Maserati Grand Tour
Photo: Troi Williams
Surrounded by lavender fields and lush maple trees, ten women pulled up to the art gallery entrance in a cadre of six Maserati vehicles for the kickoff of the Le Car x Maserati Grand Tour.
Our New York state adventure was an homage to Italian motoring tradition from the wheel of an iconic Italian brand. We drove a range of elegant Quattroportes, Ghiblis and Levantes on a daylong exploration of contemporary art, culture and cuisine in the Hudson Valley. As everyone parked their cars and headed for the garden, there was a delicious anticipation about our carefully planned day, a revival of a storied Italian tradition.
A Short History of Gran Turismo
Photo: Troi Williams
The Grand Tour dates back centuries in Italy, first led by horse and carriage. Travelers carved out routes from Naples to Rome to experience the cuisine, the countryside, and the people. Historians have described the tradition as the beginning of modern tourism. While typically made by men in the 18th century, some groups of women travelers made these journeys, too. It was natural that as Italy became a hub for engineering and design, that the grand touring tradition carried over into Italian motorcars in the 20th century.
The intoxication of Italian touring cars became so infectious that the Gran Turismo cars have become a category of their own, referred to as GT Cars, and made by nearly every luxury sports car brand. These cars balance luxury and performance attributes and are designed for high-speed and long-distance driving.
Alfa Romeo has the distinction of bringing the first car to the market to be named under the Gran Turismo moniker with their 6C 1750 GT. Other Italian car makers soon followed with Maserati featuring a Grand Touring car in 1947 with their A6 1500, Ferrari in 1949 with their 166 Inter and even Fiat in 1952 with their acclaimed 8V Zagat. It was the Maserati Quattroporte designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro that redefined the category. The luxury sedan was introduced in 1960 and was the fastest sedan in the world at the time. Maserati was the first to put a sports car engine into a grand touring vehicle thus creating the luxury sedan category.
Now Grand Touring cars are some of the most sought after vehicles by collectors. In recent years, a 1969 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 Spyder, designed by Giugiaro, sold for $920,000 at auction, and in 2018, Maserati’s crosstown rival, a 1962 Ferrari 260 GT became the most expensive car ever sold at auction with a price tag of $48.4 million.
Photo: Troi Williams
A Fresh Take On The Modern Day Grand Tour
If there was one common element among our guests who participated in our Maserati Grand Tour, it is their drive, pure and simple. Each is a leader in her field, who has built a business, and possesses a deep creative and curious spirit. These women inspire the people around them and the teams they lead in fashion, art, and business. As seasoned entrepreneurs who’ve led startups, served on boards, and led large non-profit organizations, they inspire us at Le Car, a mother-daughter platform dedicated to empowering women at the wheel.
On our day trip, publishing executive and founder of Honey Magazine, Kierna Mayo glided into town in a Quattroporte SQ4. Mayo, who has the careful eye of an editor, honed in on the Maserati interior. Hotelier Michi Jigarjian drove the Quattroporte Trofeo with Folake Ologunga, a communications strategist as her passenger. Jigarjina, managing partner of the Rockaway Hotel and President of Baxter St Camera Club, shared how her children marveled at its impressive performance on the way to summer camp drop off.
Art advisor Nazy Nazhand and artist Sheree Hovespian drove in a bright blue sporty Maserati Ghibli Trofeo. Nazhand, who arranges exhibitions and serves as a museum trustee, is a self-described driving enthusiast. They traveled 150 miles, the furthest distance of the group on the Grand Tour from East Hampton to Cold Springs. When I asked if she was tired after her long drive, she explained how much she was looking forward to the long drive back. Hovsepian, whose work is on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery, noted the details in Ghibli Trofeo reminded her of some of her beloved vintage cars that she and her husband own and drive around their Hamptons summer home. When the last guest, Dee Poku, founder of the women’s leadership organization Wie Suite, arrived everyone gathered around her show-stopping Levante Trofeo. Several guests fell hard for the interior, which features the collaboration with the Italian menswear designer Ermenegildo Zegna.
Our group lingered at Magazzino, the Cold Spring warehouse space dedicated to contemporary Italian art, poring over installations made in sand and marveling at the freestanding sculptures. We discussed car culture and the intersections between design, fashion, and art. Italian design and art fuse simple shapes and fine materials crafted by hand. The natural appearance of materials and the way space is used create depth. As we returned to our vehicles, the through-line was underscored by the vehicles.
Maserati Ride and Drive
Photo: Troi Williams
To lead the group of women to our next stop, I drove a Levante GTS, a high-end stunner cast from the new Verde Royal palette. The Levante is an SUV with soul, that has presence and panache, embodied by its delicious growling engine note. Stacie Henderson, a marketing executive who leads e-commerce and digital marketing at Tod’s, an Italian fashion company, and curator and incoming Deputy Director of the New Museum Isolde Brielmaier rode with me. Henderson, who speaks fluent Italian, shared some of her favorite Italian tracks from her playlist. We blared up tempo songs by Daniele Silvestri and classic rock by Albachiara on the 17-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system, which sounded so right as we cruised along the Hudson River.
We drove to lunch at the Roundhouse in Beacon, and stopped on the way to take photos with the cars lined up in formation. Maserati has only been sold in the US for two decades, for most of our guests, it was their first time driving a Maserati vehicle. There was much to discuss, and reflect on. As we gathered at our last stop, the women had many questions about car culture. I shared my own learnings about the thrill of test driving after 19 years of covering cars. I told them, the driver’s seat is a powerful place.
