Let's be honest: cars can be a mode of transportation, but you're not reading Walkoblog or Cycleblog, now are you? At the heart of matters, what we're really pursuing here is that unbridled enthusiasm we had for cars as children. With every comparison of engine output and Nurburgring lap times, we're reaching back to the schoolyard, childishly debating the superiority of one sportscar over another. And all these galleries of high resolution images we bring you are just our updated version of hanging posters of Ferraris and Lamborghinis on the walls of our childhood bedrooms. How disappointed our younger selves would be, however, at what we end up driving when we finally have the means: ho-hum family sedans, bloated SUVs and wobly mini-vans. If only someone made an exotic sedan – not a compromise between the two, but a genuine exotic with four doors. That's exactly what Maserati did in 2003 with the revival of the Quattroporte, with a little help from sister-brand Ferrari.
With the Quattroporte, Maserati has proven itself capable of satisfying both our inner child and the one sitting in the back. A tough act to follow, then, because a sequel is seldom as exciting the original. But after 15,000 units delivered, the Quattroporte was treated to a mid-cycle refresh, sharpening up its already luscious styling, throwing in a host of new features and, most tantalizingly, dropping a bigger, more powerful engine into the mix. With such promise in store, we headed out to Austria to see what the boys from Modena had cooked up... and to seek out that boyhood grin once again.
