Novitec Tridente spools up the Maserati GranCabrio

To wit, when Maserati launched the droptop a few years back, it opted to skip the 400-horsepower V8 from the base GranTurismo and go straight for the more powerful 4.7 with its 434 prancing stallions (the engine is, after all, made by Ferrari). As if that weren't enough,power was upped to a solid 450 with the GranCabrio Sport, just unveiled last month in Geneva. But for those who think that still isn't enough, there's Novitec Tridente.

The Maserati tuning division of the German tuning house, Novitec Tridente has turned its attention to the GranCabrio – known in North America as the GranTurismo Convertible – with a series of upgrades. The most prominent of them is a supercharger, which, along with the intercooler and ECU remap, drives output up to a prodigious 590 horsepower and 422 pound-feet of torque.

There's also a stainless steel exhaust, sport suspension, upgraded rolling stock and a carbon fiber aero kit with front splitter, rear apron, bootlid spoiler and side skirts. The entire conversion will set you back $28,000 on top of the $136k purchase price of a new GranTurismo Convertible, and is claimed to up the top speed to 187 mph, hitting 0-62 in 4.5 seconds from a standstill. But with that much muscle, we wouldn't be surprised if that were the understatement that this exotic Italian cabriolet is most certainly not.