The sculptors of Alfieri
The deep, concave grille lacks the normal chrome surround at the bottom, so it seems to float. The glasshouse area is clean, and the rear end has its corners cut back. Right here, Marco Tencone explained, is one of the clearest differences between Italian and, say, German design languages.
“The idea of the rear is to not have a lot of metal at the rear behind the wheel. This is a sort of trick. The way to play with the volumes [of the shapes] is close to the heart of the Italian way to think about cars. In the Italian school, the idea has always been to play with [shapes] to make the cars look lighter than they really are.”
He went on to explain that the German designers don’t necessarily care if they show a strong, heavy looking car. For Italians, however, “the light weight and feel of the design is very important, and that’s why we balance the round and the square. Everything is pulled in so as not to give the feeling of a massive car. You see a lot of athletic Italian designs, but not many muscular Italian designs.”
Inspiration
More than just a modernization of the A6 GCS, the Alfieri is a reduction in complexity, a more compact and aggressive model that takes a modern interpretation of the A6 GCS’s spirit and recreates it into something new. The result is not retro, but a retro-inspired car that says a lot about the design DNA of the Maserati of the future.
Long Awaited Renaissance
The seats are leather, as is the dash and centre console. Several significant features—such as the gear lever and clock—are hewn from solid blocks of aluminium. There are some areas where the link to the A6 GCS is abundantly clear: the long, long front bumper line only ending midway along the doors, for example, and the light feel to the chamfered tail. But the concept is like nothing seen from Maserati in a very long time, and serves as a reminder of the Maserati brand’s deep-rooted racing heritage.
courtesy: www.maserati.com