15 Jan 07
So, what does this do the distribution of weights, something of which Maserati was very proud?
Surprisingly, the QPA is still slightly tail-heavy (51% instead of 53%), which is a good thing in a rear-wheel drive car. And there's no problem with the wet-sump engine sitting higher above its oil reserve; the top of the engine is the same height above the ground as before, suggesting that maximum advantage was not previously taken of a dry-sump engine's ability to sit lower.
As an aside, the Aston Martin's autobox is contained in a rear-mounted transaxle. So Maserati could presumably have done the same, space permitting under the generous rear seat. It's probably a lack of that space which forced the forward relocation, a relocation that also caused the transmission tunnel to be widened. Strangely, the Quattroporte product manager couldn't give me a definitive answer.
The wider tunnel now includes a pair of illuminated cupholders, an electric parking brake switch and, more significantly, an automatic gear selector lever where previously there was a mere T-handle for reverse. The paddle-shifters remain exactly as before, lovely leather-edged castings pivoting from the steering column rather than the steering wheel, but they are standard only on the Sport GT version, optional on the other QPs.
Significantly, the gear selector's manual mode shifts up when pulled back, down when pushed forward. It's the more logical way of doing it, and the logic adopted by BMW, lately by Ford and almost always by competition cars, but it's the reverse of more familiar systems from Porsche, Audi and most others.
