This week on a special episode of Ignition
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 If you were well-to-do in the late '60s and looking for a grand touring car, the options
00:08 couldn't have been better.
00:10 There was the front-engine Ferrari 365 GTB4.
00:14 The Daytona, as it grew to be called, to this day remains an icon for the company.
00:19 There was the mid-engine Lamborghini Miura, arguably the most beautiful Lamborghini, if
00:23 not car, of all time.
00:26 And then there was the car that outsold them both, the Maserati Ghibli.
00:30 It takes just one look to understand why.
00:55 Everything in the Ghibli is very much a time capsule back to the driving culture of the
01:01 late '60s.
01:04 As far as its powertrain was concerned, as far as its suspension was concerned, it was
01:08 behind the times, especially when compared to the Lamborghini Miura and the Ferrari Daytona.
01:15 But it didn't matter, because all you had to do was simply look at this car.
01:19 The design of this set the pace for the rest of the market afterwards.
01:27 And driving it now is a real treat.
01:32 The steering is, of course, manually operated.
01:35 But I'm loving the sensation of cornering in this, figuring out how much weight you
01:40 need to dial into the wheel, how many turns it takes.
01:44 The steering has a lot of play and a rather big turning radius, something above 40 feet.
01:50 It's quite boat-like in that regard.
01:53 And the car gives the illusion of being bigger than it is.
01:57 It's because you have such a wide windshield.
01:59 But it's actually pretty narrow, especially versus some of the comparable cars today.
02:06 And yes, it's not going to dance very nicely along the twisty mountain roads.
02:13 But it's going to take you there in a really nice way.
02:22 The Gran Turismo was a very interesting car.
02:25 It wasn't about getting there as fast as possible.
02:28 It was about enjoying the trip and arriving with a lot of style.
02:33 And that's what this car did exceptionally well.
02:39 This particular example is owned by Motor Trend technical director Frank Marcus.
02:43 It's a 1967 model, powered by a 4.7 liter V8 with around 310 horsepower.
02:57 I bought this, the Maserati Ghibli, because I was absolutely knocked out by the styling
03:00 of it.
03:01 That's number one.
03:02 And number two, back when I bought it in 2000, they were ridiculously affordable.
03:07 They were like Camry money back in those days for a car that cost more than a Ferrari Daytona
03:11 when it was new.
03:12 And I would sold the Daytona as well.
03:21 My Maserati is the first year, 1967, the first year of the Ghibli.
03:25 So it's kind of the most pure of the design.
03:28 You know, Giorgio designed it.
03:30 And it came out in '67.
03:31 And then they started having to put marker lights and bumper overriders and pedestrian
03:35 protection and little stuff that chipped away at the looks of the car.
03:39 So I think this one is the purest of the design.
03:53 So the Ghibli was the last vehicle that the Orsi family signed off on.
03:58 The Orsi family had run Maserati for a long time, pretty much since the Maserati brothers
04:04 got out of it.
04:05 And this was the last car that they signed off on.
04:07 They were getting into some financial trouble and Citroen ended up buying the company shortly
04:11 thereafter.
04:12 So it's a significant point in Maserati's own history.
04:16 It's also an important point in Giorgetto Giugiaro's life.
04:20 He was in his 20s.
04:21 He was working at Ghia, and he was really hitting his stride.
04:24 He was penning this car at the same time he was penning the Dittomaso Mangusta, also another
04:28 gorgeous car with a lot of similar techniques, although on a different proportion for a mid-engine
04:33 car.
04:36 Later in life, Giugiaro would be voted the designer of the 20th century, and he personally
04:42 regarded this car as his favorite from that period.
04:54 Well it's interesting, the Maserati Ghibli was most directly compared with the Lamborghini
04:59 Miura and the Ferrari Daytona.
05:02 Both of those cars have 12-cylinder engines.
05:05 They both handle better, but you could make the argument that this is the Grand Touring
05:10 class, and as far as Grand Touring goes, this is kind of the best one for that.
05:15 It's far and away the most comfortable, the quietest, you know, the best one to take on
05:19 a super long trip.
05:21 I think it's also one of the most reliable, because the V8 in this car was a detuned race
05:27 engine for the 50s.
05:28 They had a lot of, you know, experience with it.
05:30 It was a very solid car.
05:46 That's a good feeling, that's a good feeling.
05:48 This V8 almost feels lazy in comparison to the other Italian V12s, but it's such a cool
05:54 powertrain, considering what kind of car it's in.
06:01 You have a broad torque range.
06:06 You have over 300 horsepower or so, and when you rev it out to 5,500, which is the indicated
06:11 red line, it sounds really good.
06:22 It gets some energy in the car.
06:26 I really like the shifter, too.
06:28 It has a very good feel once you're about to get into gear.
06:32 It looks kind of dopey, but the act of moving it from gear to gear feels really nice.
06:38 I really like the ergonomics of this car, too, because you sort of lean back in the
06:43 chair.
06:44 It's a very living room sofa kind of feeling.
06:46 The steering wheel is really large and thin, and I love the design on it.
06:51 This wood trim with the grooves cut in for your fingertips, it feels really nice.
06:57 This 4.7 liter V8 was very different in concept than the V12s the other Italians were putting
07:03 in their GTs, but it had torque, and that's really nice, because you could just lug along
07:08 in a higher gear.
07:10 Also, you don't need as many revs to get the thing moving like some of those V12s do.
07:16 Also, by putting the engine up front, unlike Lamborghini, you have a ton of cargo space
07:22 over your shoulder.
07:24 It's pretty amazing how much room is back there.
07:26 You could legitimately travel in this thing, road trip in this thing, so long as your credit
07:32 card's OK with the gas prices.
07:38 The driving experience, though, is really nice.
07:40 This isn't about limit performance.
07:42 It's about not rushing to the destination, but enjoying the time it takes you to get
07:46 there.
07:53 These cars were around when it was a luxury to travel long distances, and that's why this
07:57 car cost so much back in the day.
08:06 The Ghibli isn't about outright speed or limit performance, but the enjoyment of the overall
08:10 experience.
08:12 The big steering wheel and long-throw shifter like a relaxed pace.
08:16 Get used to them, listen to that deep, burbling exhaust, and you can fall into this wonderful
08:21 trance-like state.
08:29 That feeling makes you think of what it must have been like to drive from one villa to
08:33 the other, taking all day to get there.
08:36 And it reminds you that the personality of a car is more important than the specs.
08:54 The Q50 is helping us out because this road is actually pretty terrible in terms of just
09:00 surface conditions.
09:02 So typically when we're doing a POV shot, it'll be a car-to-car type of shot that we're
09:07 looking to get.
09:08 So we'll shoot a couple corners, run around with all this gear, and then hop back into
09:13 the Q50.
09:14 And luckily it's a decent amount less humid inside than it is out here.
09:19 So yeah, it's good.
09:21 It's nice to know that we'll have a car like that to run around in.
09:27 So right now we have a storm coming in.
09:29 We're going to mount this DSLR setup on the front of the Q50 and then chase down the Maserati
09:34 and see what kind of shots we can get.
09:35 That's a 2.8.
09:36 Frank is up ahead trying to make his way through this.
09:37 The sky's just opened up on us.
09:38 I mean, it's hard to see anything.
09:39 There's standing water everywhere.
09:40 And we're just going to have to get through this.
09:41 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:42 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:43 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:44 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:45 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:46 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:47 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:48 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:49 I'm going to try to get through this.
09:50 The sky's just opened up on us.
10:10 [Explosion]
10:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]