Maserati Grecale Trofeo, the madder side of the Trident

There are cars that win you over before you have even started the engine. The Maserati Grecale Trofeo, however, belongs to a different category: the sort of car that prefers to introduce itself after you press the start button. And it does so with a certain degree of arrogance.

Nettuno twin-turbo V6, 3.0 litres, 620 Nm of torque, 530 bhp and almost two tonnes to haul around. Put those numbers next to each other and they already make quite an impression. But select Corsa mode, activate Launch Control and let the car explain the rest.

The engine climbs towards the rev limiter, the cabin fills with a deep roar and, for a few moments, everything seems to hang in the balance. Then the shove arrives. Violent. So violent that, for a moment, you wonder whether what you have in your hands is still the steering wheel of an SUV or perhaps the control column of an aircraft that has taken off far too quickly.

0–62 mph in 3.8 seconds.

The figure is already insane. Experiencing it is even more so.

And yet the most surprising thing about the Grecale Trofeo is not how fast it is, but how effectively it manages to conceal its size when the road starts to get complicated.

The Giorgio platform, the same architecture that Alfa Romeo fans know so well, does an extraordinary job. The steering is direct and weighty, communicating what is happening beneath the wheels and making it almost difficult to believe that you are sitting in a car measuring 4.86 metres long, 2.16 metres wide and weighing around two tonnes.

Through the corners, body roll is well contained, while on more broken roads the air suspension manages to filter out bumps that, considering what happens immediately afterwards, would seem almost incompatible with the car's character.

Because all you have to do is change the mode.

The car stiffens up, the steering becomes even more communicative and the road surface seems to travel directly from the tyres into your hands. The paddles begin setting the pace and the Nettuno accompanies every upshift with a shotgun blast, followed by a few grumbles from the exhaust and a kick in the back.

This is where the Grecale Trofeo reveals its most irrational side.

The V6 has been positioned as far back towards the cabin as possible, a solution designed to reduce the moment of inertia around the vertical axis and achieve a more balanced weight distribution. The result is a driving experience that, at least from behind the wheel, makes the Maserati feel considerably smaller than it actually is.

Almost.

Because when it comes to parking or bringing all that mass to a decisive halt, physics comes back to collect the bill.

The brakes are not perfect either. I found the initial part of the pedal travel rather progressive and filtered, before the system began to bite with greater authority. That said, the hardware certainly means business: 360 mm front discs with six-piston Brembo callipers and 350 mm rear discs with four-piston callipers.

And then there is fuel consumption.

Talking about it would be rather like organising a meeting to decide whether it was really necessary to organise that meeting in the first place. The Nettuno is a technical masterpiece, thanks in part to its pre-chamber combustion system, but it never promised to turn itself into a Prius. After a week together, I can say that I have developed quite a friendship with a good number of the petrol stations in my city.

The shortcomings, however, are mostly minor details that could be improved: the climate control, operated through the touchscreen and centre console, could be more intuitive; the Active Park Braking system can intervene rather too abruptly, while the four-button gear selector perhaps lacks the stylistic elegance one would expect from a Maserati.

Then there is the price. Around €128,000.

An enormous sum, certainly. But before judging it, an obvious question comes to mind: how much does an emotion cost?

In Modena, apparently, they have decided that it is worth quite a lot.