Maserati Levante Trofeo is a triumphantly refined and responsive ride

LET’S get straight to the point. The Levante Trofeo is the fastest production Maserati ever.  Of course, what makes it so special is the glorious 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, generously donated by Ferrari.

Vastly more potent than any Levante before, the Trofeo delivers a whopping 572hp. That’s a lot.

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Like posh Italian nosh perfectly paired with the ideal bottle of plonk, the super-responsive 8-speed auto gearbox and rear-biased all-wheel drive tech conspire beautifully so you don’t lose all that power in uncontrollable tyre smoke.

It handles supremely and with a sporty edge that never betrays the ultimately luxurious nature demanded of a car bearing the trident badge on its grille. The Trofeo comes with a pair of performance-based party tricks too – unique to the £124,000 two-tonne flagship.

First is Corsa mode, where the touch of a button re-maps and ramps everything up to 11, including your smug grin. And the second is launch control.

But as effective as it is when eventually deployed on a huge stretch of airfield tarmac in your own sweet time, having to push-hold-doubleflick-wait-and-faff for what is a frustrating age will have the actual Corsa next to you at the lights mug you off with crippling ease.

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There have been a few external visual tweaks to signal your substantial investments in all the SUV you’ll probably never need. A subtly restyled front bumper with carbon fibre-finished splitter and two bonnet mounted air vents grace its face.

While mahoosive 22in rims and a chrome Trofeo badging on its rear haunches feature further back where any designer enthusiasm seems to have waned.  Inside reveals a disappointingly familiar – albeit in itself a fairly luxurious effort that’s beginning to show its age – Levante interior.

That said, if practicality is your thing then, like all Levantes, it seats four adults pretty comfortably and allows for generous 580-litres of unsightly luggage to be hoofed in the boot.

As much as no one needs a super-efficient Maserati SUV, no one needs a super-powerful one either. But there will be a well-heeled queue forming for the latter, all the same.

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Bizarrely however, should you find yourself struggling to raise the final £20,000 of the Trofeo’s price tag then there is a low-cost option. For just £104,000 you can have the Levante GTS instead.

Still powered by that same V8 engine but with 30 less horsepower, no Corsa mode, no bonnet air vents, carbon splitter or launch control and what amounts to an “I’m a no-Trofeo” badge to prove it. Yeah…we thought not, too.

The Maserati Levante Trofeo is a hugely enjoyable but hugely expensive piece of work that packs a triumphantly refined and responsive ride, monstrous shove and an unmistakable V8 timbre – the stuff that other SUVs can only dream of then.

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