A piece og racing history for sale; Maserati Ghibli Open Cup Evo For those who do not know the history of the Open Cup Series; please have a look at The Maserati Ghibli 'Open Cup' . The car in question was brought to Germany after the ending of the racing series in 1996 and was slightly modified to meet German regulations for road use. The car was bought at 261 km (said to be raced twice by the factory, but this is still to be confirmed) by a German, and the car was imported to Norway at 11000 kms. According to the German owner the car received a brand new Open Cup engine at 8000 kms. The odometer now shows 13700 kms and comes from a fresh service with cam belts at Norwegian Ferrari specialist Sportivo. As one of 25 cars built this is truly a piece of Maserati racing history. For sale at NOK 405.000 (about 50-51k EUR). Please enquire for more information (PM). Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There is a red open cup for sale in the Netherlands. See : Maserati chat - Nederlandstalig forum over Maserati en Italian lifestyle ? Toon onderwerp - Project "Ghibli Open Cup" (in Dutch). I can help to get in touch with the owner.
That's a series 1 car which is quite a bit different, much better suited for use on the road. The series 2 EVO versions like this white one got a big update kit which were installed by the various owners at the time and it completely changed the suspension and brakes which was one of the biggest weaknesses of the series 1 cars. There's zero rubber left in any of the suspension pieces and it has the same brakes and front hubs as a F355 challenge. That series one car shows some pictures from some engine work on the second page. That is one very ugly looking sump pan. Just look at that sludge! Run Forest Run! I didn't read through the whole blog so I don't know what the story is with that car.
Here is a link to the ad on Enrico's; Maseratis For Sale A few more pictures there. It's a beautiful car, a total brute, but still elegant.
I don't think the road going Ghibli was imported to the US. Whether there were any American drivers in the Open Cup series I do not know. This car would still fit in any collection, and would make a great track day car!
Back in 2004 My friend and I drove it from Heilbronn in Germany and back to Oslo, Norway on the Autobahn. I can tell you that this car is seriously fast, but not very comfortable on the rough road surface. It is also load as h***. But it is absolutely thrilling to drive.
Yes two were imported into the US by a big Maserati collector, John Bookout, who lives in Houston. He was going to drive them with his son at the track but that never panned out. He still has the one that was modified to run in the Italian GT race series after 1996. It and a couple others did pretty well. As configured with the EVO kit it's not a fully developed race car, the earlier version far less so. Mateo Panini , Panini Maserati Museum, had one setup for hill climbs and he sold that a few years ago. There are some Youtube videos of it at the track. It's light green. I have the other one that was imported to the US. I bought it at auction in Monterey from John.
The Ghibli Cups were very successful in Italian GT and endurance racing. 1997 in particular was a great year, with outright wins in the Vallelunga and Varano races. Porsche RSR and other 911-derived variants were its main rivals. The Ferrari 348 Challenge was no match whatsoever. The 355 Challenge came a bit later, at the end of the Ghibli's peak years, but was also typically defeated.
I remember the cars when the racing program was abandoned from Maserati (due to Ferraris presure...) and in the Italian GT series they did well. Prepared by the late William Sala, they were seriously fast contenders. I do not see them at 50k EUR though...
The seller's in Norway. Take any reasonable price you'd expect anywhere else in the world (perhaps excepting Australia) and multiply by 2. Between taxes, freight, cost of living and all the other BS there's really no way around it. Nice car though...
What would the correct price be? There aren't that many around to compare it to, and it was bought at around 40k EUR in 2004. I hope it will stay in Norway, but of course international buyers are welcome to bid if the price seems off.
No one can say that with any substantial evidence to back it up. There weren't that many a few have been lost and many are most likely in a state of disrepair. There are several fakes out there as well. It's relatively easy to stick the EVO fiberglass pieces onto a standard Ghibli II of any version. You might try and find out what the green one Panini sold went for. That was a non standard car but Sala work it over pretty well. There have been other sales in the last 10 years as well. Enrico is always a good person to start with.
For me, it seems to be a fair price. Having two ghibli myself (no open cup, but a ghibli GT 2.0 and one of the 27 ghibli cup made for the japanese market with a tuned 2.8 engine), I follow closely the evolution of the market. When I bought my first ghibli, the average asking price was very low, often under 10k. But recently, it tends to be on the rise. Attached, there is a chart of the evolution of the european market (sorry, the chart is in french), from november 2012 to july 2013. The median asking price is even higher in augustus (about 16k). So, in one year, the ghibli II saw a 20% appreciation! I don't know why, but there is a clear uptrend in ghibli's II price. Median price for a ghibli II: 16k Median price for a ghibli CUP (60 2.0V6 and 27 2.8): 30-35k So 50k for a ghibli open cup evo sounds good to me. I hope I was not too much off topic. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I have also noticed this trend. Happily for me, I also have a 1997 Ghibli GT that has just covered 30k kms. Lovely car the Ghibli II. The Open Cup is on a totally different planet, though. I am not the owner of this car, but I am helping him with the sale. He used to have a F355 Challenge and he says the Open Cup is faster (or at least feels that way, he has not confirmed it on track).
A local Ghibli Cup sold some months ago for 27k€ and the car was in very good condition. The seller was asking for 40k€ but after 2-3 years without a sale he came down to a more reasonable price to sell. I know a guy who took a bunch of Ghibli GT adverts around the internet and called up the owners and asked them all to raise prices at the same time, in order to raise the overall average. He eventually managed to sell his. He wasn't French, but after seeing the above graphic.... it begs the question how easy it is to manipulate prices... especially for cars that have been stale or falling for decades... On the other hand, once the Ghibli GT prices reached rock bottom, they could only go up... and now they are becoming quite rare cars... (around 2000 produced?) so maybe they are going up for good? Because some cars, never managed to go up and stayed rock bottom... for everrrrrr food for thought
Having spent a lot of time on the track with the F355C cars it's a match on the straights but in the twisties it's slower. Maybe it's just my car or it's driver?
Well , I might have another explanation for that. Apart from the classified scam earlier mentioned, the 2.0 V6 engine is very sought right now due to rising taxes. So a bloke like my self who is pretty decent of age , middle 30s , one day asked himself , could I own a sleeper car which unique , reliable , more than average powerful and doesn't look like a boy racer ish thing...and TADAA ... I am looking for about 6 months now , read all you could on this car and saved up almost 30k to get the cup version, love it 100% apart the rims. Have a good weekend !