Sexy beast: Maserati Gran Turismo

Right now I could be Marcello Mastroianni's journalist watching Anita Ekberg cavort in Rome's Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita. Before me is the luscious, unattainable Maserati Gran Turismo S. I'm convinced: no one pours sex appeal into their cars the way the Italians do. The Aston Martin V12 Vantage is rakishly good looking, the Jaguar XK-R is… well, refined, but the Gran Turismo S is just so superbly well-proportioned - there's not a line out of place on this body - that there's such sensuality to this car.

I'm told that in the carmaker's headquartersin Modena you can even have these customised - su misura, made-to-measure - just like your Brioni suit. There are apparently 18 million waysto customise this Maserati, everything from high-gloss or leather trims to contrasting stitches on the upholstery.

Maserati knows that the devil is in the little sartorial details.

The bright yellow trims contrast superbly with the rest of the black Alcantara upholstery, and the racy fonts on the speedometer dials are such a departure from the regular speed dials. Unlike competitors in its class, the Gran Turismo S does a better job of seating four, although I wouldn't want to be the one stuck in the back seat on a road trip. Speaking of niggles, I don't understand why manufacturers don't make simpler car audio systems anymore - driving and changing radio stations at the same time surely needn't be such a task?

One of the things that I was warned about in the Gran Turismo S was the placing of the brake pedal and the accelerator - they seem to be kept apart only grudgingly. So if you aren't careful, you could end up hitting the gas pedal when you actually want to brake. In a car as fast as this one, that's a mistake you don't want to make.

And this car's fast all right, in fact its very existence was in order to give Maserati fans a harder, edgier version of the already existing Gran Turismo model. The 4.7-litre, V8 engine has a maximum output of 440hp, and can take the car from 0 to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds, and if you keep the pedal down for just 24 seconds, the car can roar its way past the kilometre-mark. The six-speed automatic tranny is a good one, but I was very impressed by the gigantic paddle shifters - the gear-shifts are quick and the engine extremely responsive.

In Sport mode, everything just gets better - the throaty exhaust note becomes more vocal, the suspension far stiffer and the gear shifts quicker. The car charges into corners and grips the road, daring you to push it further at the next corner. So in that sense, this is another potential speeding ticket collector, but that's no fault of the car.

QUICK SPEC

DRIVEN THIS MONTH 

Grow up, already

High-end luxury saloons are what you want your dad to own. Yes they are great cars, but the A8, the BMW 7-series or the big Mercs have always been typecast as the older man's car. And that's why I think Audi has Jason Statham to thank for the A8's image. A lot of us would have completely overlooked the car had it not been for its starring role in The Transporter series. Understated and elegant, the long wheel base A8 is among the better cars that we've driven this year. Though rear passengers are seated in complete luxury and there's almost a metre of extra leg room, this is still a driver's car. The 4.2-litre, V8 engine packs enough juice, the acceleration is faultless and the ride is silent and smooth, despite weighing just under two tonnes, this car hit 0 to 100 in 5.9 seconds. The A8 has all the luxury trappings - the leather interiors, the wooden inlays and the car phone. So finally there's an incentive to age.

All shook up

The most remarkable bit about driving the Audi R8 is this - never has a car united man and machine so well - the driver feels one with this beauty. Once the engine is fired, the V8 unleashes 420 horsepower, rocketing the car from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds. The low-slung R8 is tailor-made for high-speed runs, this car begs to be driven fast and furious. And it's not just about speed, the car handles amazingly well. What makes the R8 so strikingly visible are the 12 LED bulbs under each headlamp. The controls are placed in an arc around the driver's seat for easy manoeuvring. Another useful feature is the "launch control" mode that preserves the clutch life and adds to the transmission's longevity. The R8 doesn't quite fit in with the Italian exotics, it isn't a direct competitor with the likes of the Ferrari F430 or the Lamborghini Gallarado, but it's a handful nevertheless.