BRITONS have a legendary love affair with sports cars and few are as all-consuming as that for the Maserati GranCabrio Sport.

The head-turning 2+2 GranCabrio is the open-topped version of the coupe Gran Turismo and the Sport has the more powerful of the available engines.

The UK is the leading European market for Maserati and third worldwide behind the USA and China.

Britain even comfortably outpaces Maserati's native Italian market. Last year no fewer than 199 Maserati Coupes and 97 Convertibles were registered here as well as 13 Quattroporte models. Over 90 per cent of them were Sport variants.

The GranCabrio Sport is a big, traditionally engineered, Italian sports car with a beefy V8  driving the rear wheels through a highly sophisticated automatic transmission. It's all clothed in an elegantly sweeping, curvaceous body topped with an electrically folding fabric hood.

The size of the GranCabrio immediately impresses and few cars are as intimidating when the bared-teeth grille appears in a mirror moments before it overtakes.

The 4.7 litre V8 has a distinctive engine note when started, a deep rumble which gradually develops into a roar as the revs are raised. Fire-up and you just know the fireworks are about to begin.

The sophisticated six-speed transmission is seamless in operation no matter how hard you push on and, for added refinement, you can use the paddle selectors on the column to move up or down the box, with the change points selectable for dynamic or winter modes as well. It is impressively simple and simply impressive.

Power delivery is immediate, strong and smooth. The GranCabrio accelerates very rapidly and purposefully from rest or at intermediate speeds and its motorway cruising ability is effectively a dawdle. Top speed is a heart-stopping beat below180mph.

The size of the engine and the gearing make it a very tractable, even docile, car if you wish to drive it in such a manner and its flexibility and smoothness were revealed in a surprisingly good 19mpg overall on test. It is one of the very few cars we have driven that actually returned the ‘stated' combined fuel figure.

Whether you are driving slowly in town or more enthusiastically touring through countryside, you cannot fail to be impressed by the weighted but precise steering and its agility and feedback.

Equally impressive are the immensely powerful but beautifully balanced disc-brakes which haul it down from speed with little effort but a lot of effect. The electronic parking brake held it on the steepest slope we could find.

Secondary controls around the column or spread over the fascia seem ideally placed for immediate location and use and the big, clear instruments permit instant feedback.

For an open topped car the climate control is very effective, bathing the cabin in warm air while your hair is ruffled by the wind. Close the roof in a few seconds and the interior becomes very cosy. Powered windows operate quickly and quietly.

The hood when closed does restrict what you can see over your shoulder or when reversing but parking sensors are standard and necessary.

Drop the hood and it folds away under a tonneau cover to give a flat surface and visibility to the sides and front is good. Big wipers and very powerful, far reaching headlights are excellent in bad weather, and we had a lot of this on our test.

Climbing into the GranCabrio is very easy. If a child or teenager needs to go into the back, touching the front seat release moves it forward to give a few more inches access space and, with the hood up, rear seat headroom is fair even if the legroom is tight.

Driver and passenger get excellent access and have a lot of adjustment room and settings on their seats. Head and legroom up-front is very good. All the seats are deeply shaped, supportive and very comfortable.

This is a car which is meant for that holiday grand tour, although you might have to think carefully about your luggage. The hood compartment does cut into the boot space and its maximum of 173 litres translates into about one large case or two smaller ones and some soft bags.

Noise levels are surprisingly low. There is a rumble from the big wheels and tyres and that wonderful engine note intrudes in a delightful way unless you hold down the gears, when its sound hits a crescendo.

The more you drive the Maserati GranCabrio, the more you appreciate a surprising element of its engineering. For a car weighing nearly 2,000kg it handles with surprising agility and responsiveness so it can be accurately and repeatedly placed through a series of sweeping curves and it sticks to the tarmac irrespective of the bumps and dips underneath.

Shocks are soaked up and you never feel the car is unsettled or put off line. There is a natural tendency for the nose to run wide on winding roads but it's all very well contained and controllable with very high levels of grip and throttle response.

For sheer presence on the road, there is little to touch the Maserati GranCabrio. It looks and behaves very impressively, it's performance is truly outstanding in so many ways and its rarity value cannot be undervalued.

No wonder so many British enthusiasts love their Italian automotive affair.