RE: Maserati reveals 180mph GranCabrio Folgore

[W124]

I quite like the idea of a silent convertible that also creates no exhaust. Bumbling amongst the hedgerows, smelling the flowers of Spring. Darling buds of May etc.

But, for that application, a Fiat 500 probably makes more sense.

[MrGeoff]

Not my thing but I get it would sell. However, if we were all lead to believe everything we read, apparently according to the PH forums cabriolets must be loud as hell, be the final word in dynamics and have a fuel tank capable of holding enough fuel to do 600 miles. What exciting times we all live in. I'm off to buy a 124 cabrio since they're going to be worthless based on what everyone has said on here.

[Marcodude]

Jermy Claxon said:

"It's too heavy." Really? It's going to violently understeer across the pavement and into Hermès, is it?

Silent drop-top wafty loveliness. Gorgeous thing.

And EV is perfect for the application. You might like the idea of sounding like a straight-piped apocalypse at 30kph, but your mistress in Monaco probably wants to be able to converse with her style adviser without shouting.

If you don't think they know their market, look at the colour of it. Mr Wallet is driving, but if that colour wasn't carefully chosen to appeal to his "masseuse", I'll eat my fedora. Cheap enough to fit on one of the non-titanium credit cards too, so the wife will never notice.

I mean, who the hell cares if a bunch of smelly, terminally single IT professionals on a declining 20th century TVR forum thinks it might be dynamically compromised? Everything is compromised. Now if you'll excuse me, I just noticed my family SUV shipped without straight-cut gears, so I'm off to address that immediately!!

You should win an award for that comment. Couldn't have said it better ..

[Roger Irrelevant]

fantheman80 said:

Those press shots and colour make me wonder if they wanted it as product placement in the Barbie movie but even they said no- "feck it use it as the launch Press release"

Those otherworldly shots put me in mind of this other touch of class that was big in the 70s:

[Chasing Potatoes]

carlo996 said:

Good to see the target demographic is engaged with all the most important points of the car

This kind of ridiculous virtue signally green nonsense is totally out of control. Plenty more to worry about in the modern world than 'tyre particulates'.

Mum, Carlo is triggered by an EV again.

[Whitestrand]

Gorgeous colour! At last we can leave boring black and grey / silver behind

[murphyaj]

PorkerHam said:

5 minutes of charging time to put 15 miles of charge into the batteries?

Ugh...that's grindingly horrible when you can put 500-600 miles in a fuel tank in that time.

I'm not anti-EV, but I'm always amused by people pretending the above isn't a problem....

Depends very much how you use the car, but in many cases it genuinely is not a problem at all.
I had a DB9 Volante for 3 years, a car that sits in a very similar segment to this one. Contrary to what Aston's marketing would have you believe I was not constantly nipping down to the south of France in it, nor was I going on endless driving tours. I probably drove more than 250 miles in one go a handful of times.

People in this segment tend to have more than one car, and if you are going on holiday a long way away you are probably not taking this one. This is a cruiser and i suspect for 90% potential owners the 250 miles of real world range will be fine 99% of the time. Sure there will be people who do use it to drive to the Italian lakes for whom this won't work, but I bet they are in the minority in the real world.

[Water Fairy]

What an awful colour, I imagine Elton John already has one on order.

Not a bad looking car tbf, no heavier than any other stupidly pointless gazillion kw EV either.

More choice for the virtue signallers I guess.

[oedipus]

I believe there are a choice of colours so pant-wetting over the one they chose to highlight seems to indicate a susceptibility to incontinence. Not a fan of car noise so wouldn't miss it, Shame that we're at £200k to get an electric convertible when compared to the MX5 and like an earlier poster said 150mph and 4 seconds is more than enough (if sacrificing bragging rights in this way would eke out a bit more range and also bring the price down).

[carlo996]

Chasing Potatoes said:

carlo996 said:

Good to see the target demographic is engaged with all the most important points of the car

This kind of ridiculous virtue signally green nonsense is totally out of control. Plenty more to worry about in the modern world than 'tyre particulates'.

Mum, Carlo is triggered by an EV again.

Merely pointing out the obvious hypocrisy.

[simonrockman]

It won't hold its crown for long. Three times the price of a cyberster, slower than a tesla roadster.

[plfrench]

oedipus said:

I believe there are a choice of colours so pant-wetting over the one they chose to highlight seems to indicate a susceptibility to incontinence. Not a fan of car noise so wouldn't miss it, Shame that we're at £200k to get an electric convertible when compared to the MX5 and like an earlier poster said 150mph and 4 seconds is more than enough ( if sacrificing bragging rights in this way would eke out a bit more range and also bring the price down).

As I was trying to explain earlier, it doesn't work that way with EVs, you're thinking about this with an ICE mindset. Range requires increase in battery size. Increase in battery size enables more power to be delivered. Therefore you're getting the additional power for 'free'. You can choose not to use it but not pressing the accelerator as hard or for as long - this will extend the range. There isn't the base efficiency saving you'd get with dropping from a V12 to a V8 etc as the electric motor is so efficient anyway.

Drive this same car with your foot pressed down slightly less to sit at 150mph instead of 180mph and you will get more range.

[JerseyRoyal]

You’re being deliberately obtuse, they could offer a rwd one with less motors.

[plfrench]

JerseyRoyal said:

You’re being deliberately obtuse, they could offer a rwd one with less motors.

I hadn't thought of that! That would do it

[LunarOne]

JerseyRoyal said:

You’re being deliberately obtuse, they could offer a rwd one with less motors.

Fewer.

[JerseyRoyal]

[Venisonpie]

Most appealing EV to date I think.

[V12GT]

andy43 said:

As an ex Grancabrio owner I can confidently say mine was bought for two reasons - the looks and the noise. 4 seats were a massive plus and the historic brand was a draw too.
Take away the noise, and, err… well, let’s see how it sells.

As a current GranCabrio owner I totally agree. I think it was unfairly left out of the six epic sounding convertibles list at the weekend. The noise is wonderful.

This one might be quicker, but it’s heavier and has far less “emozione”.

[Nish Gnackers]

simonrockman said:

It won't hold its crown for long. Three times the price of a cyberster, slower than a tesla roadster.

Tesla Roadster .... yeah right ....

[Wills2]

I think the strategy is to have the EV as the range topper with the headline hp and performance numbers, I'm sure further down the line as they phase out the ICE models then they will be replaced with lower power and cheaper versions of Folgore.