Keep in the driving seat of every new car to hit the Irish shores.

Maserati Quattroporte

I’m disappointed. Maserati’s new Quattroporte S doesn’t provide the same rousing soundtrack as its GranTurismo S sibling. It’s got the same engine – albeit with slightly different power output – but the people at Maserati haven’t added the trick valve-bypassed exhaust pipes that allow Maserati’s glorious 4.7-litre V8 to reveal its more devilish side. It seems Quattroporte S owners might want the extra pace the bigger heart brings but also want to slip by a bit more discreetly than they would if the exhausts were emitting waves of V8 sound to rival its Modena relatives.

Not that the Quattroporte is very good at being discreet, as try as you might you’ll never be unnoticed in the Maserati. It’s such an unusually elegant and beautiful car that it stands out in the traffic unlike any other saloon. It really is a stunning looker, made even more so by the small mid-life styling nip and tucks that combined give it a more chiselled face and sleeker profile. On the S, the re-profiled front grille gets vertical slats, but Maserati left the non-S Quattroporte with the 4.2-litre V8 on the price list. Why? (more…)

Austin Martin V8 Vantage

There is an awful lot of doom and gloom about at the moment. For a start, there is the weather, which has become so miserable that you can Sky+ the miserable weather forecast once and watch it over and over again. Not even the joy of the TG4 weather girls, growling in their guttural Gaeilge, can lift our spirits. If you live in the Midlands, you are more likely to want to sell your house for a canal boat – of course, that would be if your house were still worth any money, which it isn’t.

A few years ago, ‘Credit Crunch’ might have meant buying your breakfast cereal with a Visa card because you’d blown all your cash clubbing the night before, but today it means something rather more sinister. Up and down the country, families are scratching their heads with dismay as they wonder how much they can get for their 60-inch LCD television on eBay, just so as they’ll have enough to pay for the shopping in Aldi. Extra Virgin Olive Oil has given way to cooking oil, bruschetta to batch loaf and nights on the town to nights in. So what better time then, to get an Aston Martin delivered to my house, just to annoy the neighbours? (more…)

Porsche Carrera 4

Porsche’s new 911 Carrera 4 needs to be put into context. Driving the Cabriolet S version through the sweeping countryside of Germany in 35-degree heat is perhaps not the most appropriate way to demonstrate the sophisticated new four-wheel drive system. However, it did serve as a reminder that, for the most part, the Carrera 4 behaves in a very similar manner to that of the recently updated Carrera 2.

That means buyers get the same choice of two new direct-injection flat-six engines (which are both more powerful, yet more frugal, than their predecessors), the option of Porsche’s dual-clutch PDK transmission and a host of other detail improvements such as a vastly better infotainment system. To mark out the new Carrera 4 from its two-wheel drive brothers, Porsche fits a wider body shell and a red reflective strip between the shapely rear lights. (more…)