Within two minutes of seeing the car, we had exhausted all of our caveman Italian. “Bene! Molto bene! Bravissima! Bella macchina!” So we pulled out a line we had translated on Babel Fish: “Esca della via, contadino, io stanno venendo attraverso!” which should mean, “Get out of my way, you peasant, I am coming through!”

This is a great car from which to spout such a line, especially when barreling through the Italian mountain passes through which we would soon be barreling.

In any language, the Maserati Gran-Turismo is a beauty to behold, with styling inspired by both the 1953 A6GCS coupe and the more recent Birdcage 75 show car. And on any road, it is a joy to drive. It is so far ahead of the Maserati GranSport, Coupe and Spyder that immediately preceded it, with their twisting, squeaky bodies and horrific automatic manual transmission that clunked so awfully into gear, like a high school metal shop project gone horribly wrong.

That is now all in the past. The new GranTurismo is the perfect car in which to drive fast over the Passo di Costalunga in the dramatic Italian Dolomites with your mistress or, as the case may be, concubine, boy-toy, secretary, whatever (we had none of those, only some guy from some other magazine).

The name of this new car says it all: GranTurismo. This is not a sports car or even the earnest GranSport, which tried so hard in its short life to be some kind of Ferrari and never quite made it. The Gran-Turismo is not made for light tossability or for delicately dancing on the edges of adhesion in some crazy long-course gymkhana. Rather, it is designed to conquer turns without surrendering its civilized poise, coddling its occupants to the very apex. It has “prodigious grip,” as they might say over at the monthly car mags, but it is no race car.

The GranTurismo rides on a shortened version of the Quattroporte platform, 5.0 inches shorter in the wheelbase and 2.5 inches shorter in the rear overhang. Curb weight is 236 pounds less than the 4400-pound Q at 4136. So the new car is longer and heavier than the old Coupe and GranSport but shorter and lighter than the Quattroporte.

Power comes from a slightly tuned version of the 4.2-liter V8 that powers the Q sedan. The engine makes 405 SAE hp, 5 more than it does in the four-door, thanks to changes to the ECU. That’s 97 hp/liter, the kind of engine Honda should put in an Acura RL. Peak power comes at 7100 rpm, just 100 below redline.

You can shift all the way up to that redline with the new, smooth and fast ZF six-speed automatic, the same transmission found in the Quattroporte. No clunking here. It operates in four modes: normal; sport, which shifts at higher engine speeds; manual, which allows you to shift through either the stick on the center tunnel or the wheel-mounted paddles; and ice, which eliminates first gear and shifts at 3000 rpm for slippery roads.

We found no slippery surfaces on our summer drive, powering through one-and-a-half-lane roads called Passo de this and Viaggio del that.

Once we got around the 3000 Dutch tourists and their fiberglass house trailers, we plastered the gas to the floor and listened to the quad exhausts howl. Maserati quotes a 0-to-62-mph time of 5.1 seconds, and we believe it. We didn’t get to the top speed of 177 mph, but we believe that, too.

The engine power comes on fairly high on the tach, though, with very little torque under 4000 rpm. If you can keep the revs up all day, that might not be a problem, but on our drive, we found ourselves having to exit an awful lot of corners in second gear with the revs at about 3000 or less, and there just wasn’t anything there. The corners were too fast for first.

Once you get the revs over 4000, the car really comes alive. The shifts come quickly, with almost no power interruption. The ECU actually shuts off fuel for half a blip during the upshifts to keep things smooth. The shift paddles are mounted on the steering column, not the wheel, so you always know where they are. Each paddle is clearly marked “UP” or “DOWN,” too, easy to forget sometimes.

The chassis is taut without being overly harsh. All U.S. GranTurismos will get Sky-hook automatic damping, which was on our test car and managed rebound, roll and jounce with sporting dignity. It was a fun drive.

Or it was fun until the brakes faded, which they seemed to do intermittently. Maserati said that was just because all those “other” journalists had already driven the cars and really abused the brakes. How do you abuse brakes? You step on them, and the car stops.

Tires are Pirelli PZero Rosso Direzionales, 245/40s front and 285/40s rear. Our car had the standard 19-inch wheels, which never felt too harsh at all. We didn’t get a chance to try out the optional 20s.

The superb cornering is helped by the car’s 49/51 front/rear weight balance, achieved in part when they managed to stuff the entire front longitudinal engine aft of the front axle. The transmission is bolted directly to that engine, too, instead of riding out at the back end as a transaxle. Power then goes to the rear wheels via a two-piece driveshaft and a self-locking rear differential. Is nice.

Inside the car, there are four “Texas-style” cupholders made just for us here in the States. Maserati was particularly proud of its new back seats, larger than in previous models. But when we got into them, we found that while there was adequate knee room, the 1.3 inches of extra headroom was still not enough for an adult head. Lots of room for children, though.

The trunk is big enough for two sets of golf clubs or the complete set of five Salvatore Ferragamo suitcases you can order from Maserati when you buy your car.

There are 19 exterior body colors to match to the 10 interior swatches, the three kinds of wood and the five brake-caliper hues. What’s that total? Someone get a

calculator.

You will have to wait till mid-2008 to get a GranTurismo with Bluetooth and a little longer for a convertible. Though officials did not confirm the convertible, commercial director Raffaele Fusilli said, “If you look at the history of Maserati, there has always been an open car.” Which means pretty much yes, there will be a convertible.

And yes, this is another good time for the company Maserati, a carmaker that has seen a few ups and downs in the 50 years since Fangio won the world championship in a Maserati 250F. Looking at the GranTurismo and the svelte and sensual Quattroporte, it seems Maserati is doing everything right.

“For the first time in many, many years, we see a profit at Maserati,” said Fusilli.

The car goes on sale in September. Exactly how many we will get here was unclear, between 1200 and 1400 a year, depending on whom you ask, all priced at a reasonable and prudent $110,000, which does not include gas-guzzler tax, delivery and dealer prep. Maserati says if you come to the dealership with $114,650, you’ll get your car. Unless there’s about a one-year wait, which there might be.