Maserati Levante review: The Trofeo life

THIS is Italy's latest, limited-edition, high performance monster with its cost on the giddy end of six figures. There are only three of them in Singapore, this test car included, and to no one's surprise it's also a sport utility vehicle (SUV).

Sure, that sounds vaguely absurd even in the crazy year that's been 2020, but Maserati's Levante Trofeo is just that sort of vehicle.

Italian carmaker Maserati, best known for building exceptionally-manoeuvrable grand touring cars like the rather obviously named Gran Turismo, waded into the sporty and luxurious SUV fight with the Levante that went on sale in late 2017. A twin-turbo, 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine powered the launch editions of the car, but Maserati engineers were already at work behind the scenes to see how much more kick they could stuff into the Levante's platform.