Three grand tourers, one road built for exactly this kind of driving rather than borrowed for it. Juliana picked the Continental GT before Ron finished parking the Roma — she’d already decided this test was about comfort at speed, not lap-time bragging rights, and she wanted the car built around that idea from the ground up.
The middle road, and why it’s the right one for grand tourers
Above Monaco, three coastal roads run roughly parallel: the low Corniche hugging the shoreline, the dramatic high Grande Corniche cut into the cliff face, and between them, the Moyenne Corniche — built starting in the 1910s, threading through the medieval village of Èze and the Roman ruins at La Turbie. It’s the one Alfred Hitchcock chose for the chase and cruise scenes in To Catch a Thief, not by accident: fast enough to feel like a real drive, civilized enough that a grand tourer’s comfort actually matters, with Mediterranean views that don’t demand the driver’s full attention the way the Grande Corniche’s tighter drops do.
Three drivers, three different ideas of what a grand tourer should be. Ron takes the Ferrari Roma, still the newest and most explicitly driver-focused of the three. Juliana claims the Bentley Continental GT, arguing that “grand touring” should mean the car does more of the work over distance, not less. The Maserati GranTurismo Modena goes to whoever’s narrating — a car this fleet currently books out of Milan and Rome, not Monaco, which is worth saying plainly before anyone assumes otherwise.
The numbers, for anyone who wants them before the story
| Ferrari Roma | Bentley Continental GT | Maserati GranTurismo Modena | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | 4 | 4 | ~4 |
| Engine | 3.9L twin-turbo V8 | 6.0L twin-turbo W12 | 3.0L twin-turbo V6 |
| Horsepower | 620 hp | 626 hp | ~490 hp |
| 0–100 km/h | 3.4 sec | 3.7 sec | ~3.9 sec |
| Top speed | 320 km/h | 333 km/h | ~302 km/h |
| Rental (per day) | ~€1,800 | ~€1,700 | ~€900 |
| Drivetrain | RWD | AWD | AWD |
The GranTurismo Modena’s horsepower figure is Maserati’s own published number for the Nettuno V6, not a fleet-verified figure — this fleet’s listing has no spec data attached at all, only the confirmation that the car exists in Milan and Rome. Everything marked with ”~” is hedged the same way.
First stint: Nice to Èze, where the road decides who’s right
The Roma went first, and Ron’s case built itself through the village approach into Èze — a front-engine V8 that turns in lighter than its grand-touring badge suggests, RWD balance that rewards a driver who’s paying attention through the tighter switchbacks below the medieval town. “This is still a Ferrari,” Ron said over the radio. “Comfortable doesn’t mean it forgot what it is.”
Juliana’s Continental GT came through the same stretch differently — noticeably planted through the same corners on the W12’s extra weight and AWD grip, but where it made its case was the long straight sections between villages: a cabin that stays hushed at a pace where the Roma starts working audibly, four genuinely usable seats, and a sense that the car was built by people who assumed the drive might be four hours, not forty minutes. “This is the one you’d actually want after Nice, not just through it,” she said.
Second stint: La Turbie to Monaco, and the Modena’s case
The GranTurismo Modena came down last, into the final descent toward Monaco with the harbor and the Rock coming into view below. It split the difference in a way neither of the other two quite managed — lighter than the Bentley, calmer than the Roma, a genuinely competent AWD grand tourer that would have been a serious contender in this test if it were bookable here at all. That’s the honest complication with this one: on the numbers alone it undercuts both rivals on price by a wide margin, and the drive backs up the idea that it deserves to be cross-shopped seriously — just not, currently, out of Monaco.
A bit of context on each car
The Ferrari Roma remains the most explicitly driver-focused car of the three despite the grand-tourer badge — Ferrari built it as the answer to “what if a daily-usable Ferrari still felt like one.”
The Bentley Continental GT is the hand-finished, W12-powered flagship of Bentley’s GT line — AWD, four genuinely usable seats, and a cabin built around distance rather than lap times.
The Maserati GranTurismo Modena is the entry point into Maserati’s current GT lineup, built around the Nettuno V6 the brand also uses in the MC20 — a real engineering pedigree even where the fleet listing itself is thin.
Practical considerations
The Moyenne Corniche is a public road shared with local traffic and village pedestrian crossings through Èze — not a closed circuit, and best driven with that in mind, especially at the village approach. Both the Roma and Continental GT are confirmed available out of Monaco and the French Riviera; the GranTurismo Modena, as noted, currently is not.
Our call: the Ferrari Roma. On a road that rewards precision as much as comfort, Ron’s pick edges it — lighter, more alive through the tighter sections, still recognizably a Ferrari despite the grand-tourer badge. Choose the Bentley Continental GT if the drive is genuinely long and comfort matters more than outright feel; the Maserati GranTurismo Modena is worth watching for anyone hoping this fleet adds Monaco availability.
Both confirmed cars are standalone rentals out of Monaco and the French Riviera — a separate booking from the Supercars Rally Monaco, which drives this same stretch of coast as part of its own route. Get in touch and we’ll set one up.