“It’s proof that when you play with the elements you end up in a storm,” says Maserati CEO Tim Kuniskis.
And what a storm the new Maserati Levante Trofeo is. With a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 borrowed from the prancing horse’s HQ in Maranello, the luxury Italian SUV can now hit 0-100km/h in just 3.9 seconds before maxing out at a modest 300km/h. You know, the sort of bragging rights any designated family driver needs.
The Ferrari engine delivers 440kW of power to all four wheels along with 730Nm of torque – a feat which earns the title of having the most power-per-litre than any other engine ever installed in a Maserati.
“In the case of Trofeo, the engineers and designers in Modena knew that the driveline parameters were more than able to cope with additional power and they also knew that Maserati had access to the finest engines on earth,” said Kuniskis.
“So, they were up to the challenge of making the finest luxury SUV also one of the fastest.”
It’s not just the power that’s the focus of the new top-of-the-range Trofeo though. The chassis has also been fine tuned to provide a 50:50 weight balance which makes for superb handling on milk runs. There’s even a Corsa (race) mode and launch control built in so that drivers will never have to answer that age old question of “Are we there yet?”
The interior meanwhile sees lashings of gorgeous cross-stitched and naturally ageing leather in a choice of either black, red or tan. And let’s not forget the carbon fibre trimming which extends from the interior right through to the exterior body via a front lip spoiler and side skirts (limited launch edition only). Big 22-inch wheels finished in matte black and matte black body paint also makes up this limited edition model.
There’s even a legitimate Off-Road mode that Maserati installed just to troll pass the SUV category.
Keen? Maserati says they will only be building a “small number” of the models without a final figure. Owners do get a plaque featuring their name and serial number though.
There’s no pricing and availability yet but expect it to fall somewhere in the region of Lamborghini’s most pointless SUV.
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