Just got back from a factory tour

I spent the last 10 days touring France and Italy in my 4200 Coupe (this is a great car to tour with - 2000 miles, a lot of high speed and no problems). While visiting Modena, Maserati kindly arranged a factory tour for me and my wife. Wow, what a place. We had a personal tour with their ex Export Manager (for Aus) who was great. It was unhurried and he was very knowledgeable. What surprised me was the extent of testing at each stage through to EVERY car having a 70km road test with one of their 14 test drivers. Also, every engine that arrives from Ferrari is bench tested for about an hour - including time at its max revs. They then balance each engine on site using a machine that drills out metal from specific areas of the clutch assembly. It was also surprising to see the lack of automation - these cars really are hand built.
One interesting thing - I picked up that they expect to finish building the current Spyder soon! Couldn't draw them on what replaces it.