Sunday,
October 12,
The Ferocious 2009 Maserati
GranTurismo - An Aural Fixation?
The
ANNOTICO Report
Fortune
By
Sue Zesiger Callaway, contributor
October
8, 2008
(Fortune
Magazine) -- I have been accused of many biases in my car-critiquing life. My
supposed German addiction usually tops the list, but lately a British prejudice
is showing, some readers tell me. And now, it seems, I
When a blindingly
red model appeared in my driveway, I noted the normal kit: side skirts, rear
spoiler, blacked-out grille. But then I looked again,
intrigued by the powerful, hunkered-down stance and the audacious 20-inch
wheels, on which seven massive tridents (Maserati
Inside was pretty
fine too. Alcantara seat inserts, silver-tinted
carbon-fiber trim, and the melodic sound of an Italian V-8. And then it
happened. I innocently hit two more buttons: auto, to turn automatic mode off,
and sport, to give me a stiffer ride and quicker shifts.
Before my hand
was back on the sport wheel, an automotive snarl unlike any other I
With that kind of
siren song calling to my right foot, I ate up some deserted twisties
around
Yet nothing
was tastier than the raging symphony pouring from under the hood and out the
exhaust.
My addiction grew. I wouldn
"We
wanted a very male sound, the deepest voice, at low rpms," says Benedetto Orvietani, Maserati
Just how far
did my aural infatuation take me? To the curb, twice in one day,
to meet and greet the local authorities, for starters. Oh, and I made
the howls of the GranTurismo S my new ringtone.
Just as I
seriously began to question my own health, I read about a study recently
conducted by Hiscox, a British-based luxury-car
insurer. Experts found that 100% of female participants showed a
"significant increase in testosterone secretion" while listening to a
Maserati engine revving - in fact, measurably
more so than for any other sports-car sound.
I
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