice track, but it really was superb at creating a completely controlled environment to drive in, on what was a very tricky and, at times, formidable course. The softer pedal, softer gear changes and a traction control system that kept everything in check may not have made me look like Ken Block, but for the mere mortal trying not to bin a very expensive Maserati in treacherous conditions, it did its job perfectly.

So welcome to the 4x4 club Maserati - after impressing on the road Levante owners can rest assured IF they choose to do a bit of ice racing their flashy SUV is more than up to the job.

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HardMiles

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