Walter and other Maserati expert:advice please

Friend of mine currently owns a 599 GTB, and is trading up to a Gran Tourismo S is looking for something differant and collectable.

He has been offered a 1996 Ghibli GT, silver, black leather, the car has 16 000 kms on the clock and is in great condition, took it for a short drive and well its very quick for its age. The big question is though whether as a sort of collectable its worth buying and whether the price is fair, sure we are down south in africa but the car is going for R260 000 (approx divide by 12 for Euros)

Is there anything one needs to look out for with Ghiblis, and would any of you buy it as a 3 cars quasi collectable?

 

Ok first as nice as a Gran Turismo S is it is NOT a trade up from a 599, it is a trade down. I also would NOT consider a 1996 Ghibli ll GT a collectable. An orginal Ghibli is a collectable not one of the Biturbo variants.

Joe

 

Should have made it more clear, 599 is staying but his regular GranTourismo is going in favor of a S version.

Would a Shamal be more collectable, thing is he tends to drive his cars hard and I am not sure a 1960's Ghibli could stand up to hard driving, maybe I am wrong.

 

A Shamal seems a bit better, given the engine but I would look for a later 3200 coupe. Or maybe a Barchetta if you're sticking to that era.

 

A 1996 Ghibli GT is a good but not a collectable car!
If your friend wants to part a Gran Turismo for the S - good decision! If he wants something collectable I strongly advice to buy something like a Ghibli or Ghibli-Spyder.

Ciao!
Walter

 

and this comes from a guy that knows collecatble maseratis!

i would agree the ghibli are THE cars to buy now as collectable and that could be driven often with pleasure on the road!
the ghibli spyder is clearly the car for the collector but prices are already strong on those

i would say a nice bora would come as a second interesting option

of the biturbo era only the shamal could become "sort of colelctable": it is also a pretty fast machine and can be tuned to develop serious power

 

Saying that.. I agree with above.. The Ghlibli GT I had before .. with a bit of tweaking had a torque OUT OF THIS WORLD.. Nothing could touch it .. NOTHING , between 50 and 130 km/h. No porsches . no ferrari.. but build quality is poor.. N

 

collectable Masers now are the ones that are undervalued. Bora's, Ghibli type 1's (from 68 on), Mistrals, are expensive and won't rise much in value anymore IMHO. Better choises are cars like the Merak, the Quattroporte 1, the Kyalami (very much undervalued), the Mexico (rising in value fast now). Very early biturbo's will be gettin gmore epensive too soon now, since all have been mistreated or rotten away. A Ghibli II (esp. the second version of it) is not collectable yet, but a very fine daily driver.

 

Watch the value of it's Ferrari counterpart. The Maserati should be 1/3 the value. The Ghibli vs Daytona, Bora vs Boxer, Khamsin vs GTC/4, Mistral vs GTC. etc.

When the Ferrari moves up in value the Maserati will follow within 3 to 6 months. However when the drop, the Maserati will drop much faster.


Joe

 

a ghibli at 70-85k euro is a bargain when you look at daytona-miura values!
the spider is more expensive but when you look at real daytona spider......well it is almost inexpensive :-o

a bora at 60k-75k euro is a bargain to when you see BBs for 100-150k euro, not to talk about early 4 liter countachs....(Lp400 is well over 200k euro and early 70's S are over 150k euro)

a biturbo in GREAT shape is RARE, it could become more expensive (like from 3k euro to 6k euro...may be 10k euro? ) but still will never be a real collector car IMO (and i would not call it a beautiful car to be honest)

 

Difficult question, but would appreciate Walter's insight:

Do you guys think a 2006 GranSport (loaded, Bianco Fuji) will ever become a collector's car.
I see it as the last of the Ferrari-built Maserati sportscars. Before branding made them build the "sporty-GT" line.

 

...and so Walter answers:
I think the GrandSport is a collectable car although it was made in high numbers. But the true collectors car from this serie is the GrandSport MC-Victory! Limited edition, perfect handling, some very nice addtions and ....a little "racey"!!

Ciao!
Walter

 

I don't agree. The Shamal had a great engine but was a handling nightmare.

The Ghibli II had a great racing history for a road car: after the death of the Maserati "Cup" (run in 1995 and 96), in 1997 the orphaned Ghiblis were prepared by famous racing tuners and competed in the European GT championship, where (tuned up to 400 HP from the 2-litre V6!) they got very important absolute wins beating the likes of the Porsche 993 GT2 and 993 RSR 3.8, and regularly made mincemeat of the Ferrari 348s and F355s that were running in the same championship. Arturo Merzario was one of the drivers, just ask him if you want to know more. I had personally helped the Maserati Club USA to get two of these cars to the USA, and I have a friend who owns another one, original racing Ghibli with 425 HP (that was the absolute maximum tuning).

I owned a Ghibli II GT and I wouldn't mind another one to keep forever. It was a great GT car, more exciting than its contemporary BMW M3. If you can find one of the original racing GT cars they make for fantastic track day cars too. Get an ex-Merzario car, and you've got a piece of motoring history.