At last, after countless spy shots and months of waiting, we can present the convertible version of Maserati’s stunningly beautiful GranTurismo coupe, the GranCabrio – not the best choice of names in our book… It’s the Italian automaker’s first-ever four-seater convertible and it will make its worldwide debut on September 15 at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show with international sales set to start in the spring of 2010.

Even though most of the heavily disguised test mules of the GranCabrio featured a retractable hardtop, Maserati finally chose to offer the production model with an automatic canvas top, a decision that seems to have been dictated by ‘mama’ Fiat in order to differentiate it from the sportier Ferrari California.

Like the coupe variant, the convertible model has been styled by Italian design house Pininfarina and at least with the top down, we can say that the GranCabrio looks the part.

Maserati says that the GranCabrio has the longest wheelbase on the market of any convertible, promising to offer “proper seats” for all four passengers.

There are no changes under the hood as the GrandCabrio comes with the same powerhouse as the GrandTurismo S, which means a 4.7-liter V8 engine that cranks out 440HP at 7,000 rpm and 490Nm (362 lb-ft) of torque at 4,750 rpm. Power is sent to the rear wheels through the firm’s dual-clutch, electro-actuated gearbox with fast MC-Shift arranged in the transaxle layout.

The Italian company did not disclose any performance figures but we expect the GranCabrio to be a tad slower the lighter GranTurismo which goes from zero to 100km/h (62mph) in 4.9 sec and achieves a top speed of 295 Km/h or 184 mph.

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Five years after its market debut in 2004 and Maserati has announced that it has just registered the 1,000th Quattroporte in the United Kingdom. Do the math and that comes to an average of 250 cars a year which is insignificant by usual standards but for Maser to issue a press release on the matter, we’re guessing it must be good enough for the company. The 1000th car, a Quattroporte Sport GTS in Blu Oceano with Sabbia leather interior, was delivered yesterday by Maserati GB’s Head of Sales Peter Denton, to its proud new owner John Burton.

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While on Maserati’s site, we found a bevy of new photos of the Quattroporte Sport GT S that we haven’t shared with you. To refresh your memory, the Sport GT S is the high-performance flagship model of the Quattroporte range and it was revealed in its facelift form for the first time at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The sportiest Maser saloon is powered by a 4.7-liter V8 engine that produces 433HP. Mechanical updates over the ‘S’ model include revised gearchange mapping, stiffer springs and lower ride height plus a more sonorous sport exhaust.

The Sport GT S version of the Italian firm’s Porsche Panamera rival also features unique styling elements such as the new black grille with red accents and matching black chrome finish around the doors while inside there are new sports seats and a “titanium colored” composite material dashboard trim.

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As the prospective launch date approaches, everyone’s wondering what will become of the upcoming Maserati Spyder. Some big questions remain about what shape the new GranTurismo cabrio will take: will it have four seats, or will the folding top take up the cramped rear quarters? Will it have a soft top like its predecessor, or a hard top like its Ferrari counterpart? Will it offer the 400hp 4.2-liter V8 from the base GranTurismo, or the 435hp 4.7-liter unit from the GranTurismo S? One way or another, sources suggest we’ll find out soon enough, placing it on the road by early next year, with a springtime market launch likely. That means its debut could come as early as the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, or else wait for the Geneva Motor Show in March. Expect the sticker price to come in below the Ferrari California, targeting the likes of the Aston Martin DB9 Volante, Bentley Continental GTC, BMW M6 convertible, Jaguar XKR convertible and Mercedes-Benz SL-Class and at around $130,000.

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Patience is not a virtue of those who are used to going fast. While Maserati just took the wraps off the new GranTurismo MC GT4 racer, deliveries to customer racing teams won’t begin until October. So what’s a team hellbent on racing Tridents in Europe to do in the meantime? Make their own Maserati racer.

A racing squad called Swiss Team is planning on fielding a competition-spec Quattroporte in a local Italian touring car league called the Superstars Series. The format is production-car based, so the final version isn’t expected to look wildly different from the shapely Italian sportsedan we know and love, and the Trident-wielding team will face off against a grid of Audi RS4s, BMW M5s, Jaguar S-Type Rs and Chrysler 300C SRT8s.

Swiss Team has already recruited former F1 driver Andrea Chiesa to pilot the first car, and the outfit plans on fielding a second entry as well. Currently a work in progress, nobody has seen the car yet. What you see above is, of course, just a factory-based rendering – and not a very good one at that – but hopefully when the race-prepped QPorte debuts for the first round of testing later this month, it’ll look every bit the business. Details in the press release after the jump.

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