So the story goes that Maserati wanted to build an SUV and the Italian carmaker had already done winter testing with its prototype. Back then, the test mules carried Ghibli body shells that looked like the car was on stilts with long travel SUV suspension but the underpinnings of the Levante were inching closer to production. For hot weather tests, the Levante went to the UAE and they decided to take it to the dunes to try it out. It so turned out that all that winter testing and the resulting adjustments made the Levante capable on sand too, and the revelation to the carmaker was that with a few tweaks, it could feel just at home on a racetrack as it would on soft sand. The Levante till then was never supposed to do what you see in these pictures. And who would have thought it too – a Maserati in the dunes, and not by accident!
All new?
Since it is the first SUV from Maserati, it has got to be all new. Sure there are plenty of parts shared with its siblings including the powertrain, but the new body style and suspension, especially the off-road driving modes are new. The design is typical evocative Maserati, I think they’ve done an excellent job of retaining the sex appeal with the floor so high off the ground. The curved bonnet, shapely greenhouse and the steeply raked rear windscreen give it a stunning profile. The front end is aggressive, and if there’s anything I’d like changed, it’s the strange LED strips in its headlights. It also has the signature triple vents on its fenders and the trident on its C-pillar. The Levante will be instantly recognisable as a Maserati, and when you make a new body style, it’s a good thing if the car looks like it belongs to the portfolio.
Move in and you will be welcomed by high quality Italian leather, and if you go mad with the options, seats with very expensive Ermenegildo Zegna silk inserts. The brushed aluminium paddleshifters and door handles add to the sense of richness as does the nicely crafted steering wheel. All these bits you will see in the Ghibli and the Quattroporte. The extra cabin height can be seen in the centre console with vertically placed air-con vents and a high-set dashboard. Lower down the centre console is a rotary knob for the infotainment system (that supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), the driving modes and ride height selectors. At the back, there’s good legroom and the seats are comfortable but tall occupants will have a problem with the sloping roof affecting headroom. The Italians have always placed form over function, and you know what, I don’t mind that in a Maserati.
What else?
Besides this top-trim Levante S we drove in Dubai that makes 424bhp and 580Nm, it is also available with the same V6 twin-turbo petrol in a lower state of tune – 345bhp/500Nm. Then there’s also the Levante diesel – the same turbo V6 VM Motori unit we’ve driven in the Ghibli. It makes 271bhp and 600Nm. Sadly, at the Levante’s launch in India, the diesel is the only one coming. At about Rs 1.5 crores, the Levante isn’t going to win any value for money contests and nor will it hold up on the performance front at that price, so what needs to work for it is the badge and its styling. The Trident is still rare in India and the numbers expected from all three dealers put together are only double digits, so it is going to be a unique Italian brand.
How quick?
The Levante S does the 0-100kmph sprint in just 5.2 seconds, identical to the Cayenne GTS. The lower powered petrol does it in 6 seconds and the diesel does the sprint in 6.9 seconds. Top speeds are 264kmph, 251kmph and 230kmph respectively. And the Levante has got AWD so traction off the line and the speeds you can hold through corners will make it a very fast SUV to go touring in.
Fun to drive?
Nothing like an extensive drive the first time you get your hands on a car, and with the Levante, we got to experience it on a racetrack, on highways in the UAE and in the dunes.
The Dubai Autodrome happens to be the same track where I drove the Macan and the Cayenne exactly a year ago, and although we were confined to the hill circuit this time, my memories of two Porsches were filtering through. The Cayenne specifically – the GTS and the Turbo are direct competitors to the Levante. Although I’d have to drive them back to back to give a definitive verdict on which one is the sportier SUV, I can tell you that it will run the Cayenne GTS pretty damn close. There are rumours of a V8 joining the line-up in a year so that will be pitted against the Turbo. The Levante has 50/50 weight distribution too, so the balance you need on a racetrack is there. And then you have air suspension that offers six ride height levels. I switch the Levante to Aero 2 which is 35mm lower than the standard 207mm ground clearance, its lowest setting (there’s a park setting too where it lowers a further 10mm to give the Levante a sportier stance, for pretty pictures). It is still 172mm off the ground but it rides flat on track with very little body roll through corners.
The Levante S I was driving weighs 2.1 tonnes, as much as a Cayenne GTS, so the similarities are plenty. Both get 8-speed auto boxes, both are five seaters, both AWD SUVs with a heavy rear bias. The Levante’s AWD system sends all its torque at all times to the rear wheels so the rear-driven character is there when it exits corners. It’s only when the front end begins to wash out that it gets up to 50 per cent of the torque. It also has torque vectoring and a mechanical limited-slip rear differential.
Get the Levante in Sport mode, settle the suspension to its lowest setting, tug the left paddle to put it into Manual mode and the sporty SUV is ready for the occasional trackday. You won’t be doing this often for sure, but if you do, it’s not like the Maserati would disappoint. I bang in a few gears on a short straight, brake hard into the upcoming right hand hairpin, and once I turn in and accelerate mid-corner all the way to the exit, there is no drama, the traction control doesn’t kick in and the tyres don’t squeal. There’s tremendous mechanical grip for an SUV of this size. It powers out of second gear and 580Nm of max torque catapults the SUV past 5000rpm, 424bhp is called upon and the Ferrari-built twin-turbo V6 gives a quick upshift at its 6500rpm redline. It’s one of the nicest sounding V6 motors in a while, very refined and rev happy, and in Sport, you’ll hear a nice raspy six-cylinder exhaust note with the opening of the exhaust bypass valves.
As we near the desert, I increase the Levante’s ride height to its highest 247mm level, go into off-road mode (that stays till 40kmph) and reduce tyre pressure to about 18 PSI (half of on-road pressures). The Levante is now good to go dune bashing. A Maserati with a Ferrari engine climbing steep dunes for the next few hours. Let that sink in. It does not have too many tricks though. There’s nothing for rock crawling and the chassis isn’t a sturdy ladder frame, so it might not be able to do the rough stuff, especially on the Pirelli P Zeros it is running. But in the dunes where you need good ground clearance, a strong engine and a wide track, the Levante is completely in its element. Climb straight up a dune and descend the same way down, feed in power at a constant rate and rely on the vast reserves of torque in the V6. You will be fine. What helps in the dunes is linear power delivery and the Levante has just that. It’s not peaky and won’t overwhelm the tyres to break traction and sink them in. The throttle response is good and after I gain confidence of driving the Levante in the dunes, it turns out to be a lot of fun.
Going places?
Isn’t that the obvious sum of this story! Carmakers put a lot of effort into picking locations for their media drives, places that highlight the car’s strengths or places that don’t reveal the chinks in their armour. When you’ve built a strong product, it is usually the former. The Levante is built as much for the road as it is for off it, and when it has got apexes to hit, it doesn’t shy away either. It reveals a very confident Maserati that’s hoping to grow at a speed it has not seen before.
Rating: 4.5/5