Klaus Busse Details His Latest Droptop Design for Maserati

From its headquarters in Modena, Italy, Maserati recently unveiled its latest car: the GranCabrio. A sleek convertible version of the brand’s GranTurismo model, it embodies both sculptural beauty and unforgettable speed in Trofeo trim, supercharged by modern technology and a design-savvy touch. At once, the eye is drawn to its soft top, available in five color options, which can be automatically stored in just 14 seconds. A functional body mimicking the GranTurismo’s follows, embodying a six-cylinder internal combustion Nettuno engine—a three-liter twin-turbo engine with 542 horsepower. Inside, a gorgeous interior made of sustainable materials by Econyl unfolds, hosting a symphony of sounds by leading Italian sound company Sonus faber. Made entirely in Italy, it comes 65 years after the release of Maserati’s first convertible, the 3500 GT.

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In the decades since, Maserati has joined its storied Italian heritage with global innovations to create multifaceted models that are fit for today. By embracing new technologies, the powerful potential of going all-electric, and the important artisans that hand-shape cars, Maserati continues to balance luxury, performance, and comfort. Klaus Busse, Maserati’s Head of Design, discusses his creative approach to automobile design and how the latest GranCabrio Trofeo doubles down on la dolce vita in an exclusive conversation with DSCENE Magazine contributing editor Eliza Jordan.

You’ve often stated that you’re inspired by the brand’s Italian heritage and history in the automotive industry. How does the new GranCabrio Trofeo embrace that? Does it embody la dolce vita, Italy’s undeniable charm? – I personally own the previous generation, this one’s predecessor. I name all my cars, and this one is “Essence” because that’s what it is. It’s really the essence of the brand. It’s the essence of living in Italy and spending a weekend relaxing. Of course, you can keep the roof closed and keep it quiet, almost the same as if you had the coupe. But this car is like a weekend getaway. And when you drive the Cabrio, you’re much more connected with the world around you. In Italy, we are blessed with beautiful weather and such beautiful scenery—the mountains, the lakes, the wine region. I like to drive it open and enjoy this wonderful world we’re living in.

And when you drive in the city or a village, passing by a café, and you hear people shout, “Maserati! Maserati!” you feel more connected with them than if you’re locked in the coupe. [Laughs]

This car is like a weekend getaway. And when you drive the Cabrio, you’re much more connected with the world around you.

And in 14 seconds, the roof can be retracted and stored at the push of a button. That’s quite fast! – Yes. The benchmark is the stop of the traffic light. You can do it while driving, but normally, you want to do it while you’re still. Instead of having to pull over because it takes so long or being stuck at the green light with a half-open roof, we’ve made the transition fast. You can stop at a traffic light, open and close it, and go on with the drive.

It features the Nettuno engine—the most powerful ever built for the Maserati GranTurismo. Why was using this engine important? – The Nettuno engine is a super important product. It’s completely designed in-house by our engineers in Modena. It comes in different performance packages. We have one version of it in the GranTurismo, a more powerful version in the MC20 supercar, and an even more powerful version in the MCXtrema hypercar—the same engine with different power steps. To highlight what a marvel it is, in its most powerful form, it delivers the same as the MC12 hypercar, a championship car with a V12 engine twice the size. The Nettuno is half the size of the V12 and delivers the same performance. It also has Formula 1 technology inside, which is super important because it connects us to our roots—born from racing. When we built the first GranTurismo in 1947, the idea was to take the chassis of a racer car and put this beautiful body on top. That still holds up because this is a Formula 1 technology engine clad in this beautiful cloth of an Italian sculpture.

Speaking of racing, Maserati has been competing with its driver, Maximilian Günther, and regularly placing in the top ten—at races this year, like the Tokyo E-Prix, the São Paulo E-Prix, and the Diriyah E-Prix. Is it important for Maserati to stay on an actual racetrack? Why? – Yes! We’re off to a good season and are optimistic about this year. This is only our second season, and the first was fantastic—which is rare. It’s great because we learn a lot about what happens on the track—not so much with engines anymore, because it’s electric—but about the software and how you deliver and control the power. We’ve been able to move a lot of that know-how into the production of our Folgore cars and, of course, the GranCabrio Folgore, which is electric. You can experience an amazing technology transfer in how we control the power that gets to the wheels. An immense amount of power needs to be distributed, so this is important for us to study.

Maserati’s first convertible, the 3500 GT, was unveiled at the 1959 Geneva Motor Show. How have we seen convertibles evolve since then? – Throughout history, we’ve had some of the most gorgeous convertibles on the road, like the 1966 Ghibli. However, the 3500 GT exemplifies these beautiful ‘50s and early ‘60s cars—an extremely elegant design era. Of course, with the Ghibli, the cars became dandier. In the ‘70s, they were more innovative with this wedge shape. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, they were a little more Brutalist. Then, since the 2000s, they’ve been a bit more romantic. All these Cabrios we’ve released in these eras really resemble that period of design in Italy and worldwide.

But the 3500 is an amazing car for proportion, as is today’s car, the GranTurismo. We design the way we think about the proportion of the car, moving things around so the car has a beautiful balance. In reality, the proportions are the result of the technology underneath. The technology in Maserati is designed to deliver ultimate performance. When you look at a Maserati, the way it’s proportioned is always an answer to a performance challenge.

Like a good tailored suit and an elegantly designed car like ours, we want to amplify you, your senses, and who you are.

The reason our cars are so well-proportioned today is because of that super compact engine and how we can then keep the car super, super low. But with the convertible, it’s interesting because when you look at Maserati in the ‘50s and ‘60s, we were building cars for kings, queens, and movie stars. When you open them up, you give up that shield. Not only does the world come into your car, but you’re more visible. You have this beautiful vehicle, and the driver is exposed to both worlds. But that’s a wonderful thing because of the way we design our cars—so they do not overpower you. When you drive one of our products, people will see you, and it will amplify you; it won’t overpower you. The design and color—nothing will be too overpowering. In fashion, it’s the same thing. When you walk down the street, someone might not even see you because they’re looking at all the logos. But like a good tailored suit and an elegantly designed car like ours, we want to amplify you, your senses, and who you are.

Your designs at Maserati lack neither performance nor personality. How do you approach balancing design and functionality? – For many years, we were known and maybe “only” known for classical elements like leather, wood, craftsmanship, and carbon fiber. We felt it was time to take it to another place and bring in innovation and leading technology. We have examples where we bring in new technology for the customer’s benefit to try to resolve a problem, like the shape of our screens or interiors made with Econyl, which only existed in luxury fashion accessories, never a car. Our collaboration with Sonus faber is another example. For the third year in a row, we’ve won best sound system in a car—first in the MC20, then in the Grecale, and now in the GranTurismo. That’s a way to innovate and bring cutting-edge technology in.

It’s about finding the right balance of the opposites and bringing them together. We also carefully take time to locate those pieces of innovation, like the screen. It’s ergonomic and at the perfect place for your hand to fall. In other cars, screens are very high up, constantly distracting you with visual animation. In the Carbio, you especially want to drive and enjoy what’s outside—you don’t want to be distracted by animations on the screen. We use technology for what’s relevant at the moment, but never to distract you.

This convertible also follows in the footsteps of the GranTurismo by being entirely made in Italy. Why is this focus on 100% regional production important to you? – In our global marketplace, customers today have incredible choices, so why purchase a Maserati? First, it’s for the product offering itself. We are one of the few brands that offer this idea of GranTurismo—not the name, but the concept. Meaning, I could go downstairs, enter my Maserati, start it, and drive comfortably and in style all the way to Norway.

Perhaps a few other brands can do that, so it’s about differentiating ourselves from our friends in other countries. That’s the country factor. When you look at these brands, you can see in their product that they represent their country. I think that’s wonderful in this product sphere. There’s a reason why people travel to Italy. You take memories with you that only Italy can give. Our job is to convey that in beautiful engineering and design. I’m from Germany, but I’ve lived here for nine years and fully embraced and lived this Italian life. It’s about the daily accessible beauty. The emotion that only Italy can give you. Combining this incredible product offering—that only a few brands worldwide offer—and the Italian emotions makes us unique without competition.

The future of luxury demands more transparency and sustainability. How have these elements impacted Maserati’s decision to go electric? – This might sound weird, but we went into electrification for performance. Sustainability is a beautiful second part of the story. We’re going fully electric by 2030 because we’re going from a propeller plane to a jet plane. You can still improve the propeller plane by 1%, but if you want to take that next step to deliver performance and power, you need to go jet.

We didn’t do it earlier because electrification didn’t have what we had in mind. It existed, but it just wasn’t good enough. We’re now in this position where the technology is at the right point for us to embrace it, put it in our cars, and go to the next level.

What is possible now that wasn’t possible before? – The performance. The range, the horsepower, and the weight. At the end of the day, you still want to be able to take the car to the track. It’s such an important part of our product. When you drive the electric GranTurismo, it’s mind-blowing. Our engineers have packaged the batteries in the central spine of the car and not underneath the seats, which usually forces you to sit higher. When they’re under the seats, that also means heavy batteries are outside the car, which isn’t good for handling. Our engineers packaged the batteries in the spine to keep the perfect weight balance, and the lessons learned from the software were where to move the 750 horsepower—individually to the wheels, to the back, or fixed on the four wheels? At this moment, with the breakthroughs in software and battery power management, Maserati said yes to electrification.

Maserati has plans to go fully electric by 2030. What is the brand doing now to ensure that happens? – Right now, we’re offering the choice. It’s a beautiful time of debate. Some customers really like that combustion engine, and we still sell it because it’s a masterpiece of combustion engine technology. But with the electric, people will see it’s even more incredible.

My rule as a designer is this: Electrification means a lot of opportunity. No matter which period of Maserati design we were in—the elegant or the Brutalist time—the overall shape of our product was always determined by the underlying performance. The Ghibli had a long hood for the engine in the front. It was not a designer who came up with that, but the underlying platform dictating and creating it. Then, in 1971, when we put the engine in the back of the car, suddenly the proportion changed because you no longer needed the long hood. Those are a few examples of how performance really dictates the shape of the car.

But with electrification, we’re at a moment where the underlying performance platform can’t influence the car’s design. We have much more liberty because we aren’t dealing with this big block of an engine that either has to go in the front or the back. We’re dealing with batteries that are spread throughout the car. Many cars have a platform that goes underneath and forces the seats up, but in our case, we keep our batteries inside, which keeps our car low. I’m extremely proud of how our engineers are packaging batteries to develop this stunning driving performance.

Today’s evolving technology is changing a lot in the industry—from utilizing batteries over engines to creating new jobs. What is AI’s potential role in the automobile industry’s evolution? – Just like electrification, we have a new tool available. If you look back at some of Maserati’s designs, you can see the technology reflected in the design. The tools the designers gave them certain possibilities but also certain limitations. In the 1950s and ‘60s, many cars were made like architectural drafts. They were designed from a side view on a Canson paper. Then, Vellum paper was developed in the U.S. and Europe. The cars were then much more sculptural because of the airbrush shading effects you could create on Vellum. Suddenly, in the late 1990s, cars became more round again. That influenced the design because of how designers could visualize their ideas.

Finally, you have Photoshop, and it’s the age of what I call “quantum design,” meaning the design can co-exist in multiple stages. If I wanted to do a Vellum paper rendering, it would take me 8–12 hours, a full day. If I show that to my boss, they don’t have to ask if I’m serious about that design because it took me ten hours to create it. Now, with Photoshop, there can be tons of layers, and young designers can say, “Do you want it with this? Or this? Or that?” and switch layers on and off. We have to teach them to self-curate and be in control of what they really want to do. So, with AI, self-curation has become even more important. At the end of the day, you really need to understand what you want to do. AI is very interesting, but it’s also a mirror of ourselves. It goes to the web and comes back with the most probable answer. It’s based on what we humans have already put out on the web. It’s the same for design—it picks the best of what humans have created so far.

We’re from Italy, so there’s a lot done by hand. And we still sculpt the car by hand, as Michelangelo did. That’s our heritage. We need to be mindful that we don’t lose that human touch.

We’re not yet at a point where AI can create something groundbreaking and new. It comes down to the creativity of the prompts and is a mirror of what has existed so far. It’s not yet—and I say “yet”—at a point where AI truly creates the car. It’s still just a tool.

We need to ask ourselves if our customers are interested in a product designed by a machine or a human. We’re from Italy, so there’s a lot done by hand. And we still sculpt the car by hand, as Michelangelo did. That’s our heritage. We need to be mindful that we don’t lose that human touch.

Originally published in DSCENE Magazine’s “Line, Form, Space” Design Issue.

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