Ferrari Mailing List: Re: How does this happen?

[Steve Jenkins (steve]

Fellippe:

IMHO, The "talk" is wishful thinking. Last Thursday, I drove a 2007
Quattroporte Executive GT with the "new and improved" automatic transmission
for 30 minutes on back streets and freeways (and the magic I-90 tunnel),
followed immediately by 30 minutes on the same route with a 2007
Quattroporte Sport GT with MDS (Maserati Duo Select, aka F1 transmission).

Within 3 minutes on the second drive I had made up my mind. The other 27
minutes merely reinforced my decision 27-fold.

The auto is good if you are an "older" person (as cLyDe would put it) who
wants to just put it in D and talk on your phone, drink your latte, and
fiddle with the stereo at the same time.

But if you're looking for fo-do car to actually DRIVE, then MDS is for you.
It does its best to rev-match on the downshift (but an experienced driver
can still do it slightly better than the computer can by left-foot braking
and blipping at exactly the right time, just like I did with my 355 F1....
Steve Cook can verify this), it shifts firmly and crisply in Sport mode (and
bounces off the rev limiter like it should), and the gears shift EXACTLY
when you want them to. The paddles on the auto seem more like suggestion
paddles than actuators. They are suggestuators.

The MDS's M/A (manual/auto) shift button that puts it into Auto mode is
WAAAAY better than it was on the 355 and 360 (and I swear it was ever better
than auto mode on the F1-A transmission in the 612 Scag). It's very smooth,
and my only complaint is that it's a bit too slow on takeoff from a dead
stop. I prefer the manual mode for departure from a stoplight, but I don't
hesitate to hit the Auto button when the phone rings, when I need to fiddle
with the nav (which works while in motion... yay!) or when I just want to
zone out.

Steve Cook was my co-pilot for a whole day in the thing (and drove it), I'll
ask him to reply to this thread with his impressions of the MDS tranny.

Bottom line was that the auto made me feel way too disconnected from the car
(and you already feel disconnected enough with the drive-by-wire, traction
control, power steering, power brakes... But hey, my fav car to drive is the
F40, so I'm severely anti-driver-aid biased anyway). The true F1-style
transmission brought some of that connection back, as well as very fond
memories of my 355.

And because the upcoming GranTurismo only comes with the auto transmission,
I've asked to be "bumped down" the list until Maserati decides to stick the
MDS in the GT. It's really that unpleasant to me to drive.

That will be 2 cents, please! :)

SJ


-----Original Message-----
From: Fellippe Galletta [mailto:fellippe.galletta [at] gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 4:17 PM
To: Steve Jenkins
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] How does this happen?


Normally, NO....but there's been talks that the cambiocorsa isn't very
smooth, and that the auto is a better fit...

Frankly, I'd wish they threw a third pedal in...the market prefers autos but
if an M5 and M6 can have stick, so shall a Maserati.

FG


On 6/1/07, Steve Jenkins <steve [at] stevejenkins.com> wrote:
>
> Seriously.... you have to ask me that? :)
>
> SJ :)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ken rentiers [mailto:rentiers [at] mac.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 3:27 PM
> To: Steve Jenkins
> Cc: The FerrariList
> Subject: Re: [Ferrari] How does this happen?
>
>
>
> On Jun 1, 2007, at 1:39 PM, Steve Jenkins wrote:
>
>
> I bought a 2007 Maserati Quattroporte this week.
>
>
> Steve:
>
> Automatic or the original paddle shifter?
>
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