Supercar.Superbuild.S01E06.Maserati.Ghibli
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00:00For over a hundred years, Maserati has specialised in handcrafting high-performance, luxurious
00:11four-seat machines, and they've done it while operating in the shadow of the most
00:16iconic Italian car makers in the world.
00:21Maserati's known for being the kid brother to Ferrari.
00:26Now the time has come for the brand to make a name for itself.
00:30We went back to look at how we should we took inspiration for doing the Maserati of the
00:35future.
00:36Their goal, to combine Italian sex appeal with supercar performance inside of a four-door
00:44machine, and then shrink the supercar.
00:48Maserati needs to look amazing and grab your attention, otherwise it doesn't have a
00:51reason to exist.
00:53It's a bold move designed to open up new markets and increase production tenfold.
00:58It's a little bit ambitious, but it's also a little Italian in its drama.
01:03The future of Maserati hangs in the balance, and it's called the Ghibli.
01:23In the world of supercars, there is perhaps no more competitive location than northern
01:31Italy.
01:35It's home to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, and Maserati.
01:41Just as the country has faced ups and downs, so too has its automotive industry.
01:46Maserati went through a lot of hard times in the 60s and 70s and 80s, and the cars were
01:51basically cobbled together.
01:53In 1993, after years of fits and starts and poorly produced machines, Italian auto conglomerate
02:00Fiat purchases the Maserati brand.
02:03They place the company under the direction of their most famous mark, Ferrari.
02:08Ferrari took over, basically gutted it, and changed the way that they put together cars.
02:13It's a luxury one-two punch for the wealthy.
02:16Ferrari for supercars, and Maserati for super saloons.
02:21Maserati was the car you drive every day and then get in your Ferraris on the weekends.
02:25After decades of living in the shadows, Maserati is ready to call attention to itself.
02:29We started to think how to turn over the Maserati, and we went back to look how should we took
02:38inspiration for doing the Maserati of the future.
02:41For years, the company has had success with their flagship model, a luxury saloon called
02:47the Quattroporte.
02:50But in order to expand, it's clear the brand needs to do something unexpected.
02:55The big problem is that Maserati just hasn't had the cars.
02:57I mean, they've had a really big sedan that was beautiful and stunning, but getting old.
03:02We have meeting, product team gets together and lines up the future of the brand.
03:08What will be the car that we have to have in the portfolio?
03:10The challenge here for Maserati is simple.
03:12Maserati needs to sell more cars.
03:16For the past decade, Maserati has sold just over 6,000 cars per year.
03:24The company takes their flagship supercar and shrinks it into a smaller, more affordable
03:28package.
03:29Maserati needs a car that sells more, and a midsize sedan is the right place to be.
03:36It's never quite so easy as saying, you know, honey, I shrunk the Quattroporte.
03:43The smaller model is coined the Ghibli, tracing back to Maserati's glory days.
03:48Ghibli is an important historic name for Maserati, and the Ghibli was a coupe that was a competitor
03:54to such cars as the Miura from Lamborghini or the Daytona from Ferrari, and was one of
03:59the most performing and exclusive two-seater coupe of that period.
04:05Paired with the launch of a revamped Quattroporte, the Ghibli is a key element in the brand's
04:10expansion plans.
04:12The two projects were six months one from the other.
04:16We had the chance to think about the two cars as two ambassadors of the Maserati design.
04:22Starting at 52,000 euros, the Ghibli enters territory loaded with steep international
04:28competition.
04:32Any misstep will spell disaster for the brand.
04:35Once you move under $100,000, you start to compete with cars like the BMW 5 Series, the
04:39Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and the Audi A6.
04:41And those cars sell in serious numbers, and that's what Maserati's going for.
04:45The Ghibli's goal is to open up new markets and increase sales to 50,000 units.
04:51The Ghibli enters the brand in an area that has never been present before, with the ambition
04:56to raise the number of Maserati from less than 10,000 to more than 50,000.
05:03So it's a big bet.
05:09That big bet starts at the Fiat Design Center in Torino, Italy, a cutting-edge facility
05:22that the public normally never gets to see.
05:27It's here where 200 men and women with an average age of just 37 determine the future
05:33of the brand.
05:38The process starts with a collage.
05:40Image boards help designers define the brand's ideals.
05:48Since 2011, the man with the final say is Lorenzo Ramaccotti, the head of design for
05:55every single Fiat brand, including Ferrari and Maserati.
06:03Designing a car is a very complex activity, but if the foundations are good, it's much
06:08more easy to get to a satisfactory result, and in this case we had a very good foundation
06:13for the mechanical layout.
06:17Ramaccotti decides that in order to differentiate the two machines, his design team must focus
06:23the Quattroporte on elegance, while building the Ghibli around speed.
06:31We decided to go with the Ghibli more in the sporty direction.
06:36The process takes months, full of long days and long nights.
06:48As the pressure continues to mount for the brand to increase Maserati's sales, designers
06:53get to work shrinking their flagship.
06:58Shrinking the saloon down begins inside the Fiat virtual reality room, where the team
07:07literally goes over the machine point by point.
07:12To give the Ghibli a sporty feel, designers shrink the machine's wheelbase, the distance
07:17between the front and rear wheels.
07:20The team cuts the machine down by 173mm, which is nearly the height of a wine glass.
07:29There's always a big problem making a sporty sedan, because if you make it too sporty,
07:32the back seat doesn't work, and there's a compromise there.
07:34You're never going to have a sedan that looks like a supercar from every angle and still
07:38be usable.
07:41To double check the basic proportions, designers move to a more traditional form of streamlining.
07:49They tape the body by hand to ensure that each line is perfect.
07:55The idea is to go a little bit back to the sporty cars of Maserati of the 60s.
08:05You can do obviously with the engine, suspension and other things, but to transfer this feeling
08:13with the design is not easy.
08:16While the most striking change is the Ghibli's size, the team knows that it's the interior
08:22that will sell the car to a luxury crowd.
08:25We took inspiration from everything, from nature, from architecture, in order to be
08:30different.
08:32They use a full-size model of the interior cockpit, called a design buck, to plan the
08:38inside of the cabin.
08:42One of the inspirations was the helmet of a warrior.
08:45For example, you can see these elements, it looks like the mask.
08:51No matter the machine's proportions, it still requires an Italian touch of style.
08:57On the other side of the studio, that look and feel comes to life thanks to image boards
09:02that define potential customers.
09:04We can have different kind of people driving the car.
09:09This is, for instance, a person that's like doing lots of sports and that has a very outdoor
09:15lifestyle, a sense of freedom and the challenge and all this.
09:21We try to look at the details of all the accessories that they could be wearing.
09:26We try then to find materials that could be matching and not just in the colors atmosphere,
09:33but also in the attitude.
09:38The result is an Italian interior tailored for a mass-market audience.
09:44Because it's very important to us to see the matching of the colors, if something could
09:49work together, because sometimes it works in your mind, but then when you see it, the
09:53reality doesn't.
09:55While shrinking the car is one challenge, achieving supercar performance on a mid-size
10:01saloon budget is another.
10:05Engineers figure out how to do it inside of the Maserati Corsa facility, located just
10:10outside of Modena, Italy.
10:12There are demands both on the design you see and on the design you don't see for reaching
10:18supercar performance.
10:20Right away, engineers know outright efficiency is essential.
10:24The supercar have a super performance.
10:27They also have a super request in the sense that you have to have a very good aerodynamic
10:32performance in terms of drag resistance.
10:37To compete with supercars at a fraction of the price, designers work endlessly in the
10:41wind tunnel to find the lowest drag coefficient possible.
10:48Drag represents the amount of resistance an object faces as it travels through the air.
10:55The lower the drag, the easier it is for the car to cut through the wind.
11:01And the faster it goes.
11:08The car has a lot of drag.
11:09You spend a lot of money to run it and the speed is not so high.
11:15Meanwhile engineers work to keep weight down with affordable materials.
11:21What you can see in this car that goes a little beyond design is the fight for weight reduction.
11:29The team engineers the majority of the machine out of aluminium, including the hood, doors,
11:36boot lid and fenders.
11:40But saving weight goes more than skin deep.
11:42This was also to reach the performance through the reduction of weight.
11:46Reducing weight has been a hallmark of Italian supercars for decades.
11:51Maserati has a unique knowledge with the material because it is the oldest automotive mark in
11:57La Terra di Mattore, otherwise known as Italy's Motor Valley.
12:04The company was founded in 1914 by seven brothers.
12:08Six were car enthusiasts, one was an artist.
12:13For the next 12 years the brothers modify cars in a quest for speed.
12:18But in 1926 they branch out and build their very first car from the ground up.
12:23The Type 26.
12:25It wins its very first race, the Targa Florio, one of the most dangerous races in the world.
12:31The Type 26 was the very first Maserati to feature a trident on the grille.
12:37Seven brothers work in the company, except one that was an artist.
12:41And the brother asked him to design the logo for their new company and it took inspiration
12:46from the trident that is in the hands of a statue in Bologna.
12:51A logo inspired by the Neptune statue in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore and featured prominently
12:58on the Maserati factory in Modena, Italy.
13:04The area is hallowed ground for supercar fans, but the Maserati factory in Modena was built
13:10when the city was still farmland.
13:13This is the birthplace of the modern supercar and Maserati is among those brands.
13:21Today Modena is a bustling city.
13:23There's no place left for the brand to expand.
13:31Maserati has embarked on a new chapter with a fresh take on the luxury saloon market.
13:38But they've outgrown the company's historic home in Modena, Italy.
13:43To build the Ghibli, they need a new factory.
13:47The team zeroes in on another Italian automotive center.
13:51Torino is kind of a counterpart for Detroit because it's really a modern city.
13:56It's been living around car manufacturing plants for almost one century.
14:02You have your Silicon Valley in California for computers, software, etc.
14:09Here is an area where most of the sportive engines are born, in northern Italy.
14:17In order to have any chance of returning to the forefront of Italian motoring, Maserati
14:22must push for exponential growth.
14:24In order to survive, Maserati needs to sell more cars.
14:27However, dramatic expansion is not without its challenges.
14:31To produce a car with this kind of volume, we need to have a complete new plant.
14:39So it was absolutely impossible to foresee an increase in production from 10,000 to 50,000.
14:46So there was the need for a plant where the two cars, the Quattroporte and the Ghibli,
14:50that share many components in technical terms, could be produced together on the same flexible line.
14:58The solution is to move production from Modena to Grugliasco, Turin.
15:10The facility had been shut for three years before Maserati's corporate parent, Fiat,
15:15spends one billion euros to bring it back to life.
15:23This was a plant that produced cars starting from 1963.
15:28Then in 2006 they stopped to produce and for five years the plant was closed.
15:36And in 2011 we bought this plant and now we are producing new Maserati.
15:46They had already a paint shop that was possible to convert
15:49and finally we took the decision to rehaul completely the plant.
15:56We removed all the equipment in less than one year.
15:59The new Grugliasco plant has the capacity to build up to 200 units per day using three shifts.
16:09Here we have body wash, we have paint shop, we have assembly shop.
16:13All the plant is dedicated to produce Ghibli and Quattroporte.
16:21You think that two years ago this was a closed plant with nothing
16:26and now we are producing 140 cars per day with more than 2,000 people involved in the production.
16:34It is clearly a very, very good thing.
16:39The Grugliasco factory is a new home for an old brand.
16:43But they start building the Ghibli in a very traditional way.
16:49By manufacturing the frame inside of the state-of-the-art body shop.
16:56Where the first step is building sub-assemblies for the front and rear portions of the chassis.
17:16Once completed each sub-assembly heads to the main welding line.
17:20Where Ghibli bodies come to life one spark at a time.
17:27There are more than a thousand welds in each machine.
17:31And each weld uses enough electricity to power a house for a week.
17:56All of the complicated aluminium engineering pays off.
18:27The Ghibli weighs 50 kilograms less than its big brother, the Quattroporte.
18:39Less weight helps acceleration.
18:42The fastest Ghibli does 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in just 4.8 seconds.
18:48A heady time for a family saloon.
18:50But speed alone isn't enough when you're trying to sell to new markets.
18:55The Ghibli must also look the part.
18:58It's the Italian styling that adds the required supercar glamour.
19:03We are always on the blade.
19:07Because it's not something that is so extreme.
19:11It's classic, but not static.
19:14Maserati, it's classic, but not static.
19:17Maserati want to put this kind of dynamic proportion on the sedan.
19:23And this is the big difference.
19:26It's just a different kind of experience from the German stuff.
19:29There's a little bit more art in there than science.
19:33Bringing the look and feel of a sexy Italian supercar to the realm of everyday drivers is not as easy as it seems.
19:40It introduces the engineering team to a new kind of challenge.
19:47One of the challenges for Maserati in transitioning from supercar to a supercar sedan
19:54is that they have to think about more conventional things like putting a child seat in the back or keeping people safe.
20:00To be competitive in the mid-size luxury saloon market,
20:04engineers and designers need to focus just as much on the design as on the performance.
20:08And designers need to focus just as much on safety as high performance.
20:16That safety is tested here, inside a crash test facility.
20:22To meet modern crash standards, the Ghibli's chassis is built around a safety cell.
20:28The airbags are fully deployed in 50 milliseconds.
20:32One third of the time it takes for an average car crash.
20:36And literally, the time it takes to blink an eye.
20:39The safety cell is built with a combination of different steel and aluminium alloys
20:44in order to channel the energy most effectively during a crash.
20:49The safety cell is built with a combination of different steel and aluminium alloys
20:53in order to channel the energy most effectively during a crash.
20:57That's important because the forces acting on a car during a crash can exceed 550 kilonewtons.
21:04That's over 30 times the weight of the Ghibli itself
21:07and 500 times the force of gravity.
21:11With the machine's safety requirements solved,
21:14the team turns its attention to more traditional Italian concerns.
21:18This car, there was not inside of the Maserati world.
21:22There is a combination of proportions and of design language.
21:28The elements are the same elements we used to build the Maserati image
21:34but are played in a much more aggressive and strong way.
21:38The Ghibli looks like a classic Italian supercar.
21:44Maserati has shrunken their supercar in order to design and engineer a new mid-sized saloon.
21:51To bring it to market, they've had to rebuild a factory.
21:55But the Ghibli still needs a cutting-edge power plant in order to compete on the world stage.
22:03Paolo Martinelli, a former Ferrari Formula One engine designer,
22:07is the man tasked with bringing not one, but two new Maserati power plants to life.
22:13The main goal is to realize an engine with absolutely top performances
22:18in the range of volume that was a step ahead.
22:24The brand builds two V6 engines,
22:27a fuel-efficient diesel
22:30and a petrol-based variant built with performance in mind.
22:36It's no surprise where that engine comes from.
22:38Maserati engine is manufactured 100% in Maranello.
22:42Maranello, Italy, is the home of Ferrari
22:45and where all Maserati engines have been built since 2002.
22:49Martinelli decides it's the best place to build the new naturally aspirated V6 engine,
22:55a three-litre power plant that cranks out a potent 404 horsepower.
23:02It brings a lot of the racing heritage of Maserati,
23:05a racing heritage of Ferrari, into this car.
23:09Showcasing the brand's racing heritage was Maserati's most important goal.
23:16The new Ghibli, however, is entering a market
23:19where fuel economy is just as important as outright performance.
23:30For the first time in the marque's history,
23:32they introduce a diesel engine.
23:35Yeah, putting a diesel in it is a totally different approach,
23:38but they need that engine to sell in Europe.
23:42The twin-turbocharged, three-litre V6
23:45is built at the VM Motori plant in Cento, Italy.
23:54I mean, they don't hand-build these cars the same way they built Maseratis in the 1960s,
23:58but it's the same people with the same kind of passion for the cars.
24:02And if you ever go to an Italian car factory, these people are passionate.
24:08Both engines have supercar sensibilities.
24:11The question is whether or not the brand can build enough for mass production.
24:17The challenge is to realise a project for a sportive engine,
24:23but in a bigger volume.
24:27They made it very public that within five years,
24:29they wanted to sell 50,000 cars worldwide.
24:32Maseratis is a company that struggled to sell 5,000 cars in a good year.
24:35Ten times their volume is a very ambitious goal.
24:39But a car like this, if it takes off, if it starts selling well,
24:42will be a crucial part of that.
24:47Engineers test both engines repeatedly in a climate-controlled environment
24:51that replicates the warmest and coldest places on the planet.
24:55Of course, there are data that we normally call computational fluid dynamics.
25:09The room ranges from minus 40 degrees centigrade
25:19all the way to 50 degrees centigrade.
25:22They tune the signature Maserati sound as well.
25:35Maserati, I think, is a nice car in terms of styling and in terms of performance
25:40and with the feeling and the sound, for instance, of a Maserati.
25:45One of the characteristics is that the sound is very good.
25:49One of the characteristics is that when you push the gas pedal,
25:54your exhaust system is able to inform you that you are driving a Maserati.
26:02While the team continues to refine the two engines,
26:06at the Grugliasco factory in a cutting-edge paint shop,
26:10bare Ghibli bodies get ready for some colour.
26:14First, the aluminium body is prepped.
26:16Body gaps are measured by hand to ensure perfect panel alignment.
26:32Look, Italian is all about sex appeal.
26:35A lot of it doesn't really matter what is underneath the car.
26:39It's that appeal when you first look at it.
26:41And the Ghibli certainly looks different.
26:44Once the bodywork passes quality control,
26:48the bare metal is ready to be dipped in an electrochemical bath that prevents rust.
27:14Here the car is coming from seven different baths
27:18to prepare the body for the very first paint.
27:24We gave a negative charge to the body and a positive one to the bath.
27:30With this electric charge, the paint can stick very strongly to the body.
27:35After this ten to twelve minutes bath, the car is ready for a second wash
27:40and to an oven treatment to dry the paint coat.
27:53Now it's time for some paint.
27:58The Ghibli team is ready to paint the car.
28:01It's time for some paint.
28:09The Ghibli is available in 13 colours,
28:12each of which is applied by a combination of artisan painters
28:16and high-tech robots.
28:19The robots spin paint at 45,000 revolutions a minute
28:23and they're extremely precise.
28:25The margin for error in the paint shop is plus or minus half a millionth of a centimetre.
28:31That's a little wider than a human hair.
28:38At the last station, each body gets a clear coat.
28:42Robots do make some things more efficient,
28:45but it's not a way that you would think that everything is being done by robots.
28:49They're checking them and they're really working on them
28:52and then they're moving on to the next.
28:53It's a much slower process.
29:01Finally, each body is polished by hand
29:07until there's a mirror-like finish.
29:14Now the newly painted body is ready to head to the line.
29:24This is the first station of our assembly shop.
29:28We have Quattroporte and Ghibli.
29:31We produce both in the same line.
29:36There is a Ghibli that arrived from the paint shop.
29:41Here the car dropped down from the chain.
29:54In the first three stations, we assemble the cables.
30:03While both vehicles share one line,
30:06the emphasis on individual quality and care is paramount.
30:12For us, it was important to have a plan that is according to the history of Maserati.
30:18Accuracy in the assembly is mandatory for a kind of car like this, a supercar.
30:30The most important thing is that we use a lot of very skilled workers
30:35who have the ability to ensure the very good quality that we need.
30:40While building a factory took almost a year,
30:43it takes even longer to train a new workforce to operate the factory.
30:46300,000 hours of training,
30:49because we need to have people that know very well our production method.
30:54A production method that's based on the brand's historic roots.
30:59There's that whole kind of feeling of old-world craftsmanship.
31:03A tradition that continues on the dashboard sub-assembly line,
31:07where they installed a steering column, wiring harness.
31:11Then it's time for the instrument panel,
31:14which features a high-tech touch-control screen
31:17and Bowers & Wilkes audio system.
31:21Once complete, the dashboard is sent to the line.
31:27It's one of 3,000 parts that must be quickly assembled,
31:31and it's a lot of work.
31:33The dashboard is sent to the line.
31:37It's one of 3,000 parts that must be coordinated within the factory.
31:42Then it's time for the interior,
31:45which features an advanced Wi-Fi system
31:48intended to lure a much younger demographic.
31:52Each system is installed by hand.
31:58A historic Maserati building trait that's hard to continue
32:01as the brand tries to increase volume.
32:07They've never tried to build on this scale,
32:10so they also need to make sure the quality stays high.
32:13That's a little bit harder to do when you've got to do so many cars
32:16and you've got to turn them over so much more quickly.
32:25Each body is transported across the factory by a series of yellow hooks.
32:32These yellow hooks allow us to have always a perfect position for the worker.
32:42The hooks can rotate nearly 90 degrees.
32:45We can also rotate the car to work on the bottom part of the body
32:49and the pipes of the brake system.
32:57With this chain, we can also transport all the bodies along the chassis line.
33:01And also send the car to the last station of the final line.
33:06Maserati inherited the C-hook technology from Ferrari.
33:11And on the other side of the factory, engines arrive from Maranello.
33:16Each engine is treated with care as it's escorted to the line.
33:21We're in the first station of the powertrain area
33:25and we put the engine together with the gearbox.
33:31So we received this engine from Ferrari.
33:34This kind of engine and this kind of gearbox is one of the reasons for the success of this car.
33:43You could build anything in Maranello and say,
33:46Hey, Ferrari built it and it would be amazing.
33:48It's the Ferrari engine. They are the engine gods.
33:50So if they're building this V6, why wouldn't you tell the world?
33:53They connect it to a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission.
34:01Once pre-assembled, the engine is sent to the drivetrain line.
34:11We're in the center of the powertrain area.
34:14Here we put together the front and rear suspension, the engine and the gearshaft.
34:19Workers attach the exhaust pipes.
34:32The front suspension is bolted on.
34:37Then, radiators are installed.
34:40The half-built drivetrain is then transferred to another line,
34:46where craftsmen install the back half of the unique Maserati exhaust system.
34:51The half-built drivetrain is then transferred to another line,
34:57where craftsmen install the back half of the unique Maserati exhaust system.
35:16Workers install the driveshaft,
35:21Fuel cell.
35:29Once the drivetrain is built up, it's ready to meet the body.
35:32We are in the middle of chassis line, this is the mariage station, here we put together
35:38the body and all the powertrain components.
35:42The drivetrain joins the body of the car and is held together by just 18 bolts.
35:50This that the brand is counting on for global growth.
35:55This is probably the entry level Italian exotic car, otherwise you're spending six figures
35:59and this car is under six figures and there just aren't any other players in that segment
36:03from Italy.
36:04Maserati's plans are clear.
36:07For decades, the Trident has stood for Italian luxury.
36:14The culture constantly evolves.
36:21Symbols alone don't get the job done.
36:25Maserati's answer is to gamble and be ghibli.
36:28You want to do cars that can stand a long time without getting dated or getting old.
36:35You want to make kind of instant classic.
36:45Inside the Grugliasco factory, that instant classic is taking shape one bumper at a time.
36:56We will assemble the front area bumpers and the wheels.
37:16With the bodywork finished, it's time for some hot wheels.
37:33Then the luxury seats and doors.
37:48The Ghibli is almost ready for prime time.
37:55But before it can leave the factory, it has to hit the road.
37:59We are in front of the rolling test bench.
38:04We test 100% of our car to a top speed of 140 kilometers per hour.
38:12This test is to verify the perfect adjustment of the engine shaft.
38:17Once the Ghibli has put the pedal to the metal, it's time for a bump in the road.
38:22A 50 kilometer long pothole, followed by a lengthy shower to look for leaks.
38:34We're in front of the water test.
38:36We clean the car after the road test in the first part of the tunnel.
38:40And the second part of this machine is to test the waterproof sealing of the car.
38:45A few more final checks and the machine is ready for the real world.
38:52Where its first task will be to broaden the brand's appeal and lead their growth.
38:57Maserati is not super well known.
38:59You hear the name Maserati and it evokes something Italian, something expensive, but not necessarily
39:04a four-door sedan.
39:05Maserati exists in this strange kind of place where everyone associates it with Ferrari.
39:11And the biggest challenge for Maserati is getting people to realize that it's not a
39:16ridiculously expensive car.
39:18Starting at 52,000 euros, the machine thrusts the mark into new territory that's radically
39:24different than Ferrari, its corporate parent.
39:27BMWs and Mercedes and Audis are just kind of everywhere these days.
39:30If you want to stand out and have something different, you can have a Maserati.
39:36That's a big difference.
39:41That big difference has led to a very big bet, all in the hopes of growing tenfold.
39:48Everybody wants to sell a lot of cars because you need to sell a lot of cars to keep your
39:51profits up and run a successful business.
39:58Maserati hopes to go from 5,000 units a year to 50,000.
40:02They need to weigh the pros and cons of moving down market.
40:05There's definitely more of a con, especially if they're chasing 50,000 sales.
40:10To chase sales, the brand is banking on its Italian heritage.
40:15Cars have kind of picked up traits of their home countries.
40:18Italian cars have always had this thing of being passionate and very beautiful and elegant
40:22to look at.
40:30That Italian passion culminates inside of the engine bay, where the Ferrari-built twin-turbo
40:36V6 generates 404 horsepower.
40:43The engine reaches 90% of its 550 newton-meters of torque at just 4,500 RPMs.
40:51If you keep your foot in it, it'll surprise you at how quickly it accelerates.
40:55Once you rev it past four grand or five grand, the thing just comes alive.
40:59Which is a really Italian thing, is a high-revving engine.
41:08Keep your foot down, and Ghibli screams from zero to 60 in just under 4.8 seconds.
41:23It's an emotional experience, because you're waiting for it, waiting for it, and then boom,
41:26it hits.
41:27It's very clear when you get in the Ghibli that somebody paid attention to the way that
41:31engine sounds and the way the sound responds to what the transmission's doing.
41:35Keep your foot down long enough, and the Ghibli will reach a top speed of 284 kilometers
41:40an hour.
41:41The Ghibli's a quietly fast car, it sneaks up on you, you don't realize just how quickly
41:48you're going.
41:49You watch that needle on the speedometer go, how did I get here?
41:54It pulls and pulls and pulls.
41:57Lightweight construction paired with 50-50 weight distribution help give the Ghibli a
42:01sporty feel on the track.
42:04One of the great things about Italian cars in general, and Maserati does this very well,
42:08is that they keep this emotional connection in the vehicle.
42:14You can get in some cars, and it's a piece of machinery, it gets you from point A to
42:17point B, and does it just fine, does it perfectly reliable, but there's nothing particularly
42:21exciting about it.
42:22You don't walk in your garage every day and smile.
42:29After years of planning, the Ghibli is ready to add a touch of Italian flair to the mid-size
42:34saloon market.
42:38Where the Maserati's bold gamble to expand pays off is now up to customers around the
42:43world.
42:44Supercars are built to a standard, they're not built to a price.
42:48You start building a car like this that has to compete in the $50,000 to $100,000 segment,
42:52you have to start building things to a price, and you have to start cutting corners.
42:55It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a bigger challenge.
42:59The car has a soul to it, it wants to be driven, it rewards you when you go around a corner
43:06and you push it, you get this great sound.
43:12The draw of this car is unquestionably the way it looks and the emotions it evokes.
43:17It looks, it sounds, it smells, it feels, that's what the Ghibli's about.
43:21If you don't want any of that in your car, there are plenty of other options.
43:27If you want something different, something that makes you feel special every day, that's
43:31why you bought the Maserati.