Widely considered as the best player in the world at the present moment, football is the craft of Lionel Messi. Other than playing forward for FC Barcelona and Argentina’s national team, Messi also happens to love fast, expensive cars. Not that long ago, the Messi used to roll in style in the Maserati we’ll talk about today.
Listed on mobile.de for €119,900 (approx. $125,670), what we have here is a GranTurismo MC Stradale modified in what I’d call a tasteless manner. When Messi still owned the thing, the vehicle was wearing its original paint: Bianco Eldorado (white).
Now, however, the Italian thoroughbred looks is a garish and ostentatious machine unbefitting of The House of the Trident. Red badges and red trim pieces over the not-matte-but-not-glossy paint job ruin everything that’s right about this car. In addition to the questionable customization, the odometer is showing 46,000 kilometers (28,583 miles), which is a bit too much for what is, in essence, a fragile Italian thoroughbred.
To put the listing’s price into perspective, a brand new one retails for €157,787 in Italy. According to the ad, the 2012 Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale in the adjacent gallery comes with the “Spanish license and the original marks of Messi,” whatever original marks means in the seller’s mind.
Happily, however, the MC Stradale is bog-standard on the inside and in terms of oily bits. The carbon fiber seats with Alcantara upholstery look the part, as does the 4.7-liter V8 hiding under the hood of this grand tourer. Thanks to 444 horsepower (450 PS) and an exhaust sound apparently designed to wake the dead, it’s not hard to understand why Messi used to own such a magnificent machine. Too bad someone ruined it with fugly paint and even fuglier red accents.
In related news, Maserati delayed the Alfieri to focus on developing the next-generation GranTurismo. The all-new model is expected to arrive in 2018 at the earliest.
Now, however, the Italian thoroughbred looks is a garish and ostentatious machine unbefitting of The House of the Trident. Red badges and red trim pieces over the not-matte-but-not-glossy paint job ruin everything that’s right about this car. In addition to the questionable customization, the odometer is showing 46,000 kilometers (28,583 miles), which is a bit too much for what is, in essence, a fragile Italian thoroughbred.
To put the listing’s price into perspective, a brand new one retails for €157,787 in Italy. According to the ad, the 2012 Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale in the adjacent gallery comes with the “Spanish license and the original marks of Messi,” whatever original marks means in the seller’s mind.
Happily, however, the MC Stradale is bog-standard on the inside and in terms of oily bits. The carbon fiber seats with Alcantara upholstery look the part, as does the 4.7-liter V8 hiding under the hood of this grand tourer. Thanks to 444 horsepower (450 PS) and an exhaust sound apparently designed to wake the dead, it’s not hard to understand why Messi used to own such a magnificent machine. Too bad someone ruined it with fugly paint and even fuglier red accents.
In related news, Maserati delayed the Alfieri to focus on developing the next-generation GranTurismo. The all-new model is expected to arrive in 2018 at the earliest.