Photos -- Ghibli II

Photos by Francis G. Mandarano or courtesy of the MIE Collection.
Text by Giancarlo Perini, CAR

2.0-litre turbos have always been popular in Italy. Maserati has for several years been churning out various such cars, their power outputs getting ever more stratospheric. The latest, the Ghibli, manages to wring a dizzy 306bhp out of a V6 of that capacity.

Much of the Ghibli is familiar. The name, for a start. It was first applied to a flowing Maserati coupe from 1965, which used the company's aristocratic 4.7-litre V8. The core of the new car's body is the usual Biturbo shell, but the high tail is taken from the top-of-the-range V8 Shamal, and the wing blisters are like the Shamal's, too, though less cartoonish in their contours. The grille and light treatment are Maserati's tidiest yet. Inside, dash and wood/leather opulence are same-again Biturbo.

The 1996cc all-alloy V6 has been in use for years, though only more recently with twin-cam 24-valve cylinder heads; the turbos are water-cooled IHIs with air-to-air intercoolers. The fancy Weber electronic management of fuel, sparks and boost has been re-chipped. A six-speed gearbox sends power to the Ranger torque-sensing limited-slip differential which has its own oil cooler: serious hardware.

Suspension, by MacPherson, struts at the front and trailing arms behind, is the same old 1980 Biturbo kit, but gradually developed over the years, and with a wider track. A set of Koni electronically-controlled shock absorbers provide adaptive damping.

The Ghibli is startlingly fast, all-out. Once the turbos are on the boil, the rev needle fairly rips around the dial to the 7200rpm limiter, and it's smooth and musical all the way, just as a baby V6 should be. Standstill to 60mph occupies little more than five seconds. More surprising for such a small, highly loaded engine, there's a reasonable dose of urge available from 3500rpm. In traffic, the powertrain is manageable, and the gearchange is light, when you're not in a hurry and accurate when you are. The job of washing away the speed so easily gained falls to brakes that are powerful, yet strangely soggy in initial action. Maserati offers no ABS; it was an option on certain models but found few takers.

When there's a racetrack at hand, as there was when I first tried the Ghibli, its cornering repertoire can be explored to the full. As you would expect from 306bhp and rear drive, quite lurid oversteer is on tap whenever a goodly width of tarmac is available. It's very tidy and predictable oversteer, free of any unseemly lurching, and is easily controlled and exploited, balanced with judicious throttle applications. Body control is excellent; the dampers have four different driver-selectable settings, from queasy at their softest to racetrack-friendly at their hardest. Pitch and dive are kept at bay.

In the intermediate damper settings, the Ghibli is comfortable, its ride pliant and quiet. Seats are comfortable and supportive, though you must adjust to fit them rather than adjusting them to fit you: they can be moved fore and aft, and can be reclined, but there is not provision for height, tilt or lumbar adjustment.

The idea of 300bhp-plus from 2.0 litres sounds like an over-seasoned bowl of pasta - tempting, but not something you'd want every day. Yet the Ghibli is very habitable and refined, almost sober in some ways.