An Oral History of The Design Behind Maserati's 2008 GranTurismo

Pininfarina: Maserati gave us a very clear brief, which helped us move quickly. They knew what they wanted. I was very confident when we unveiled the GT for them. We are quite hard on ourselves and sometimes, with other cars, I don't have the same level of confidence. This time, I knew we'd done something good.

Ronchi: When they did the final unveiling, we were not completely surprised. We'd already seen several evolutions of the design. Still, we were wowed, because it was exactly what we wanted. When you see the first drawings of the GT and the final result, you don't see many major changes. That was one of the most impressive things about this venture.

Pininfarina: In some ways, the fact that Maserati didn't carry a heavy design heritage was an advantage. Because of its lack of presence over the past 30 years, we had the opportunity to propose a new brand positioning, through design. The next generation of Maseratis will capitalize on what we did with the Quattroporte and the GranTurismo. But it will also be more difficult, because you're not starting from scratch. It's not so easy to surpass a success.