Maserati Ghibli

Words

John Simister

Photography Magic Car Pics

Viable and less demanding than its Ferrari rivals, plaything to the stars in period and rare enough to be truly desirable today, this V8 Italian is said to be the most precious of the attainable Mistral-onwards Maseratis

WHAT DOES ‘GHIBLI’ MEAN to you? Probably some sort of Maserati; maybe the current underwhelming saloon that people don’t buy instead of a BMW, or a dimly remembered but rather hot variant of the Biturbo family that was Maserati’s last gasp at survival before falling into the arms of Fiat.

Or – cue the relief and the fond recognition – the car seen here: the original Ghibli, unveiled at the 1966 Turin Motor Show. It was the viable and less demanding Ferrari alternative, the plaything of Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra, Peter Sellers and suchlike – rather wonderful, but largely forgotten outside the minds of the cognoscenti. With around 1274 made up to 1973, it was never exactly commonplace.

Or maybe ‘Ghibli’, to many, just means a particular desert wind encountered in the north of Africa. This got its name long before any cars did, as did other such blasts labelling fellow Maseratis. That said, we automotive enthusiasts tend to know of these winds only via their application to car models. That’s certainly how I discovered, via the motoring press, what a Ghibli originally was.

Some measure of the emotive value placed upon the title by its automotive custodian is that only one other past Maserati name has been re-used for later models: Quattroporte, for the saloons (nowadays, the larger ones). But another of the marque’s monikers reappeared elsewhere a while ago, on a saloon version of Volkswagen’s Mk4 Golf known as the Bora.

That’s a digression too far from the subject of this guide, so let’s meet the angular but sleek coupé that was shaped by Giorgetto Giugiaro while he was working, post-Bertone, for Ghia. Notionally the Ghibli replaced the Mistral, a Frua design, but it turned out that the two cars occupied the same price lists right up to 1970 as Maserati continued its custom of offering more models at a given time than the market really needed. This habit led to the Orsi family, owners of the Maserati company since 1937, selling out to Citroën in 1968. (De Tomaso would be the next custodian; then, finally, Fiat.)

Beneath their various designhouse clothes, however, the Maseratis that bookended the first Ghibli era were quite similar. The model’s chassis was of much the same oval-tube construction as found under a 3500 Sebring, a Mistral, or the Khamsin that supplanted the Ghibli, and the running gear – suspension, steering, brakes, rear axle – was standard British-sourced fare of the time. The engine, however, was a step beyond the 250F-related straight-six that powered the Ghibli’s antecedents.

It was an aluminium-block V8 with twin-cam aluminium heads, and it shared some genes with both the racing 450S unit and that of the super-scarce 5000 GT (34 cars, bodied by seven different carrozzerie). However, much of it was re-engineered for its new, more worldly role, and it gained dry-sump lubrication for a low bonnet line.

As launched, the engine was of 4719cc and generated 310bhp. Two years later, in 1969, a longer-stroke but still oversquare unit with 4930cc, 335bhp and a hefty torque increase powered the new Ghibli SS, known internally as AM115/49 instead of plain AM115. That same year the notionally 2+2 coupé was joined by a Spyder, a far rarer car of which a mere 125 were made compared with 1149 coupés. It was offered with both engine options. Also optional, in both body shapes, was a three-speed BorgWarner Type 35 auto transmission in place of the usual five-ratio ZF manual. More usefully, a powerassisted ZF steering box could be specified instead of the standard unassisted Burman one, while airconditioning was standard but could be deleted. And, if you insisted, you could have wire wheels in place of the standard magnesium alloy Campagnolo ones. Few did. Early rims of both types were splined knock-ons, later ones were bolt-on.

Whatever the specificational nuances, though, the rakishly handsome, plushly furnished and enticingly rapid Ghibli is a bit of a star among the slightly bewildering array of 1960s and ’70s Maseratis. But how feasible, or sensible, is having one in your garage? And is it really as exotic as it looks? That’s what we’re about to find out.

The Value Proposition

The notion that the Ghibli is the most precious of the attainable Mistral-onwards Maseratis of the Orsi and Citroën eras – the ‘wind’ cars, if you like – is bolstered by the values recorded for them today. The older-school Mistral itself lags just behind in market worth, and so does even the ultra-cool midengined Bora, with similar V8 power to the Ghibli’s. As for the Khamsin, Indy, Kyalami, Quattroportes and V6-powered Merak, they are much less valuable than our covetable subject’s.

That’s just in the Ghibli’s coupé guise. A Spyder is typically worth three times as much as an otherwise similarly specced, similar-condition coupé, making its chips the bluest of all. And what is also clear from the Hagerty Price Guide is that the year of the Ghibli is immaterial; it’s the condition, the engine size and the bodystyle that matter.

So, what are the numbers? A 4.7-litre coupé typically starts at around £173,000 for a ‘fair’ one, rising to £190,000 if ‘good’, £203,000 if ‘excellent’ and £230,000 – not a huge leap – for a ‘concours’ example. A 4.9-litre SS is going to be proportionally more expensive the further up the condition scale we go: £190,000

ABOVE Angular yet sleek coupé was shaped by Giugiaro while he was working for Ghia.

‘fair’, £215,000 ‘good’, £248,000 ‘excellent’ and £289,000 for the best.

These are valuable cars, then, but not crazily so by comparison with, say, a Ferrari Daytona, which is an obvious competitor. For the Spyder, though, the air is altogether more rarefied. Even a needy 4.7 will require an outlay of around £524,000, rising to £664,000 for a near-perfect one at home on a concours lawn, while a Spyder SS could demand up to £730,000 in a similar state of gorgeousness. Even a tatty one, if such a thing exists, isn’t far off £600,000 in value.

All that said, Ghiblis – as with many covetable classics – are a little down on where they were at their peak. In the US, that peak occurred as 2018 shifted into 2019, at which point the best coupés hit $320,000: Spyders, $912,000. That is 560 percent of 2006 values for the coupé and 460 percent for the Spyder. Be aware, though, that some coupés – expert Andy Heywood, who’ll be imparting his wisdom to us shortly, reckons 15-20 examples – were converted to Spyders, at least six of them in the UK by Vale Cottage Motors. In Italy the conversions were via Campana, and in the US a kit of required parts was available. Coupés have even chassis numbers and Spyders odd ones, which can give a clue to a prospective Spyder’s provenance. We’ve said that the model year doesn’t affect values, and there’s also no concrete data on the effect of various options. An auto ’box is likely to make a car less attractive to the average enthusiast buyer, however, while power steering could be a plus for any prospective owner needing to manoeuvre the Maserati in and out of parking spaces. There were minor cosmetic changes over the years, too.

One of the first was to the bootlid, the only aluminium panel on an otherwise steel car. The initial few Ghiblis had a ‘long’ ’lid, whose

From Hagerty Price Guide

Maserati Ghibli condition 1/concours (UK)

Maserati Ghibli condition 1/concours (US)

Timeline

1966 Ghibli coupé revealed on Ghia stand at Turin Motor Show in November, with no mention of 2+2 layout.

1967 Deliveries begin in March, with optional rear cushions to merit 2+2 capability of sorts.

1968 Coupé’s most successful year, with 276 built.

1969

Ghibli SS – with /49 added to AM115 Ghibli designation to denote engine stroked by 4mm to raise capacity from 4.7 to 4.9 litres – launched as extra model. As well as increase from 310bhp to 335bhp, torque rises from 290lb ft to 354lb ft. New Spyder has both engine options.

1970

Just under half (62) of total Spyder production of 125 built this year.

1973 vertical part extended down nearly to the bumper. However, the promise of easy loading was but an illusion, because a fixed vertical strengthening panel was revealed on opening the boot, over which bags had to be lifted. The bootlid was soon redesigned to terminate above the level of the rear lights. These, originally taken from Alfa’s 105-series Giulia, later changed to larger items from the 1750 Berlina. The rest of the exterior barely altered over the run apart from the bumper overriders, originally an option. Later rear ones are chunkier.

Production ends in this energy-crisis year, during which no Spyders and only five coupés are built.

Things evolved a bit more inside. There are three subtly different dash variations, first with a row of toggle switches under the central minor dials, then with the toggles moved above the dials, and finally with rockers under the dials again.

Later left-hand-drive cars have three stalks on a height-adjustable steering column, but all right-handdrive models have the earlier single stalk and fixed-height column. Instruments changed from early Smiths to later Veglia, the cabin door handles moved from the bottom of the panel to the middle, and later US-spec cars got a leather steering wheel (instead of a wooden rim) with a bigger centre boss.

The Desirability Factor

The main attraction is obvious enough. This is one good-looking grand tourer, from its low, chromeoutlined nose with pop-up lights, past its long, curvy bonnet and rearset cabin, to the fastback, choppedoff tail. The beginnings of Giugiaro’s ‘origami’ look are here, but fleshed out with convex curves and some subtle surface twists to catch out body restorers a few decades later.

The Ghibli’s shape oozes discreet muscularity without the need for attention-grabbing spoilers and vents; just quadruple horizontal slots behind the front wheelarches and recessed air extractors atop the rear haunches behind the upwardly angled side windows. Now lower yourself into the Ghibli’s leather-clad, seemingly almost ground-level driving seat, peering over the Alcantara-topped dashboard and the bonnet falling away into the distance.

I’m sitting in a delicious lefthand-drive 1969 Ghibli SS in light metallic blue, on offer at [Bill] McGrath Maserati (now owned by Andy Heywood) for £195,000. From our value analysis here, it’s surely worth more; maybe it’s the LHD factor in a RHD market – but then, only 14 RHD SS models came to the UK in period, four of them Spyders. And 13 4.7s, incidentally – all of them coupés.

To my right in this middle-era dash is that row of toggle switches above the five minor dials, all rakishly pointing not up but towards me. A hefty, precisely acting gearlever with the dog-leg gate typical of an early ZF five-speeder pokes out of a wide centre tunnel. The pedals are huge. Meaningful inputs are expected here.

Behind me, the two-plus-two bit is a truth-stretcher. There’s no rear backrest, just an open space back into the boot, and the two cushions are rare options. There is further storage beneath the carpeted board on which the cushions sit.

The V8’s crankshaft gives 90degree firing intervals, so its voice is a rat-a-tat beat rather than the scream of a flat-crank Ferrari V8. It’s a busy blatter at lower engine speeds, and a chopped blare when revved with vigour; the SS’s peak power arrives at 5500rpm, the peak torque of 355lb ft at 4000rpm. These outputs lead to a claimed 160mph top speed, 60mph having been passed six seconds after a full-bore standing start. The 4.7 is only a little less rapid all-out, but a second or so slower to 60mph.

In other words, the SS was one of the quickest cars of its era. Not the wieldiest, though, despite being quite light by modern standards at 1350kg. With its leaf-sprung live rear axle and old-school steering box, a Ghibli is never going to be an instrument of instant precision, but it will give plenty of pleasure.

“It feels quite old fashioned,” says Heywood, “but it’s fast and you don’t have to rev it hard. It handles really well on a smooth road, yet the rear hops a bit on a bumpy bend. It’s one of those cars that you ‘set up for a corner’. And yes, it feels lighter to drive than a Daytona.”

The Nuts And Bolts

First, the obvious question when an old Italian car is involved: how scared should we be of corrosion? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is not very. The Ghibli’s separate chassis, in which rot is rare, has the body welded to it. It’s in this body that the problems might lie.

Andy Heywood cites the sills, floorpans, door bottoms, arches and double skin at the front of the bonnet as potential troublespots, which all sounds quite normal. “On a bad one there could be rot where the floor joins the rear valance,” he adds, “and maybe electrolytic corrosion between steel and aluminium in the bootlid. Spyders fill up with water, too.”

It’s a tough body to restore well, with all those seemingly straight lines that actually aren’t. Where the flank dihedral meets the rear wheelarch swage is particularly difficult to get right; if the dihedral goes right to the vertical arch edge, it’s wrong. There’s also a subtle hump to the tops of the front wings. History gives some wriggle room, though: “We see more variance in the shape of Ghiblis than in other Maseratis,” Heywood observes. Early bodies were built at Ghia, later ones by other carrozzerie –Maggiora? Vignale? Records are unclear – to the original Ghia design.

The V8 – handsome, powerful and expensive looking as it is – has proven tough and very reliable as long as it has had regular oil and coolant changes. “It runs at a high oil pressure,” says Heywood. “It should be 80psi when hot, with idling pressure at least 20psi. The

The Details

1967-73 MASERATI GHIBLI ENGINE V8, 4OHC 16V, 4719CC (SS 4930CC)

POWER 310BHP (SS 335BHP)

TOP SPEED 155MPH (SS 160MPH)

0-60MPH 6.8SEC (SS 6.0SEC) electric pressure gauge is unreliable, so it’s best to check the figures with a mechanical gauge. If the pressure drops as you drive off, it could be due to a blocked oil tank.

“The cylinder liners are an interference fit in the block, but there could be head-gasket issues through corrosion if the antifreeze hasn’t been changed regularly. The engines like to be used regularly; we do more motor rebuilds through inactivity than over-activity.”

Very early Ghiblis had dummy holes for an absent second spark plug above each cylinder before the head castings were changed, a legacy from the V8 ancestors’ twinplug combustion chambers. They also used a quartet of Weber 40 DCNL carburettors, changed to 42 DCNFs in late 1968 in time for the SS’s arrival. Simple electronic ignition was standard in all cars, keeping the contact-breaker points. A Marelli system was later replaced by a Bosch capacitive-discharge one. “They run better on points,” contends Heywood. “Many cars have been converted to contactless systems over the years, but now that the Bosch boxes are available again, we’ve been changing them back.”

Early cars had a “very heavy” twin-plate clutch and solid front brake discs gripped by twin calipers, but most have now been converted to the later single-plate clutch, ventilated discs and single calipers. Electrics, which are generally reliable, are mostly Italian with smatterings of Lucas, while also from Britain come the rear axle (Salisbury), the non-PAS steering box (Burman) and the front suspension (Alford and Alder, mostly Jaguar derived).

The weak point here is the lower balljoint, a Jaguar Mk1 item used from the 3500 Sebring right through to the Khamsin. Jaguar, having discovered the component’s rapid rate of wear and the resultant loud rattling, uprated the design for its 1959 Mk2. Maserati stuck with the original. “They are supposed to be greased every 1500km,” says Heywood, “but obviously that doesn’t happen.” So, listen for those rattles.

Finally, take a look at the waterpump drive, if only to marvel at its strangeness. The air-con pump is mounted on the front of the engine. The water pump sits in front of it, but there’s a gap between the two. Drive to the water pump is by a tangential tension cable between the pair, with a safety peg to create a reserve connection if the cable breaks – which it will if the two pumps aren’t perfectly concentric. No air-con? There will be a simple shaft instead, but the cable drive remains.

The Final Decision

There is something subversively and deliciously under the radar about a Maserati Ghibli. Anyone can see it looks fabulous, fewer know exactly what it is, yet fewer have driven one. Given the low production numbers, it’s a very rare delight today.

So, should you succumb?

The doubts as to the Ghibli’s true exoticism centre around its unsophisticated and utterly conventional chassis componentry, but then the same is true of some 1960s Ferraris. The aluminium V8 motor, the pace, the jet-set cabin design and, most of all, those looks put a hefty opposite voltage into the desirometer. If you can find a really good example – and they very much do exist – then buy it and love the way it makes you feel. A coupé is both purer in concept and less expensive, and we certainly prefer its fastback looks. And best to go for an SS if you can, for extra pace with no downside. A Maserati Ghibli. In a world of sensibility, you know it makes sense.

Thanks to Andy Heywood, McGrath Maserati: call +44 (0)1438 832161 or visit www.mcgrathmaserati.co.uk.

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Words Dave Kinney