PLENTY FOR TWENTY

V8-powered sports car is a steal at current prices. And yet...

- JOHN EVANS

As I write this, there's a 2007 Maserati Gransport coupé, finished in Blu Mediterraneo, the most desirable colour, and with only 30,000 miles on the clock, for sale by a reputable dealer for £20,000. Repeat: twenty thousand pounds for an authentically Italian, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2 sports car trimmed in fine leather and carbonfibre and powered by a 395bhp 4.2-litre cross-plane Ferrari V8 for 0-62mph in 4.8sec.

Writing about the Gransport Spyder back in 2006, Autocar said: "It is a mightily stirring and fast car. The steering is incredibly quick-witted and in Sport mode it corners flatly, grips strongly and accelerates through the upper rev range with incredible urgency. In fact, when the glorious Maranellomade engine is burbling deliciously in your ears, you're drinking in the classy ambience of the tactile cabin and there's nothing but smooth, empty mountain asphalt to tear along, few cars make a more persuasive case for themselves."