It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?
In a Quattroporte the rain is just as much fun.

Philadelphia has long been one of the most significant cities in American history. At one stage it was the second-largest city in the British Empire; owing to its importance in the American colonies it played a central role in the War of Independence; and for a while at the end of the eighteenth century it was the capital of the United States. In recent years the city has undergone a transformation after some difficult times; skyscrapers have sprung up, Independence Park at Society Hill and Penn's Landing have deservedly resumed their positions as prime tourist attractions.

It has also featured in films and on TV – from The Philadelphia Story in 1940 through to Rocky  (1976) and the Oscar winning Philadelphia (1993). More recently, there has been the edgy sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Well, when we recently visited the area that title proved to be somewhat incorrect – there were numerous rain showers, some of them punctuated by heavy lightning and thunder. But our spirits remained undampened – not too surprising when you consider that we were touring behind the wheel of a Maserati Quattroporte.

We took a circuitous route to enter the city; the Delaware is crossed by four bridges into Philadelphia, from the Walt Whitman Bridge in the south-west to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge in the north-east. We opted for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which would deliver us close to the main attractions. First, however, we explored the New Jersey side at the Camden waterfront, another area which has been regenerated; there is the Adventure Aquarium, Campbell’s Field – home to the Camden Riversharks baseball team – and the storied battleship USS New Jersey. Unfortunately for us, our visit coincided with a concert by the Dave Matthews Band at the Camden Entertainment Center, so those roads which were not jammed with traffic were closed off. We headed across the bridge, and into Philadelphia itself.

The big Maserati proved itself ideally suited to such a journey. While it is a large sedan, with ample room to transport five adults in luxury, it is an easy car to drive. The ZF six-speed automatic transmission is completely unobtrusive in these situations, and the driver is always able to ‘place’ the car where needed – the accuracy and feedback of the steering contribute to this, and the Quattroporte is anything but intimidating to handle. While its styling and rarity garner surprised looks and favorable comments from other road users, it never produces the envious aggressiveness in others that some makes seem to provoke.

Our first stop was the Independence National Historical Park – home to the Liberty Bell, the Independence Visitor Center and the National Constitution Center, and where a statue of Washington stands implacably outside Independence Hall. Traffic, both pedestrian and auto, was heavy, so we couldn’t linger for too long in the area. We headed into Society Hill, with its cobblestone streets and row houses dating back as far as the 18th Century. The Quattroporte shrugged off the uneven road surface with the same aplomb as it had the potholes and railroad tracks we had earlier encountered in Camden. The Skyhook adaptive suspension can smooth the ride over almost any surface, while still enabling the driver to feel completely in control. And the ZF automatic transmission was silky smooth in city driving – the ability to amble along at the pace of the heavy city traffic seems scarcely credible in a car which is also capable of a breathtaking turn of speed, given a clear road.

From the beautiful scenery of Society Hill we continued on to the waterfront, where there was an excellent view of the USS New Jersey just across the Delaware. Our interest lay in a ship on the Pennsylvania side of the water – the SS United States. The ship was built as an ocean liner – but the US government funded most of its construction, with an eye to using it as a troop ship or hospital ship in the event of war. As a result the design owed more to that of fast warships than ocean liners; there were multiple watertight compartments, separate engine rooms, and engines derived from those used in the largest US Naval vessels, developing over a mind-boggling 241,000 horsepower. Those engines gave the United States a remarkable turn of speed; on her maiden voyage she cut ten hours from the previous record for a transatlantic crossing, and still holds the record for an east-to-west crossing. Almost no wood was used in her construction, to minimize the risk of fire – even the coat-hangers in the cabins were made of aluminum, and the grand piano was made from a rare, fire-resistant type of wood.

USS New Jersey

Given the robustness of the engineering that went into her construction, it was no surprise that the SS United States never suffered a major mechanical failure, despite the high-tech power plant and speed unmatched by any other liner. She was the fastest of her type, and transported her passengers with a unique style and luxury; much the same could be said of our Maserati Quattroporte. The ship has been out of service since 1969, and has been moored in Philadelphia since 1996. Despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, her condition has been declining in recent years, although there has recently been talk of a restoration.

Saddened by the dilapidated state to which this once proud liner has been reduced, we drove to a more verdant area, chased by the first of a series of showers. After so much time in the confines of the city, we were eager to get away from the built-up areas, so we went east. The houses began to thin out, and soon we were out amidst the pine forests which cover much of southern New Jersey. With almost no traffic, we could give the Quattroporte rather more of a work-out, and it proved well up to the task. Even where the intermittent rain had made the roads slick, the Maserati remained sure-footed and secure, always providing subtle feedback through the steering to keep the driver informed on the level of grip available.  When the Maserati Stability Program was activated, occasionally on purpose, it was as alwayswonderfully unobtrusive and accurate.

We tackled the country roads with confidence, the exhaust note from the 4.2-liter V8 rising and falling gloriously. Every Maserati comes fitted with a Bose sound system which is capable of faithfully reproducing music – but we rarely use it, preferring to listen to the symphony made by the car itself. When we found ourselves entering a corner a little faster than was ideal, or where there was standing water on the road, the four-piston calipers of the Brembo braking system rapidly slowed the pace. With the Sport button pressed, the Skyhook damping system sharpens its reactions, while the automatic transmission holds on to gears for longer, to 7,000rpm and beyond.

Before we reached the coast, we turned to the west – the center of Philadelphia is less than sixty miles from the Jersey shore. On our way back we took a detour along the Delaware shore, where there were some fine, substantial mansions on the river bank. We could only speculate on the value of such impressive residences – only a few minutes from both Camden and Philadelphia, prime riverside locations, and in a wooded neighborhood with virtually no traffic. We headed on, and found a parking spot which gave us a great view of the majestic Delaware as it curved away from us – but by now, those showers had taken a turn for the worse, and we soon opted for the comfortable interior of the Quattroporte as we drove the last few miles on our scenic tour.

Our grateful thanks to F.C Kerbeck, of Palmyra, New Jersey, for the loan of a Maserati Quattroporte, and for helpful suggestions on places to visit.