It may seem odd to buy a car and then try not to drive it, but that’s what I’ve been attempting (but singularly failing to do) this month with the GranTurismo. I lay the blame for this failure squarely on Maserati for creating one of the most usable coupes on the market. It’s the combination of comfy cabin, slick auto gearbox and a split-personality engine that’s just as happy pottering about town as it is sling-shotting past dawdlers on a typical UK B-road.

Just two cars have tempted me to leave the Maser in the car park this month. One was our Grand Challenge contender, the Lexus Soarer, purely to prove it still worked, and the other was Maserati’s GranTurismo press car.

Maserati had kindly offered their car for a few days while a few niggles were sorted out on my own GranTurismo.