Car Throttle

Wait, what?  France had a sports car company? And there was another one?  If you don't count Bugatti (and most people don't; hasn't been French in decades), when you ask most car people what sports-car brands France is famous for, they might come up with one: Alpine.  Jean Rédélé's particular brand of rear-engined Renault-powered weirdness achieved some international success with rally specials like the A110, and later with rear-engine sports cars like the A310, GTA, and A610. But for the most part, that's about as far as the story goes.  France isn't really renowned for sports cars.  They've made sporting cars.  You can't look at an R5 Turbo or Clio Renaultsport and not nod your head and think, "awesome."  But France doesn't really have a

A lot is going on in the Chrysler-Fiat world today, as the company is announcing strategic 5-year plans for its United States brands. That includes Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Fiat. One of the most interesting announcements has come from Maserati though, which has signaled its intention to compete with the BMW 5-Series. Maserati, of course, is best known for its supercars. However, over the years the company has produced vehicles up and down the spectrum. Maserati Biturbo, anyone? In addition, while other exotic manufacturers are just now entering the four-door segment, Maserati has been there all along with the Quattroporte. Now, they look to be taking that formula into a lower market segment - against the Audi A6, BMW 5-Series, and Jaguar XF. We would imagine the

Today, Maserati is a purveyor of what I like to call automotive pornography. They produce two products - the almost criminally good-looking Gran Turismo and the equally seductive Quattroporte.  Both sell for north of $100k, are chock full of Ferrari bits, and are absolutely wonderful, top-notch modern supercars.  This hasn't always been the case. Maserati returned to the US market in 2002, after leaving without saying goodbye in 1991.  They, like Alfa Romeo, were basically chased out of the US thanks to persistent rumors of suspect reliability as well as a less than favorable exchange rate which artificially inflated prices.  Many say that the reason for Maserati's failure in the US was the Biturbo.  Let's take a look at that car (and it's derivatives) and return to