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Step inside the secret lab creating Maserati's future

MODENA, Italy – Driving Maserati's raucous GranTurismo MC and the effortlessly quick Levante SQ4 back to back feels like traveling through time. Horsepower doesn't go out of style, but a user interface quickly does, and the GranTurismo looks like it's from another era in that respect. Designers, engineers, and executives are busily orchestrating a transformation that will ensure the 105-year old firm's next leap forward is even more dramatic. Autoblog went behind the scenes in Maserati's Innovation Lab – which has never been opened to outsiders before – to find out how the looming metamorphosis will shape Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles' (FCA) flagship brand. Maserati is on the brink of a ground-up redesign that will take it into new segments of the market, and diversify its powertrain palette. We heard the term electrification used on many occasions during our visit, though company officials resorted to automotive omerta when we asked for additional details. An earlier product plan reveals every upcoming addition to its line-up will be available with an electric powertrain, and there will be quite a few cars to electrify. Historically a small, almost niche automaker, Maserati is on track to release five new models between 2020 and 2023, including a second SUV positioned below the aforementioned Levante, plus replacements for most of its current cars. Technology is playing a significant role in Maserati's renaissance. The company's four-year-old Innovation Lab is home to simulators capable of reproducing six months' worth of wear and tear in two weeks. Engineers can dial in a variety of situations, locations, and road conditions, ranging from a winding country road in France to a busy highway in southern California. They can digitally insert potholes, add rain or fog at the push of a button and remove either just as quickly, and put virtual prototypes on a long list of race tracks around the world, including the Nurburgring. Digital wind tunnels help the team test future cars well before they're built. This approach saves time and money, explained Luca Dusini, the man responsible for Maserati's vehicle dynamics testing and simulation. Making every dollar and each minute count is key to pulling off such an ambitious overhaul. 90% of development work is carried out on the various simulators, according to Dusini. This is significant, because Maserati is developing most of the technology it will pack into its future models from scratch.

Uber adds supercar rides in Singapore

Order a ride through Uber and you'll have a choice between what kind of car you want or need: Uber Black for standard fare, Uber X for the lowest cost available, Uber Taxi to order a regular cab, Uber SUV if you need to move more people or even Uber Lux if you want a luxury town car service. But customers in Singapore now have another option: to be picked up in a Lamborghini or Maserati. The pilot program launched in collaboration with Dream Drive will allow customers to be picked up in either a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder or a Maserati GranTurismo to get around the Southeast Asian city-state. Ordering up the Maser will set customers back 165 Singapore Dollars (equivalent of $120 USD) for the first 15 minutes and 7 SGD ($5.10) for every subsequent minute. The Lambo gets the same per-minute rate but begs a higher 200 SGD ($146) base rate. Uber and Dream Drive were even offering free rides over the weekend to launch the initiative. Those prices make riding around in an Italian exotic pretty pricey, especially since you don't actually get to drive them – just ride shotgun. But then cars are quite expensive to begin with in Singapore, where it costs over half a million in US dollars to get a new Maserati in the first place. News Source: Uber via GTspirit.com Green Lamborghini Maserati Supercars Uber singapore

Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.