But North Wales in March was always going to be a high-risk venture if dry air was required. We'll just have to check out the hood for wind noise and water leaks, then. Of the first there's not much, of the second none. Extended top-down driving will have to wait for another day.

And the identity part? Call me pedantic, but I thought a GT had a fixed roof as in, say, the just-superseded Maserati 3200 GT. Now, though, we have the oxymoronic Spyder GT, so named to differentiate it from the Spyder Cambiocorsa ('race change') which has a Ferrari F1-style sequential paddle-shift. 'It's an Italian thing,' says the UK importer.

We've already tried the Spyder Cambiocorsa, whose transmission was co-developed with Britain's Ricardo company. Back in issue 37 we found that the 'box can work well but can also get confused, leading to occasional snatches and clunks. It gets smoother as you learn to drive round its little ways, but you shouldn't have to. Otherwise you might as well have a manual.

Which is what evo is trying now. It saves you ΂£3000 but there's still a hefty ΂£65,750 to spend. The rear-mounted transaxle is the same six-speeder as the Cambiocorsa's, but this time there's a lever cable-linked to it and a clutch pedal to exercise your left foot.

First, though, a quick Spyder recap. It's derived from the 3200 GT, but as well as losing its solid roof it has shrunk by a hefty 220mm in the wheelbase. The bonnet is more bulbous to hide a new engine, the interior loses the rear seats, and the tail loses those distinctive, LED-lit, ultra-slim 'boomerang' tail-lights. The new lenses look very ordinary. Pity.

The suspension has gained a 'Skyhook' continuously-adaptive damper system. Why Skyhook? Is it meant to suggest a ride smoothed as though the Spyder is suspended from a giant hook in the sky? 'Don't ask us,' say Maserati UK's technical experts, 'ask Mannesman-Sachs who designed it.'

And, of course, there is the new 4.2-litre, 390bhp, all-aluminium, dry-sumped V8 engine, designed without turbos, with 'Ferrari F1 experience' and destined (in altered form) for future Ferraris. One alteration would no doubt be to change the crank-throw phasing so the exhaust emits a Ferrari howl rather than the Maserati's proto-V8 throb. But it does sound good. Fantastic, actually.

The manual version of the old 3200 GT could be as close to undriveable as a modern car has been. But Maserati says they varied, and - amazingly - that two-thirds of UK buyers have not taken up the offer of an updated engine management system. The problem was a combination of the drive-by-wire throttle's apparent disconnectedness, turbo lag and a bombastic power surge when the lag ceased. You could stall or you could smoke the tyres, with little in between. Traffic-jamming was a nightmare. No wonder most bought the auto.

Today, all this is but a bad memory. The new engine is a cracker, it does exactly as it's told, and you can drive without the world laughing at your ineptitude. Let it rev and sing to 7000rpm (the peak power speed), or let it pull through slow bends in fourth gear with torque to spare. It does it all, with truly spectacular thrust.

But the manual shift is only partly good. The many slick, light shifts are offset by those - into second, mostly - that get snagged in the sharp-edged gate after you've been spooked by the over-strong spring-biasing. The synchro is unobstructive for a transmission of so much torque capacity, though. Thank the low rotational inertia of a compact twin-plate clutch for that.

Steering and braking feel are also much better than the 3200 GT's, although you still gain more cornering-force information from the seat than the steering wheel. This means it takes time to learn to trust the Spyder in the wet, but ultimately it proves grippy, well-balanced and trustworthy, even in the Skyhook's crisper-responding sport mode in which the standard ASR's threshold is raised. Trepidation becomes confidence, and much fun is had.
And the roof? Well, it moves with electrohydraulic ease, and stows compactly under a cover which justifies the apparent cheapskate-ness of its Plexiglass rear window. This is no Mercedes SL, then. But it's better at stirring the soul.