2004 Maserati Spyder vs. 2005 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster - Chassis & Interior - Sport Convertibles Comparison

An LS2 small-block, naturally, is under the hood of the Corvette, but it's hidden away beneath acres of black plastic. It makes 15 horsepower more than the Maserati's V-8, but then it does displace nigh on 6.0 liters. But don't be fooled into thinking the LS2 is an underachiever: Nail the gas pedal, and you'll instantly access a rich seam of weapons-grade torque that punches the car down the road. A rich boom comes to life as the LS2 fills its lungs and starts working hard. If the soaring Maserati V-8 is Luciano Pavarotti hitting that note in "Nessun Dorma" just before you flick into the next gear up, the Corvette's rumbling LS2 is Paul Robeson's "Ol' Man River": It just keeps rollin' along.

With so much torque on tap--400 pound-feet at 4400 rpm--you could argue the Corvette doesn't need more than a four-speed automatic. If you're just schlepping around town, the 4L65-E Hydra-Matic is a much nicer transmission to live with than the clunky Tremec T56 six-speed manual. Start driving briskly, and the transmission computer pays attention, reprogramming all the shift protocols to ensure maximum performance. It's a great idea in theory, but in reality the transmission sometimes ends up thumping so hard between the widely spaced ratios that it can spit the tail of the car sideways, especially on downshifts, and that sure gets your attention when it happens midcorner.

Away from the ten-tenths world of the test track, the Corvette's chassis is the nicer of the two. It's better balanced and more communicative than the Maserati's; you can place the car much more accurately on the way into corners and use the torque of the LS2 to punch it out harder. The dual-mode magnetic ride control shocks are, frankly, a waste of money--apart from their average performance on the test track, there's not that much difference in ride quality between the touring and sport settings on real-world roads. If you like driving, go for the Z51 package; if you like cruising, stick with the standard suspension and save yourself nearly 1700 bucks.

The Maserati's Cambiocorsa transmission is huge fun if you're a serious driver, but will probably annoy the hell out of those whose idea of pole position is the primo parking spot at the Roxy. And although the Spyder Corsa's leather-lined interior--does anyone do tan hyde as well as the Italians?--looks properly upscale next to the drab black plastic desert of the Corvette, the Maserati's exterior is oddly anonymous. Our red C6 drew plenty of admiring glances and the occasional thumbs up in traffic, but hardly anyone looked twice at the dark gray Spyder.

Want the soft option? Take the Corvette. There's far less shake and shimmy through the steering wheel than in the Maserati, a tribute to the rigidity of the C6 chassis, and the LS2 is ready to go the moment you brush the gas pedal. When you have to put the top up, the Corvette's quieter, too, thanks to the bulkhead that now separates the cabin from the trunk area, one of the C6's major design advances. We're still not convinced it's as well finished as a $50,000-plus car ought to be--things like the ill-fitting fuel-filler flap, the plasticky shifter gate, and the overwhelming aroma of fiberglass when you get into it on a hot day--but this is the better car for cruising top down, for getting noticed, and just taking it easy.