Maserati – Ghibli (1970)

The Ghibli was unveiled as a two-seater concept car at the 1966 edition of the Turin Motor Show. This elegant vehicle sported subtle, clean lines and a shark-shaped nose, and the front-engined coupé was lauded by the press for its elegant shape. Giorgetto Giugiaro penned the design while he was working for Ghia, and the first cars were delivered as early as March 1967 with a production run until 1973. The 4.7 litre dry-sump V8 quad-cam engine developed 310 hp. The car was the connoisseur’s choice for a grand tourer to satisfy aficionados who believed a Ferrari was rather too flashy. The car featured pop-up headlamps, which only arrived in Maranello when the Ferrari Daytona had a facelift some years later. The Ghibli Spider was launched in late 1968 and went into production in 1969. Its convertible top folded down behind the front seats under a flush-fitting body-colour tonneau cover. A detachable hardtop was available as an option but apparently only 25 of these accoutrements were sold. And this Spider was delivered new to the USA – where else in the world would have been appropriate! The ‘Ordine di fabbrica’ dated 26th May 1970 was signed personally by Omer Orsi, who was in charge at Maserati. The certificate was provided for Bob Grossman’s Foreign Car City Inc. in New York, who had arranged the order for his client, Dr Virills. The price for the Maserati amounted to 19,600 dollars. The coupé was delivered in the exterior colour ‘Marrone Colorado’ with an interior upholstered in tan leather ‘Senape’ and Borrani wire wheels fitted at the request of the customer. The factory documents reveal that the car was put through its paces in a final road test personally by mechanic and racing driver Guerino Bertocchi on 8th September 1970 before being released for shipment on 19th October 1970. This is the 68th Ghibli Spider out of a total production run of only 125 and interestingly these sales figures were similar to those of Ferrari’s 127 Daytona Spiders. Today, the car is only in the stewardship of its third owner and it has just undergone an extensive bare-metal restoration to take it back to the original colour scheme.