Maserati Ghibli: The Grand Tourer Named After a Desert Wind
Unveiled at the 1966 Turin Motor Show and named for the hot, dry wind that sweeps across the Libyan desert, this was a young Giorgetto Giugiaro's masterpiece — a design so complete that Maserati itself has never quite matched it since.
Illustration for editorial purposes
A Three-Month Design That Became Timeless
Giugiaro reportedly completed the Ghibli's design in just three months, building on an earlier concept he'd shown at Turin in 1964. Reviewers and collectors alike still rate it among the most significant automotive designs of the entire postwar era.
History & Development
Debuting on the Ghia stand at the 1966 Turin Motor Show and reaching the market in 1967, the Ghibli was Maserati's new take on the grand tourer concept, sold alongside the Quattroporte, Mexico and Mistral. A dry-sump version of the V8 already powering the Quattroporte and Mexico let engineers mount the engine low and the bonnet dramatically flat, defining the car's slender, wedge-like profile. Between 1967 and 1972, Maserati built 1,170 coupés and 125 Spyders, with the range-topping Ghibli SS arriving in 1969 boasting a larger 4.9-litre engine and a genuine 174mph top speed — making it the fastest Maserati road car built up to that point. Production ended in 1973, succeeded by the Bertone-designed Khamsin.
Design & Engineering
Power came from a front-mounted V8 — 4.7 litres in standard form, 4.9 litres in SS guise — paired with a five-speed manual gearbox, though a three-speed automatic was also offered. The dry-sump lubrication system allowed the engine to sit unusually low in the chassis, letting Giugiaro drop the bonnet line dramatically and create the car's signature silhouette, with pop-up headlights and a distinctive triangular rear pillar that became a recurring Maserati design motif for years afterward. The tubular steel chassis used double-wishbone front suspension and a live rear axle on semi-elliptic springs, entirely conventional engineering wrapped in a genuinely groundbreaking body.
Cultural Significance
Sports Car International later named the Ghibli ninth on its list of the top sports cars of the 1960s, and one of Henry Ford's own grandsons purchased an example to display in the lobby of Ford's Product Development Center as an example for his own engineers to study. The name was later revived twice more — for an unrelated 1990s twin-turbo V6 coupé, and again from 2013 as a modern executive saloon — but neither generation carries quite the same reverence among collectors as the original.
Value Today
Well-maintained Ghibli coupés with the 4.7-litre engine and five-speed manual gearbox typically trade in the $125,000-$150,000 range, with exceptional concours-quality examples commanding roughly double that. The rarer Spyder version, of which only 125 were built, sells well into six figures and above the price of most coupés, reflecting its scarcity. Values have historically trailed contemporary rivals like the Ferrari Daytona and Lamborghini Islero, making the Ghibli a comparatively accessible entry point into serious 1960s Italian GT ownership.
Watch & Explore
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Sources: Wikipedia, Maserati.com, Robb Report, Supercar Nostalgia.