As an ultra-luxury brand, when was the last time Maserati ignited the passion of Chinese consumers? Was it when Ghibli and Levante, which were priced at less than 1 million yuan, went public? Or when the 3.0T Maserati MC20, which has a maximum horsepower of 630Ps, was launched? To be honest, in the domestic market, the influence of the former may still be greater than that of the latter. It is not that the new 3.0T engine that sacrifices "Poseidon" technology is not attractive, but the sports car market such as the MC20 is indeed attracted by Porsche in the domestic eyes.
It's just that "solutions" are always more than "problems", and with the arrival of Maserati Grecale, Maserati seems to really have the ability to compete with Porsche in the Chinese market. More importantly, the "Poseidon" engine on this new car, the asking price is also controlled within 1 million yuan. As a Maserati with trident as the brand totem, the power technology named after "Poseidon" does need a broader stage.
Is F1 technology decentralized, self-reliant Maserati "reliable"?
Compared with the MC20 launched two years ago, the 3.0T engine mounted on the Gregare has reduced its horsepower by 100 horsepower and 110 N·m of torque. But even so, Grecale's 3.0T power is still the Poseidon technology that is used "unreservedly." And horizontally, compared with the 2.9T high-power version of the largest potential competitor Porsche Macan, the Grecale's 3.0T has 89 more horses in maximum horsepower and 70N·m more torque. It can be seen how confident Maserati is after the blessing of the Poseidon technology. As for why the new car will shrink the horsepower, we will talk about it later, and first review what is the "Poseidon" technology.
The core of the "Poseidon" technology, the double combustion chamber (double spark plug) structure, is also known as the secondary combustion chamber technology. Such a big brain hole is not unexpectedly "devolved" from the technology of F1 racing cars. Although Maserati's glory days in Formula 1 have to go back to the 1950s. But there has never been a shortage of racing blood in this part of Italy, especially in the context of a "big family" operation, where Ferrari once took on the work of supplying Maserati's engines.
Although Ferrari later turned down the job of "wet nurse", look at the 2.9T of the Alfa Romeo Four Leaf Clover and then look at the Maserati 3.0T. 90° angle V6, 82mm piston stroke, uh, Ferrari said "just be happy". The 82mm stroke, with the 88mm bore, may be a Renaissance for models in other countries. But for Italy, it is also a routine operation, and the high-speed engine is also one of the soul sources of Maserati's sound.
How high is the rotational speed? The 630Ps horsepower on the MC20 takes 7500 rpm to burst, and even on the Gregare, the maximum horsepower of the 530Ps needs to hit 6500 rpm. Technology aside, this temper is from F1 I believe.
Speaking of double combustion chamber technology, this kind of structure on top of the traditional piston cylinder and adding a mini version of the "small cylinder" naturally achieves the thin combustion effect of the fuel. The "small cylinder" pre-injects fuel and ignites it (injection pressure 6 Bar), then sprays the flame into the main combustion chamber for faster and fuller combustion efficiency. The pre-combustion technology path addresses the pressure of knocking in a high-speed, high-performance supercar engine, and the Maserati 3.0T has 11 compression ratios on the MC20 (temporarily unknown on Grecale). With reference to the Ferrari 296's 3.0T power, the compression ratio is only 9.4 (already excellent for high-rev supercars).
At the same time, the fuel injection pressure in the main cylinder has reached 350 Bar, which is also a powerful tool to overcome the emission standards of China and Europe. A range of highly efficient fuel technologies may give Maserati better opportunities for development at the end of the fuel era.
In addition to the most topical dual combustion chamber design, the Maserati Poseidon Technology 3.0T engine is also equipped with electric exhaust gas relief valves (twin turbines), variable valve timing dual overhead camshafts and other technologies. These paths are consistent with the thinking of mainstream internal combustion engine manufacturers, and with the development of recent years, the results of the use of these technologies have also been seen more and more.
100 less horses, do more meaningful "Poseidon"
After reviewing poseidon power on the Maserati MC20, we also turned our attention back to the Maserati Grecale. Since the model changed from a sports car to an SUV after all, the Maserati Grecale can still get the official 3.8s of 100 km/h acceleration on the basis of 100 horsepower, which is only less than 1s slower than the MC20. Although there is a difference between 1 second on this horizontal line, for consumers, this perception is not as obvious as the difference in model function.
Supercaring can be done at any cost, but for the Maserati Grecale, it's somewhere between "generous" and "stingy". I even wonder if the 3.0T on the Gregare is also equipped with a dry oil pan, a "gold-devouring beast" technology seen in supercars and racing cars, which seems to have little significance in the SUV that does not care so much about the center of gravity and handling. Of course, perhaps the most realistic is fuel consumption.
Yes, you heard that right, million-class models also have fuel consumption to consider. Because for Maserati, the Grecale is already a "universal" model, it naturally requires a variety of cost considerations that are slightly more grounded. According to NEDC standards, the maserati MC20 has a combined fuel consumption of 11.6L/100km. Not to mention the standard reference value, this is just a sports car with a curb weight of 1500kg.
Maserati Grecale currently has no fuel consumption data in China, we estimate based on overseas EPA test data, its comprehensive fuel consumption can be converted to about 11.8L/100km. The estimated fuel consumption here is in accordance with the EPA test standard, which is more in line with the actual working conditions than the NEDC, plus the 3.0T Gregare is an SUV with a curb weight of 2125kg, and the fuel consumption performance is also acceptable.
Write at the end:
The power performance of Poseidon Power squeezed out 2 years ago, as well as the use of technical paths, have made people feel amazing to this day. After being "weaned" by Ferrari, Maserati's research and development capabilities and mass production courage gave us a new understanding of the heritage of Italian supercar and racing culture. Most of the time, I've always scoffed at the "special" engine tuning, but I have to say that this time Maserati is an exception. First of all, it is necessary for more people to experience the "Poseidon" technology. More importantly, the "weakened" version of Poseidon power still brings "excess" power output, who can blame it?