My Maserati goes (less than) 185

Find Ferraris just a little too pretentious? How about a Maserati with a Ferrari engine whose interior looks like it stepped right out of the Saville Row for cars?

The 2008 Maserati GranTurismo had its North American debut at the New York Auto Show on Thursday. While Maserati will say otherwise, this car is more about speeding in style than those into down and dirty performance.

The car takes 5.1 seconds to go 0 to 60 and has a maximum speed of 177 mph (notably not 185). The car has a 405-horsepower 4.2-liter V8 engine mounted in a front-mid-engine layout (low and behind the front axle) as on the Quattroporte (four door), so its weight is more evenly distributed in a 49 percent to 51 percent split front to back, according to Maserati. The transmission is a 6-speed automatic with optional paddle shifter mounted on the steering column.

The car was styled by design company Pininfarina and it shows.

With Ferragamo luggage designed specifically to fit in the trunk and a Poltrona Frau leather interior, sitting in the Maserati GranTurismo is like sitting in a finely appointed fashion showroom.

If only I could find an Italian tailor as good as the Italian upholsterer that did this interior.

A Maserati representative said that the company expects the car to be available in the fourth quarter of this year. Of course, 20 have already been ordered and the company plans to limit production to far fewer than the Quattroporte.

And yes, don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the car show models did sport tattoos of Neptune's trident, the Maserati logo, on their shoulders. Pretty cool.