Rejoice: A Cayenne Turbo-Fighting V8 Maserati Levante Is On The Cards
When the Maserati Levante was fully revealed last month, there were no big surprises in the engine department. There was a diesel V6, and a couple of petrol V6s. But something was conspicuously absent: a V8. And that’s something Maserati may soon be addressing.
When asked by Autoblog if the eight-pot from the Quattroporte could be squeezed under the bonnet, the answer from Maserati’s head of vehicle programmes Davide Danesin was: “yes, it fits, and we have a prototype already,” while assuring the publication that it works just fine with the vehicle’s four-wheel drive system. As a reminder, the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 - related to the similar-sized unit in the Ferrari California T - is good for 523bhp in the Quattroporte, so in the Levante it’d make for an interesting alternative to the likes of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Range Rover Sport SVR.
We shouldn’t celebrate too much just yet, though. The company said that as the market for stupidly powerful SUVs is relatively small, a V8 version of the Levante wouldn’t be the easiest business case to make. For now, we’ll have to wait and keep our fingers crossed…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Looks like and obese gran turismo
Does anyone else think Danesin looks similar to Danese?
I can just see management thinking ‘if we don’t sell this, we’re fuc*ed ‘.
Not at all, FCA is doing great this year. The Panda and the 500 are selling like pancakes, the Ghibli has been a huge success, the Giulietta is still goind strong and the Giulia is around the corner.
The SUV market is getting out of hand
Can we have a V8 Ghibli? Or a Ghibli with the engine from the Alfa Romeo Giulia QV?
no please god nooo!! i am tired of these stupid dumb overweight SUV’s. you can’t race or drive sporty in them cause they are too big and heavy, and you can’t offroad with them cause they have street tires, sit too low, and when you inevitably break someting you’ll pay 98zillion dollars on spare parts. what happend to italian cars? they were awesome and yes i know they broke down every 2 seconds but when they worked it was driving heaving, they looked amazing, sounded amazing and most important of all: they had a soul. but now we get this, a dumb looking boring “sensible” cross-over that you can’t use anywhere. i will end my rant here
707hp jeep
Rejoice? For what reason? So we can have mouthy soccer moms/dads in big cars making the general population feel small? Penis move Maserati.
Can’t say proper word without it moaning at me, like a soccer mom/dad will..
As much as i like Maserati I think this is a stupid Business call, they produce real nice “touring” cars and they should stick to that, let Porsche and Audi and the like battle it out in this region, the world doesn’t need 200K (Aus) SUVS.