Charleston in Black and White
Touring the South Carolina jewel in Maserati’s finest

Producing Maserati Monthly we have been fortunate to visit some wonderful places – from the Napa and Sonoma wine regions in California to the quaint villages of Connecticut, from the unspoiled scenery in Quebec to the tourist attractions of San Diego. One of our most recent trips took us to a city which may just have been the most charming, beguiling and all-round attractive places we have been to, one we wholeheartedly recommend as a vacation spot: Charleston, South Carolina.

Quattroporte Sport GT

GranTurismo

The city seems to have something to offer on almost every street – gorgeous houses in a variety of architectural styles, restaurants and cafés, shops and market stalls. For our purposes, one of the main attractions is that it has an exceptional Maserati dealership. The people at Maserati of Charleston couldn’t have been more helpful; during our too-brief stay in the region, they lent us two different cars, both equally desirable – a Quattroporte Sport GT S, and a GranTurismo. Even better for our purposes, the Quattroporte was black and the GranTurismo white – contrasting colors for complementary cars.

Maserati is a company with a long history – a few years ago, it celebrated its ninetieth anniversary. Yet this pales by comparison with Charleston, which dates back to 1670. In the heart of Charleston, many buildings date back hundreds of years – St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, for example, with its imposing 186 foot steeple, dates back to 1761, and once played host to George Washington. It is just a few yards from the Charleston County Courthouse, which was reconstructed in 1792. They lie just a couple of blocks west of the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, described as one of the three most historically significant Colonial buildings in the entire United States.

We cruised around the streets in the Quattroporte, taking in the sights. Despite the Sport GT S being the most hard-edged version of the classic sedan, those edges didn’t intrude as we ambled through town; the 4.2-liter V8 engine docile and quiet, yet responsive at such low speeds. The ZF Automatic transmission made stop-and-go driving effortless. The conventional suspension offers excellent grip and delivers eloquent feedback to the driver when charging down a country road, but it was equally unfazed by the cobblestones and varied road surfaces we encountered on our scenic tour.

Around every corner there seems to be yet another photogenic building; Charleston City Market, for example, dates back more than 200 years, and features hundreds of vendors selling all manner of goods, from cookies, rice and beans to jewelry and souvenirs. There were numerous people weaving baskets for sale, and the streets either side of the market were lined with restaurants. Since it was lunchtime, we headed to a small café a couple of blocks to the north that had been recommended – Jestine’s Kitchen. The food was both excellent and cheap, the fried chicken being delicious; we were fortunate to have arrived early, because the café’s reputation is such that, a little while after we were seated, there were people lined up outside waiting for a table – in languorous 90-degree heat with very high humidity. You can imagine our delight at firing up the Quattroporte and luxuriating in the instant iciness of its superb air conditioning.

Quattroporte Sport GT

Charleston City Market

After lunch we headed to the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula. This is one of the most significant places in the entire United States – for it was here, on 12 April 1861, that the first serious military action in the Civil War took place when the Confederacy launched a bombardment of the Union Fort Sumter, which controlled the main Atlantic inlet to the economically vital harbor. Inside 36 hours the Union garrison surrendered; the next day Lincoln declared a state of insurrection, and the war had begun.

These days it is difficult to believe that such a momentous event took place here; White Point Gardens offers a place for tourists and locals to sit or stroll amidst the shady trees, or you can walk along the Battery wall, raised some eight feet above street level. The roads are lined with magnificent houses, in a variety of styles – there are the archetypal Charlestonian  houses side on to the street, with long outdoor galleries  running along each floor and overlooking private gardens. Some feature grand colonnaded frontages looking out over the Battery wall and the outer harbor. In fact, this entire part of Charleston is a treasure trove for students of architecture - as well as the classic antebellum houses there are townhouses which could have been plucked from an English coastal town; there are impressive shutters on arched windows; and on some streets, it seems as if every other house has a plaque indicating it is architecturally or historically significant.  In true Charlestonian fashion, they are all kept in superb condition, without the excessive perfection that might reduce their welcoming nature.  It may seem counterintuitive, but the finely crafted interior of  the most sporting Quattroporte turns out to be a  perfect place from which to slowly soak in the loving the craftsmanship of Charleston's great homes.

White Point Gardens, with its massive oak trees and benches, makes an ideal place to pause for a while, to take in the scenery – and also to reflect on the past. Facing out to sea are several cannons and two huge, squat mortars, reminders of the area’s significance, both as the site of the bombardment of Fort Sumter and also of the area’s role in being one of the lines of defense of the city.

While the center of Charleston has so much to offer, we wanted to head out of town, both to visit some of the lush countryside which surrounds the city and to put the Quattroporte through its paces – while the Sport GT S had proved surprisingly well-suited to our urban meanderings, we could hardly be expected to resist the opportunity to get it on an open road, and the coastal 'Low Country' provides some great driving. Rather than take the direct route we opted to drive east to begin with, since it took us across the most distinctive Charleston landmark – the Cooper River Bridge. The twin towers of the bridge rise almost 600 feet above the water; with the importance of Charleston as a port and a naval base, the deck of the bridge is over 180 feet clear of the water, providing unrestricted access to all ships. And since the surrounding countryside is largely flat the towers can be seen for miles around.

Once across the bridge we took the Interstate which circles inland from the city; the Quattroporte dealing with traffic and road irregularities with equal aplomb. In fact, the cabin of the big sedan remains so calm and quiet that close attention has to be paid, otherwise speeds can tend to creep up unnoticed to well beyond the posted limits. After making rapid progress we turned off and made our way to the Ashley River Road, which runs north-west from the city. Once beyond the houses, this becomes a tree-lined, virtually straight road leading directly to some of the most impressive plantation homes in the area; Drayton Hall, for example, is the oldest surviving example of Georgian Palladian architecture in the United States. A little further up the road is Middleton Place – the main house was looted and burned during the Civil War, and an earthquake 20 years later wreaked havoc on the gardens. But the gardens were restored early in the 20th century, and they make a truly splendid sight – the formal gardens lead to grassed terraces leading to the Butterfly Lake, on the bank of the Ashley River.

The Maserati was perfectly at home amidst such palatial surroundings; the elegance of its Italian styling in no way overshadowed by the splendor of the sights along the road. But it was time to have some serious fun, so we needed to find a road with some curves. A bit of research found us some excellent twists and turns, nearer the coast; the Quattroporte got us there in comfort, the dual-zone climate control keeping us fresh despite the temperature running close to 100. So the cabin remained cool when we turned up the heat on the road, scything through corners and zipping along the straights. The Quattroporte is renowned as the best-handling sports sedan in the world, which makes the Sport GT S an even more remarkable achievement – improving on that already high level without giving a ride too harsh and unforgiving to be enjoyable. There is certainly a harder edge to the ride, but that simply makes the challenge of tackling a tricky road even more enjoyable.

Usually, when we head to a dealership to return a car which has been lent to us, it’s with a good deal of reluctance – but not when we were to swap our black Quattroporte for a gleaming white GranTurismo. This is the first GranTurismo we have seen in this color – and it really suits the coupe. The GranTurismo is an eye-catching car in any color – white makes it stand out even more, without being overly ‘loud’.

As it was getting towards evening we headed to one of the excellent restaurants to be found in the city, where we enjoyed a great seafood meal. It was dark when we came out – and our photographer insisted that this would make shots in front of some of the houses on the Battery look even more dramatic. We reluctantly complied with his request, but have to admit that he was right; no matter what the lighting, the GranTurismo looked dramatic, standing out magnificently against the backdrop of the elegant facades. To end the evening, he had us take the GranTurismo to the roof of a car park, for yet more photos.

The next day we again toured the old town, but this time it was a rather different experience. Oh, the GranTurismo proved just as well-suited to urban cruising as its four-door sibling; but  it garnered even more attention. Everywhere we went, people stopped to watch the GranTurismo as it purred by – at one point we pulled up next to a building under restoration, and the workmen came over to admire ‘our’ Maserati. From the Marketplace to the Battery, from the old brick-built fire house to the narrow-cobbled, tree-lined streets, the GranTurismo proved a head-turner par excellence.

Our time in and around Charleston was drawing to a close, so we drove out to the Baker Motor Company one last time. Returning a Maserati is never something we are particularly enthusiastic about, but this time we were especially sad. The Quattroporte and GranTurismo had been just as special as we knew they would prove to be – but Charleston had been the real highlight of our trip. We would have loved to have spent much more time there – and not merely for the opportunity to drive either of these spectacular Maseratis. The architecture, the history, the unfailingly polite and friendly people, the cuisine; to find all those in a single place is truly remarkable. Baker Motor Company has promised to arrange the loan of another car for us in the future – we won’t need asking twice!