2006 Maserati Quattroporte Qp Neptune Blue / Only 2,600 Miles / 5 In Stock on 2040-cars

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The Ferrari Enzo's designer isn't worried about the future of supercars

Ken Okuyama is a talented designer with a prestigious portfolio. He spent 12 years at the famed Italian design house Pininfarina after a stint with GM's Advanced Design Studio, where he worked on the C5 Corvette. He also styled the Boxster and 996-generation 911 at Porsche. His first Ferrari design was the Rossa concept car, though his most famous creation is the Enzo. Now Okuyama runs a design studio that not only is responsible for the new Kode57 supercar that debuted in Monterey this past weekend, but also eye glasses, civic planning, and even Japanese bullet trains. We caught up with Okuyama at the Concorso Italiano car show, plopped down on a couple of plush leather chairs right in front of his brand new Kode57, and chatted about what the future holds for car design. Alex Kierstein: Lately there's been a lot of talk about autonomy and future mobility. What sort of challenges and opportunities do you think this autonomous future is going to provide for you as a car designer? Ken Okuyama: It is a really fantastic time for designers because of two reasons. One is that the public and private transport have been two separate, completely different industries up until now. Now, when you think about the future of autonomy, that really brings the automobiles into something more of a public transportation. You really have to think about the total experience of the customers from buying the ticket to the paying mechanism. That's just hardware, actually. It is a huge challenge for engineers and designers, and I really love that. That's one reason. Another reason is that just like horses were a means of transport 100 or so years ago, up until Henry Ford mass-produced the Model T. Now, maybe sports cars are becoming like horses. Now, horses are a great object for hobby, sports, and part of the Olympics and everything. Cars are going to be like that also. Dr. Porsche [was asked what type of] automobile is going to last for the longest time. He said, "the sports car." I really believe in that, because with sports cars, you never lose a sense of ownership. Autonomous vehicles are things you don't have to own. You have to design a total experience and the whole operation. A car, you want to own it. It's part of you. Your mechanical watches, do you borrow them from somebody? You want to own it. Your suits, your favorite shirts, you want to borrow them from somebody for your experience? No, you want to own it. Ownership is a core part of human beings.

Check out the Maserati Levante's not-finished interior

Maserati continues to develop the Levante luxury crossover years after previewing it as the Kubang concept, but new spy shots give us the best look yet at the interior of this long-awaited CUV. Our spies think we could finally see the production version as soon as the Geneva Motor Show in March. Look past the giant computer screen, keyboard, and rat's nest of wires to get an idea of what Maserati has in store for the Levante's wealthy occupants. The company fits the luxury crossover with thickly bolstered leather seats to hold front passengers tight, and the driver grips a three-spoke steering wheel. A piece of cloth partially covers the infotainment system, but its position echoes the one on the Ghibli. A wood-trimmed center console features several buttons, including a large control dial. This Levante's exterior camouflage and cladding hide a lot, but it's clear that the design sticks fairly close to last year's patent drawings. The big hump on the roof also can't hide the coupe-like arch that leads to the rear hatch. Maserati's crossover uses a tweaked version of the platform from the Ghibli and Quattroporte and likely shares their turbocharged V6 and V8 engines, too. The Italian company has high hopes that the Levante's mix of luxury and performance appeals to customers in the booming CUV segment because a success could turn around the brand's flagging sales. However, the vehicle needs to compete in a rapidly crowding market of high-priced entries that would soon include models like the Bentley Benayga, Lamborghini Urus, and Aston Martin DBX. Related Video:

2023 Maserati MC20 Cielo offers unlimited headroom and 621 hp

Maserati is returning to the convertible segment after a brief hiatus with a topless version of the MC20 named Cielo. The roadster offers the same twin-turbocharged V6 engine and carbon fiber chassis as its coupe counterpart but it gains a power-retractable glass roof panel. "Cielo" means "sky" in Italian — it's a fitting name. Visually, the MC20 Cielo is nearly identical to the MC20 coupe from the rocker panels to the belt line. It's what's above that counts: Maserati fitted the roadster with a glass roof panel that opens or closes at the push of a button in about 12 seconds. The space that it occupies is located behind the passenger compartment so engineers had to redesign the decklid, and the engine is no longer visible through a glass cover. We're told that the transformation adds only about 143 pounds to the MC20 for a curb weight of roughly 3,400 pounds. Maserati planned the convertible model from the get-go so few compromises were made during the development process. The Cielo keeps the cool butterfly-style doors, and it offers the same amount of cabin and trunk space as the coupe. Folding away in a couple of seconds isn't the roof's only trick: it can go from clear to opaque in a matter of seconds thanks to Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) technology. Like the coupe, the MC20 Cielo is powered by Maserati's excellent 3.0-liter Nettuno V6 engine. The mid-mounted six is twin-turbocharged to 621 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque, and it spins the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. Maserati quotes a zero-to-62-mph time of approximately 3 seconds and a top speed of around 200 mph, which sounds like a quick and fun way to dry your hair. Brembo-built six-piston front and four-piston rear brake calipers keep the engine's power in check. Built in Italy, the 2023 Maserati MC20 Cielo will reach showrooms in the coming months. Pricing will be announced closer to the model's on-sale date. At launch, buyers will be able to order a limited-edition version called PrimaSerie Launch Edition that stands out from the standard model with a specific, three-layer paint color called Acquamarina that was initially developed for Maserati's customization program.