The E-Type’s Italian Godchild Goes to a Summer Ball by Yves de Contades
Grand Entrance: Driving to a Summer Ball in Ultimate Style
There’s an undeniable glamour to arriving at a summer ball at St John’s College, Cambridge, in a Maserati GT Trofeo. Ancient spires meet modern Italian engineering one part Brideshead, one part Modena. My colleague Joseph and I, dressed like Bond villains at a wedding, took the Trofeo on a British summer tour: black-tie fireworks in Cambridge, then lakeside lounging at Royal Holloway.
This is grand touring in the truest sense. Long, low, and sensuously sculpted, the Trofeo conjures images of Riviera hairpins and moonlit autobahns, yet it cruises effortlessly through Windsor Great Park at 27mph, radiating cool. It may not be Italian couture we’re wearing but the car certainly is.
Beneath the Bonnet: More Muscle Than a Venetian Gondolier in August
Under that dramatic bonnet is Maserati’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo Nettuno V6, pumping out 542 bhp via an 8-speed ZF automatic. 0–62mph comes in 3.5 seconds, and it tops out at a perfectly civilised 199 mph. At nearly 1.8 tonnes, it shouldn’t feel agile but it does, and the brakes bite down from 62mph in under 35 metres.
There’s no hybrid trickery here just combustion magnificence dressed in grand touring silk. This isn’t a thinly disguised track car; it’s a continent-crossing sculpture designed for luggage, cigars, and late-night mischief.
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