Sampling San Diego in Modena’s Finest

Southern California is one of the most mythic and popular areas in the United States, its pleasant climate combining with the many attractions of Greater Los Angeles to attract millions of people. Just a couple of hours to the south is a city which, in our opinion, may have even more to recommend it. Not only does San Diego enjoy the same climate, it also has a wonderful oceanside location – and manages to avoid the oppressive atmosphere which all too often blankets its near northern neighbor.

Take all that, add a Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S and find some great country roads close by, and it made the ideal vacation destination for me. To begin with, I headed into the hills that lie to the east of Chula Vista; the roads offered some spectacular scenery, and an irresistible opportunity to exercise the Maserati. The Sport GT S is rather different from the other Quattroporte variants offered to date – it is the only one to drop the superbly adaptable Skyhook electronic suspension for a conventional setup using springs and single action dampers, optimized for keen handling. Every Maserati can tackle a twisting road at surprising speed, yet the Sport GT S somehow manages to improve on near perfection.



It takes only a few miles for confidence levels to rise along with cornering speeds. With the Sport button pressed and the ZF automatic transmission placed in Manual mode the car responds almost instantly to every input from the driver; and the upgraded brakes, with dual-cast front rotors gripped by six-piston calipers, help ensure that it can all be kept under control when necessary. The 4.2-liter 90-degree V8 has a glorious exhaust note which resounds through the hills – although the dual zone climate control can keep the interior at whatever temperature the occupants prefer, there are stretches where I opt to keep the windows down just to hear that wonderful exhaust note.

After a wonderful time on the back-country detour, it was time to head back downtown, so I made my way to Balboa Park. This is one of the finest and most interesting urban parks in the United States – the cluster of museums and other attractions reminds me of the Mall in Washington, DC. There are gardens, restaurants, theatres, museums and, of course, the world-famous San Diego Zoo.



I cruised the park's quiet roads in the Quattroporte; around the main buildings there are flower gardens everywhere, and even the parking lots are lined with majestic trees. I found a parking space on the Plaza de Panama and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the steps by the Botanical Gardens; unfortunately my schedule didn’t give me enough time to explore the park in depth, where attractions range from the Museum of Photographic Arts to the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater. I did stop by the San Diego Air and Space Museum, where a Lockheed A-12 Blackbird reconnaissance plane is mounted on a pylon outside the main entrance. I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of car and plane together – two black beauties, both capable of astonishing speed.

After leaving Balboa Park, I took a drive around to see as much of the city as I could. San Diego has some level areas down by the ocean, which makes it an ideal location for the airport, but there are also hills rising up, close to the shore – they make it easy to get a view over the sweep of San Diego Bay, with its many yachts and water craft. Heading down to the waterfront, I ambled in traffic along North Harbor Drive to take in the spectacle of the USS Midway. This aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1945, and its distinguished career took it to Japan at the end of World War II and to Vietnam; it even served as a flagship during Desert Storm. It is now a floating museum, with a wide variety of aircraft; and while ‘my’ Quattroporte is fast, going from 0-60mph in 5.5 sec, even that pales in comparison to the catapult on the Midway, which could hurl a plane down the deck from 0 to 150mph in just three seconds!

From the Midway, I drove through downtown San Diego, which has an intriguing mix of architecture, both old and new. A major renewal program managed to keep older buildings alongside newer landmarks – most notably in the Gaslamp Quarter, where 16 blocks have been designated a National Historic District – yet it also houses PETCO Park, the stadium of the San Diego Padres baseball team. It was quite an apt place for me to visit – Maserati has always been proud of its ability to produce modern cars while retaining strong links to its long heritage.

Remarkably, some great shore-side restaurants can be found only a few hundred yards from San Diego International Airport. Harbor Island Drive is about half a mile from the main runway – yet, because it runs parallel to the airport, you are only occasionally aware of the aircraft. In fact, the only aircraft that drew our attention was a fighter taking off from the Naval Air Station on North Island, about a mile away in the middle of San Diego Bay.

Unfortunately, I only had a short while to explore San Diego and the surrounding area. I would have loved to have stayed for a couple of weeks to do the area justice – not to mention to have spent more time behind the wheel of the Sport GT S. The most sporting version of the Quattroporte proved the ideal companion – perfectly civilized and comfortable around town, equally well suited to fast, hard driving when roads and conditions allowed. My grateful thanks to Maserati of San Diego for the loan of the Quattroporte.
From Maserati Monthly