In four days at the 2018 Monterey Car Week, only once did we step outside and not hear a flat-crank V-8 idling. Ferraris—and now McLarens—flock to the events surrounding the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and the old-car races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (officially and stuffily called the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion) like the salmon of Capistrano. This week on the Monterey Peninsula, Ferrari V-8s are commonplace.
They're so commonplace, in fact, that the population is running out of places to stash them, and you can now find a Ferrari V-8 in the Maserati Levante. (Well, the engine is based on Ferrari architecture and built by Ferrari, but it does not have a flat-plane crank.)
In two different output levels, in fact: The Levante GTS is rated at 542 horsepower, and engine-management calibrations spike the Levante Trofeo's number to 582 horses.
The GTS wears body color on its lower front splitter and rear bumper trim, while these pieces are rendered in exposed carbon fiber on the Trofeo.
The larger inlets in both Levantes' front bumpers are to better feed and cool the bigger powerplants, a change that Fiat Chrysler Automobile's (FCA) head of design, Klaus Busse, swears is functional. "We are living in a world not only of fake news, but a world of fake air intakes, fake outlets, and even fake exhausts," he says.
The quad-outlet exhaust system shared by the two cars, then, is also real. And it has loud and quiet modes.
The only other exterior difference between the GTS and Trofeo is that the latter has hood vents, which are small enough to be of suspect function but do lead to real holes that let heat out from under the bonnet, and the word "Trofeo" nested beneath the trident in the Maserati badges on the D-pillar.
Similar to the one in the Quattroporte GTS, it's an oversquare 3.8-liter, but its redesigned heads are fitted with new camshafts and valves, and even the pistons and connecting rods are tweaked.
We managed a 5.1-second zero-to-60-mph time in the Levante S while the GTS dipped below four seconds, turning in a 3.8-second run. The Trofeo shaved that figure down to 3.6 seconds, and managed a quarter-mile in 12.0 seconds flat at 117 mph, a mere 0.1 second and 2 mph quicker.
Maserati's pricing for the new Levante models targets the Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Turbo S. So the $121,475 GTS and $171,475 Trofeo line up to the equivalently powerful Germans within a handful of bills when corrected for equipment.
The Levante's front seats are vastly more spacious than the Cayenne's, although the rear perches in both are snug for people beyond median height.
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
2019 Maserati Levante Trofeo
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