GranTurismo Breaks Record!
$350,000 for charity at Naples Winter Wine Festival

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- Maserati Leads the Industry - Quattroporte Collezione Cento - Exclusivity Redefined - GranTurismo Breaks Record!

When a car as desirable as the Maserati GranTurismo and the opportunity to make a significant donation to worthy causes collide, then sparks are sure to fly. That’s precisely what happened at the Eighth Annual Naples Winter Wine Festival, in Florida. Maserati North America created a special GranTurismo for the charity auction, the centerpiece of the event – with paintwork in Nero Carbonio and an interior of beige Poltrona Frau leather with elegantly contrasting black stitching, it featured unique door sills inscribed “2008 Naples Winter Wine Festival 2008”.

Like the record-setting Quattroporte provided by Maserati North America last year, the GranTurismo was certain to be one of the star lots of the auction. The car is a full bodied and intoxicating Italian vintage with bodywork styled by the renowned Turin coach-builder Pininfarina, a Ferrari-derived 4.2-liter V8 engine, and hand-crafted interior. And so it proved – the Maserati was eventually sold for a staggering $350,000, a new record at over three times its base price. It played an important part in helping good causes – all money raised from the auction goes directly to children’s charities. For 2008, that meant a huge total of $14 million was donated.

Jim Selwa, President of Maserati North America, expressed his company’s pride in helping such a worthy cause: “The Naples Children & Education Foundation supports a wide range of initiatives which make a huge difference in the lives of children. We are glad we are able to make a significant contribution to the Foundation, while sharing our passion with the cognoscenti who attend this world-class festival.”

While the door sills on this GranTurismo cannot be duplicated, every Maserati which leaves the factory can be custom-tailored to be a one-of-a-kind, using the Officine Alfieri Maserati Program. This allows a buyer to specify the exact shade of paint, leather and carpets, rather than simply choosing from standard color combinations – so your authorized Maserati dealer can fit you for an equally unique and stylish automobile.