Touring Toronto in a Quattroporte
Italian Style Perfect for Cosmopolitan Cruising...

Canada offers a great deal to the adventurous traveler: from the majestic Rocky Mountains in the west to the mighty Great Lakes near the middle, from the tourist destinations of Montreal and Quebec to the breathtaking coastline of British Columbia. Canada is a vast and varied country offering untold opportunities for exceptional grand touring. The city of Toronto is just one of the jewels waiting for the eager tourist; the capital of Ontario, it is also Canada’s largest city, home to some six million people.

We visited the city in late March, a time of year when temperatures are cool and snow can still lie on the ground, but spring is unmistakably in the air. Maserati of Ontario kindly loaned us a Quattroporte Automatic, and suggested some scenic roads to take – but first, we headed into town. Traffic in and around Toronto can be heavy – some people claim it is worse than Los Angeles – but the automatic transmission of the Quattroporte meant that the possibility of encountering traffic didn’t worry us. The six-speed transmission, specifically engineered by ZF to match the Quattroporte’s 4.2-liter V8 engine, is the perfect companion – unobtrusive around town, but equally able to cope when the pace quickens.

Toronto stands on the northern shore of Lake Ontario; this may be the smallest of the Great Lakes, but it is still immense, stretching almost 200 miles from east to west, and up to 50 miles across. Even if you ascend to the Skypod observation deck of the CN Tower on a clear day, some 1,465 feet up, the far shore cannot be clearly seen.

Heading into town, sure enough the traffic was busy but we were able to make good progress. The Quattroporte is a remarkable car – given a clear road and some curves it has all the verve of a sports car, yet around town it is as docile and relaxing as a well-appointed limousine. The engine is perfectly happy even when it isn’t being taken to the red line; the Maserati turns heads due to its beautifully engineered curves rather than a raucous exhaust note. And at normal throttle the automatic transmission shifts so smoothly the changes are almost imperceptible.

Our first stop was the downtown showroom of Maserati of Ontario. Located at 101 Avenue Road, it is in the fashionable Yorkville district – once home to musicians such as Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, it remains one of the most sought-after addresses in Toronto. It has attracted numerous upmarket boutiques and global luxury brands, so the Maserati showroom fits in perfectly. We parked outside for a few moments, and thought about going inside to enjoy a morning espresso – but then decided our time was better spent driving the Quattroporte.  Caffeine simply cannot compare to 400bhp!

It wasn’t long before our decision to drive on was proven correct. As we headed down Avenue Road, an impressive Victorian building lay ahead. This was the Ontario Legislative Building, an imposing five-storey edifice constructed of Ontario sandstone, which gives the building its pinkish hue. It sits towards the southern end of Queen’s Park, a pleasant area criss-crossed by footpaths and dotted with statues and memorials – some to British monarchs, others to local worthies such as John Sandfield Macdonald, the first premier of Ontario. The park is an elongated oval – and we couldn’t help noticing that the road ran right around it. While traffic lights and speed limits kept things in check on the straights, the curves at either end allowed the Quattroporte to demonstrate its remarkable cornering ability – an almost complete absence of body roll and almost perfect weight distribution allow it to remain composed, even when going into a sharp turn on an uneven, potholed road surface.

Queen’s Park, Toronto, Canada

After a couple of laps of Queen’s Park, we continued down University Avenue to the Financial District. This is the financial heart of the entire country, and is home to numerous skyscrapers. Unlike those found in too many other cities, the ones in Toronto have been designed to be more than faceless monoliths. Interesting angles and shapes abound – and not just at street level, but dozens of stories up.  One of the towers of the Toronto-Dominion Center has incorporated the old Toronto Stock Exchange building, dating from 1937, at its base – the art deco frontage includes a marvelous frieze, depicting the main Canadian industries of the day.

Unfortunately, as is familiar to everyone who frequents city centers, snarled traffic was unavoidable; even in the relaxed surroundings of the Quattroporte, we found it frustrating. It did give plenty of passers-by the opportunity to admire the wonderful Pininfarina-styled curves of our car – and the mirrored glass of one office block allowed us to do the same. At last we escaped from the hubbub, and headed north. We found ourselves driving past the Royal Ontario Museum, commonly known as the ROM. The largest museum in Canada, it dates back to 1914 – not that you would know it, from the main facade. For while the original building is still intact, it has recently had a dramatic new facade added. The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, as it is called, is a huge contrast to the existing architecture – angular faces arranged at weird angles, punctuated by equally irregular windows. It is an architectural representation of Toronto's world-leading diversity, the best of the highly crafted old world and the cutting edge new, allegorically related to the Quattroporte itself.

We decided it was time to head out of the city, so we headed south on Spadina Avenue towards the lake shore. This took us through the center of Chinatown, and the streets were crowded with people thronging to the market stalls. Many were offering weird and wonderful fruit and vegetables – and since the signs were written only in Cantonese or Mandarin, we could only guess at what they were. Getting onto Lake Shore Boulevard, we had intended to head straight out of town – but then we saw the ornate, huge splendor of Princess Gate in front of us. This marks the eastern end of Exhibition Place, a large area of showgrounds and stadiums that has hosted the annual Canadian National Exhibition since 1904, and Toronto's beloved Indycar race since 1986. For us, it simply looked like the perfect place for a photo stop – the gate framing the Maserati perfectly in a contrast of styles old and new.

The Princess Gates at the Canadian National Exhibition Place

Toronto's famous TTC streetcar

We continued along Lake Shore Boulevard, heading towards Mississauga – but the shore is, unsurprisingly, a popular place to live and was crowded, so we turned north and headed inland. After a few miles we found ourselves on near-deserted country roads – mostly arrow-straight, since the flat countryside presented road builders with few reasons to do otherwise and the streets were used to divide Canada's seemingly infinite supply of land. But, if you know where to go, there are challenging roads to be found, an ideal match for the Quattroporte. Seeing the sights, cruising the streets and idling along are a fine way to pass the time – but when you are at the wheel of a car with the performance and handling of a Maserati, they are only interludes between those wonderful drives when you can give the car its head and turn it loose.

Up around Georgetown and Cheltenham there are rivers and creeks which send the roads off the straight-ahead. These allowed the Quattroporte to strut its stuff – and allowed us to imagine ourselves race car drivers. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, we hit the ‘Sport’ button on the center console and pushed the throttle to the floor. The car responded eagerly – the automatic transmission dropped several ratios and the revs soared beyond 7,000rpm. The exhaust note, which was so subtle and understated around town, wailed gloriously - winding up a Maserati engine with the windows down is one of the great delights of driving such a car. And the acceleration which accompanied such an aural treat belied the car’s size.

Into the first sharp bend, and the brakes proved more than equal to the task of slowing the big sedan before the turn – although not much retardation was called for, because the Quattroporte went through the curve fast and flat, the Sport mode stiffening the suspension to minimize body roll and maximize grip from the fat Pirelli tires. Before reaching the next corner we slotted the gear lever across into the Manual position, so we could use the paddles mounted on the steering column to select the gears for ourselves. The electronics which control the transmission are so well-developed, and so attuned to what is required, that only rarely is manual mode strictly necessary – but keen drivers will appreciate being able to take control. Plus, it allowed us to make full use of engine braking, enjoying yet more mechanical music and listening to the computer-controlled ‘blip’ of the throttle on downshifts.

Through bend after bend we pushed the Quattroporte hard, but it remained unflustered, with wonderfully neutral handling. The almost perfect weight distribution makes the sedan remarkably free of wayward or unexpected handling vices; gentle understeer is the first sign that the car’s limits are being approached, but pushing the car so hard meant that we were so far out of our own ‘comfort zone’ that we were content to slacken the pace. Not that the cabin had anything to do with a lack of comfort – the avorio leather with contrasting black stitching and piping was supremely welcoming, the seats supportive without being restricting. Everything from the dual-zone climate control to the electric seat adjustment did its job flawlessly and intuitively.

All too soon it was time to head back to Maserati of Ontario, to return the Quattroporte. Handing back the keys of a Maserati never comes easily – and after experiencing the Quattroporte Automatic in both town and country, on such varied roads, it was especially difficult to do so, and climb into our humdrum rental car. Our grateful thanks go to Remo Ferri and all the staff at Maserati of Ontario, for making our trip possible.