The Maserati Quattroporte – new and old – has always been a positive symphony of design. If Maserati’s German competitors are the equivalent of conservative double-breasted business suits, the Italians have gone out in hand-tailored silk. And now with the introduction of the Ermenegildo Zegna limited edition, that comparison could be said to be literally true.
That is because Ermenegildo Zegna is a world renowned fashion designer for the wealthy, the sort of designer who mere plebeians probably haven’t heard of, because you need to get invitations to shop in the stores that sell their designs. So certainly the limited edition Quattroporte won’t lack for snob appeal.
But thanks to the exquisite design and materials used, it won’t just be snobs who are drooling over the car.
For starters the Ermenegildo Zegna Limited Edition is bathed in one of the fanciest paint jobs money can buy. The color is called Platinum Silk, but really it is not about color so much as depth and texture. Thanks to a layering of aluminum pigments in the paint it gives the impression of being a silky smooth weave of metal.
But despite the insane paint job it is really the inside of the car that shows off a designers touch. Finished in warm colors the trim and seats are a nice blend of classic and modern. The seats for example are made of a combination of ultra-fine grain leather and the finest wool upholstery made from the same material Zegna makes suits. In other words, several orders of magnitude finer than any piece of furniture I am likely to own.
The wood trim is made from open pore walnut, or possibly bits of the true cross. On a car like this it is hard to say.
What if some of your fine espresso gets spilled on the interior? Not to worry! The Ermenegildo Zegna Limited Edition comes with a bolt of spare Zegna silk among its 19 custom accessories.
It’s not all about luxury either. This car is Italian after all, and Italian cars are required by law to be driven like the driver’s hair is on fire. To that end the special edition Quattroporte comes with a twin-turbo V8 producing 523 horsepower and 524 pound feet of torque. These rampaging Italian stallions are good for a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 191 mph. Which, is as I understand it, just fast enough to be able to drive in an Italian fast lane.
Sadly all this elegant bespoke design comes with a high price: $175,000 to be exact. But thanks to the price and the fact that Maserati will only be turning out a 100 of these beasts, it will be quite exclusive. And it will be hard to walk away from the sultry Italian to hop into a stodgy German after seeing that styling.
