Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo Review: The E-Type’s Italian Godchild Goes to a Summer Ball

The Maserati GT Trofeo Grand Entrance: Driving to a Summer Ball in Ultimate Style

There’s something ineffably glamorous about pulling up to a summer ball at St John’s College, Cambridge, in a Maserati GT Trofeo. The mix of ancient spires and cutting-edge engineering makes a potent cocktail—one part Brideshead, one part Modena. My colleague Joseph and I, dressed marginally better than the average spy thriller antagonist, took the GT on a tour of decadent British summertime: formalwear and fireworks in Cambridge, then sun-dappled picnicking beside the lake at Royal Holloway.

This is a grand tourer with emphasis on the “grand”. Long, low, and lasciviously curvaceous, the Trofeo whispers of Riviera hairpin bends and late-night autobahn dashes. Yet it’s perfectly happy ambling through Windsor Great Park at 27 miles per hour, exuding an effortless cool that says: “I may not be Italian, but my car is.”

Under the Bonnet of a Modern Icon: More Muscle Than a Venetian Gondolier in August
 

Beneath that gloriously elongated bonnet lies Maserati’s own 3.0-litre twin-turbo Nettuno V6 engine, pumping out a rather satisfying 542 bhp—or 405 kW if you prefer your stats in continental. This power is channelled through a slick 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox, propelling the GT Trofeo from 0 to 62 mph in a mere 3.5 seconds. It will carry on with steely Italian determination all the way to 199 mph, because 200 mph is vulgar. Despite its nearly 1.8-tonne kerb weight, it feels agile when asked to perform, and even more surprisingly, it can stop with commendable authority—pulling itself to a halt from 62 mph in just under 35 metres, provided you’re not on some rural goat track with more holes than road. No hybrid fluff, no false modesty—just old-fashioned combustion magnificence, cloaked in grand touring refinement.

This is not a paper-thin track car pretending to be road-legal. It’s a full-bodied, unapologetically handsome grand tourer. The kind you’d take across the Alps with luggage, cigars, and a sense of occasion.

Grand Tourer, Grand Design: A Handsome Shark in a Tailored Tuxedo

Let’s not be coy—the Trofeo is, in every sense, undeniably beautiful. Maserati has reached deep into the archives of automotive lust and brought forth something with the classical proportions of an E-Type, filtered through a Bond villain’s dreams.

The long bonnet is the centrepiece—epic, theatrical, and slightly absurd in all the right ways. It houses the engine like a Fabergé egg hidden in a velvet-lined vault. The pouty grille gives the car a distinct facial expression, somewhere between seductive and mildly threatening, like a Pokémon that’s had media training.

The glossy black diamond-cut wheels are rotating sculptures, daring you to admire them even at 70mph. Behind them, red brake callipers wink like danger signals at Monaco. The rigid chassis, meanwhile, means on disobedient British roads you’ll occasionally experience a flick of the rear—a small reminder that yes, it’s still Italian, and yes, it has character.

Our model came in a sensible hue endearingly titled Blu Nobile, with tasteful metallic flecks, but if you’re buying this car in navy, you’ve missed the point entirely. Be bold. Be bright. Or buy a Prius and cry into your corduroy.

Italian Craftsmanship Inside: Maserati Trofeo Cabin Luxury and Design

Open the door and you’re greeted by dark grey Pelle-Nero leather, rosso contrast stitching, and the kind of soft Nero carpets you could nap on without regret. The roof lining is suede, which seems deliciously excessive, like using Hermès napkins at a barbecue.

Carbon fibre weave trim wraps around the cabin with intent. There’s a stitched Trident logo on the headrest, a subtle flex for those who know. The steering wheel is wrapped in nero leather—because of course it is—and visibility is, rather surprisingly, excellent. The plump bonnet wheel arches line you up perfectly for the road ahead

It’s a place designed for speed, yes, but also seduction. Everything is tactile. Everything whispers, “Go on, just another drive. Take the long way.”

Digital Elegance with a Few Quirks: Buttons Are for Peasants, Apparently

Now to the tech—because even Italian seduction needs a solid bit of German-style logic behind it. Maserati offer level 2 autonomous driving capability, and their adaptive cruise and lane control systems are frankly the best out there. The overhead surround-view camera is pin-sharp, and you can park this nearly five-metre-long sculpture to within a millimetre, which is useful when pulling up in front of a Kings Road café pretending not to be seen.

There’s also a heated steering wheel, illuminated door sills, and no physical knobs whatsoever. Yes, that’s right. The volume is on the far left of the central touchscreen, and the rest of the controls are embedded into menus like ancient scrolls. Music controls are tucked onto the back of the steering wheel like a test of dexterity. It’s a bit Byzantine, yes, but who cares when you’re listening to Puccini on a Bowers & Wilkins system while overtaking a Porsche?

Sadly, there’s no HUD on our model—a feature we rather miss these days. Once you’ve grown used to seeing your speed and nav info elegantly projected onto the windscreen, going back to glancing down at dials is a little luddite for our tastes.

Minor moan aside, it’s all beautifully integrated and impressively modern. Plus, it’s all been engineered without scrabbling to shed weight like some anorexic supercars obsessed with every kilogram, so none of it feels tacked on or plasticky. The car is built like an Italian granite sculpture—one that just happens to have Wi-Fi and Apple CarPlay.

Modes, Mayhem and the Joy of Driving: How the Maserati Trofeo Handles the Road

The Maserati GT Trofeo is many things. Subtle? Occasionally. Economical? Surprisingly not dreadful—officially it manages a combined 28 mpg, which, for a 542 bhp grand tourer, is practically saintly.

The V6 is a force of nature. At idle it’s cultured, but prod it, and it unleashes an operatic growl. The car sits low on the road to begin with, but flick it into Corsa mode, and it drops even further—until you’re practically shaving tarmac with your undercarriage.

And the ride? So smooth at high speed that it borders on uncanny. The Trofeo devours distance with such velvety ease, you’ll find yourself seeking out long, empty roads just to feel it stretch. In fact, it’s almost too refined at lower speeds—gliding around at 30 mph is almost too serene.

The drive modes—Comfort, GT, Sport, and Corsa—aren’t just marketing fluff. Each has a distinct personality. Comfort mode is Sunday brunch with mother. GT is champagne lunch in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Sport is a cigar and a late-night duel. Corsa is war.

Pedal response evolves dramatically depending on your drive mode—sluggish in Comfort, razor-sharp in Sport, and downright feral in Corsa. Anything above Sport and your fuel economy begins to nosedive with theatrical flair. Realistically? Expect mid-teens mpg at best. But let’s be honest—when a car drives like this, you don’t ask about fuel consumption. You ask who’s ready to race you to Goodwood.

As for the brakes, they feel soft under normal use, but our emergency stops (conducted responsibly on a private, pockmarked estate road) showed them to be up to task. Under 35m from 62mph, as promised. The GT might not bark like an old-school Ferrari, but it bites.

And in town? Oddly delightful. I found myself enjoying red and yellow traffic lights. Genuinely. Every pause at a junction became a theatrical pause—a moment to gather yourself before unleashing that glorious engine once more. You’ll relish being stopped, if only for the joy of pulling off again with a bit of gusto.

The Soulful Supercar: Why the Maserati GT Trofeo Is a True Connoisseur’s Choice

The Maserati GT Trofeo is nothing less than the subtle supercar for the petrolhead connoisseur. It doesn’t clamour for attention with garish wings or outrageously loud exhaust notes—unless you ask it to, of course, in Corsa mode. Instead, it radiates quiet confidence, an effortless elegance that speaks volumes without uttering a single unnecessary decibel. This is a car that truly understands the art of the grand tour—a thrilling companion for life’s most stylish adventures.

It’s a love letter to the golden age of grand touring, reimagined for the modern world—a world where you can enjoy adaptive cruise control, suede headliners, and still look like a 1960s spy on the run. It manages to be both classically inspired and superbly modern all at once—think Daniel Craig in a sharply tailored tux, but with twin turbos the size of Thanksgiving turkeys tucked under the bonnet, proudly on display and begging to be admired. All of it backed by Maserati’s patented pre-chamber combustion system with twin spark plugs, delivering silent sophistication with explosive potential. Elegance and engineering, shaken and stirred.

At £173,480 (as tested, with a tasteful selection of extras), it’s certainly not cheap. But if you’re after theatre, elegance, power, and just the right hint of mischief to keep you smiling—buy the Maserati. And take it to a ball. Or a lake. Or simply anywhere. Just don’t park it in the shadows. This car was born to be seen.

Base Price: £159,630

https://www.maserati.com/gb/en/models/granturismo…?