Maserati North America has started the New Year with the bar high as the Trident brand presented the 2020 versions of Levante, Ghibli and Quattroporte on the snow and ice of Crested Butte, Colorado, one of the most picturesque mountain resorts in the United States.
To do so, it chose Pirelli as its partner. A natural choice considering that the collaboration between the two Italian brands dating back to the 1950s, when Juan Manuel Fangio, won the first F1 Grand Prix in a a Maserati with Pirelli tires.
Since then, the partnership between the two brands has continued and today the long P develops custom-made tires for each Maserati model.
Starting from the three spearheads of the Modena house: Levante, Ghibli and Quattroporte, all the versions are united by the intelligent Q4 all-wheel drive system.
Maserati's intelligent Q4 all-wheel drive has been designed to convey a typical Maserati rear-wheel driving experience even in poor grip conditions, such as the snow and ice on the Crested Butte track where the Winter Performance Drive took place.
In normal driving conditions, the Q4 provides 100% of the engine's torque to the rear wheels. On slippery or loose road surfaces, or in the event of loss of traction at the rear due to extreme acceleration or very hard cornering, the system reacts instantaneously, transferring the necessary torque to the front wheels. In a matter of 150 milliseconds, it can alter the front/rear torque split from 0:100% to 50:50%. This can be monitored in real time from the 7” color information cluster display.
Coupled with the control guaranteed by Pirelli winter tires, you can enjoy safe and pleasant driving in all conditions and temperatures. Participants of the Maserati Winter Performance Drive were able to test the performance of the Maserati-Pirelli combination in a series of activities of control, braking, and handling on snow and ice.
Winter Sottozero 3: Maximum Control for Ghibli and Quattroporte
The Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3 is an Ultra High Performance tire ideal for premium segment cars, such as the Maserati Ghibli or Quattroporte.
Designed to improve the sports characteristics of the cars on which it is mounted, the Winter Sottozero benefits from 3D grooves to capture more snow and therefore improve snow-on-snow grip. Its innovative compound increases tire performance and road holding even on wet or icy surfaces.
Scorpion Winter: power and safety for the Levante
Scorpion Winter has been designed to adapt to modern and powerful SUVs, such as the Maserati Levante. One of the strong points of the Scorpion Winter is the inner belt which is located under the tread pattern. Its soft and elastic design allows the tire to maximize its contact area and improve road holding. The internal structure of the Scorpion Winter presents revolutionary ideas with new materials that allowed Pirelli's engineers to reduce the overall weight of the tire – an important detail considering the overall weight of the Levante - and at the same time improve grip and driving precision, on all surfaces and in all conditions.
