Appalachian Sweet

Atlanta is the hub of the new south, a dynamic city where heritage is valued and the future stretches brightly ahead. It's one of those places where one yearns for a sports car that simultaneously provides old world elegance and rip-snorting performance, as Maserati's GranSport uniquely does.

Work and life in Atlanta are both enhanced by GranSport ownership. No other sports car is quite so well suited to the city's combination of smaller one-way streets, innovative flyovers and too-often jammed Interstates, where the choices and control offered by the Cambiocorsa manual paddle shift transmission and the prodigious torque of the 400bhp Ferrari-built engine make for an easy and enjoyable drive in all conditions.

Covered in supple Poltrona Frau hides, the cabin is a marvelous cocoon from which to emerge for a conference at the Georgia World Congress Center, a meeting at the State House, or a ball game at Turner field. The GranSport's interior is so spacious and welcoming, in fact, that it is the only sports car in its class with which one can happily take three friends for a jaunt through historic Atlanta including, say, a trip to Margaret Mitchell's house, a stroll through the historic Oakland cemetery and a show at the Fox Theater followed by dinner at the Georgian Terrace. While you might not end up on CNN, the GranSport's clean and timeless Giugiaro-based Frank Stephenson lines do turn heads amongst the cognoscenti as one tours Georgia's metropolis. Georgians know a good thing when they see it.

Sometimes you don't want to be in the city. The GranSport is indeed singular in its ability to offer the true luxury of a sports coupe, but its real measure comes when you let loose on the back roads and experience the ferocious power and tenacious grip of this Italian sports machine. Atlanta lies amidst geographic variety. Soon after the skyscrapers of the South's financial capital fade from the rearview mirror you begin the ascent towards the Chattahoochee National Forest and the Appalachians, a region whose stunning beauty and challenging roads are of the sort that define great all-round sports cars. It is no coincidence that Road Atlanta race course was built here, nor that Master Maserati, North America's finest performance driving school, is based at Road Atlanta.

Mountains like the Smokies, Blue Ridge and Appalachians, which provide good white water rafting also offer phenomenal driving. Today's destination is Blackrock Mountain, from where you can gaze out over three states and marvel at the scale of nature. Getting there is most of the fun. A superlative highway cruiser, the GranSport positively revels in the twists, turns and crests to be found away from the Interstates. Paralleling Hwy 23 and stopping at Tallulah Gorge and Falls, we take roads with evocative names like Camp Creek and Hell Cat Creek, following the contorted ribbons carved by water.

On roads like these, even watching the speed carefully, it's clear that the GranSport is really in a class of its own. Like the rivers we follow, the GranSport organically flows. Eschewing rigid specialization to a single purpose, Maserati engineers created a Gran Turismo that truly excels in all areas. Its luxury and design can be enjoyed at any Maserati showroom; they put would-be competitors to shame. A test drive is necessary to appreciate the GranSport's superior road dynamics. In the Appalachians, where road surfaces can be poor, cambers seem random, and radius changes surprising, the GranSport acquits itself like no other four seat car. Its accessible performance, unlike the nearly abstract professional-driver-on-a-closed-course-suggested-figures provided by other manufacturers, can best many cars designed to lap a German track. Maserati understands that the Nurburgring is a race track, and competes there with great success, but on these real world American roads more nuance is required, and the Trident provides it. Even on light gravel, the GranSport driver is inspired with confidence as the superb Maserati Stability Program (MSP) allows six degrees of slip angle before intervening, and helps draw the car firmly but not abruptly into line.

Mountain roads beg you to hang the tail out a little, taste opposite lock, and taste the thrill of rallying. While the traction and yaw control systems of most competitors are intrusive, the GranSport allows driver control - with impeccable balance - before the MSP reigns things back in. MSP can be turned off, of course, but Maserati engineers decided it shouldn't be necessary to disable this superb driver aid in a car with such poise and capability. When great opportunities present themselves, the driver is in control of the GranSport, not vice versa.

On good pavement, the GranSport hunkers down and hugs the road, fueling the driver's enthusiasm with a symphony of sensory input, not quite drowned out by the thumping of their own heart. The basso profundo rumble of the 4.2l V8 at low revs changes rapidly to a sonorous anthem as the 7,600rpm redline approaches. Incomparable Maserati steering combines with the Skyhook adaptive suspension to provide the exact feedback required by engaged and accurate driving. The Brembo brakes bite progressively and with confidence, providing the desired response to a weight-balancing tap or a deep decelerative thrust. The tango of driver and Cambiocorsa as the driver dances through the gears with proficient joy, matching revs to road and getting the most out of the synthesis of power, torque, balance, and grip. These are the culmination of over 90 years of Maserati's industry-leading heritage and engineering.

Particularly on the rocky back roads where other traffic is rarely seen, the GranSport embodies sheer driving pleasure. Italian sports cars have always been about pleasure. Rather than a motorized bagatelle for the thoughtless hedonist, however, Maseratis are highly crafted tools for the serious motorist. This confident, understated approach is what led the first Maserati to victory on its premier outing, it is what led to this year's successful defense of the FIA GT1 team championship, and it is what makes the GranSport an eminently wise choice for the discerning enthusiast whether you live in Atlanta, Tallulah Falls, or anywhere else.