Andyk
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Just thought I would share the priginal Autocar write up on the great Ghibli Cup....Like reading these old reviews about what they thought at the time...
MODEL TESTED: Cup
LIST PRICE: approx £46,000 when last sold
TOP SPEED 153 mph
30 - 7O MPH: 4.8 sec
0 - 6O MPH: 5.6 sec
60 - O MPH: 2.6 sec
MPG: 27.6
For: blistering performance, understated looks, rarity
Against: awful driving position, gear change, a bit pricey
Do not take this Maserati Ghibli Cup lightly. If we tell you it is one of the most engaging sub £50,000 coupes currently listed within the price data at the back of this magazine, you will understand some of the story. But to realise the full significance of this car, you'll need to lift the bonnet and take a good look at the engine within. Because there you'll find the most highly tuned road car engine in production - a quad-camshaft 2.0-Iitre V6 that produces a scarcely credible 330bhp alongside 280lb ft at 400Orpm. It's the first new engine seen in a Maserati in the UK for two decades.
Priced at under £50k, the Ghibli Cup has few obvious rivals beyond the one you can read about elsewhere in these pages, but as an understated alternative to more ubiquitous mainstreamers like the Porsche 911, it is foolishly ignored.
Design & Engineering
Five months from now, Maserati will unveil a curvaceous all-new Giugiaro- designed two-plus-two coupe at the Frankfurt motor show. So this "Cup" version of the Ghibli (which will soldier on alongside the new coupe for a while) is probably the final evolution of Maserati's long-in-the-tooth Biturbo series. It also happens to be the most powerful. Toting a 330bhp version of the beautiful- looking 1996cc 90deg V6, it has 165bhp per litre - the highest specific output of any production car on sale.
Boosted by a pair of intercooled IHI turbochargers, it drives the rear wheels through a six-speed Getrag gearbox. To handle the extra performance, the Cup also gets the racer's four-pot Brembo brakes and shorter, stiffer springs for its (optional) four-way adjustable suspension. Aesthetically, the modern Ghibli has never matched its 1966 name-sake. Nevertheless, in Cup guise it takes a step in the right direction. The brutal flanks suit racing red, and the split-rim Speedline alloys, aluminium fuel filter, minimal badging and big-bore exhausts provide plenty of attitude.
The cabin is improved, too, with a tough- looking combination of black leather, grey Aleantara and carbon-fibre complemented by drilled aluminium pedals and a superb Momo Corse steering wheel. But the ergonomics remain badly flawed, and despite recent strides to improve quality at Maserati, there are too many squeaks and rattles for a £46,000 super-coupe. The final evolution of rear-drive Biturbo is best yet.
Charming - but looks, quality and cabin are no match for inspired powertrain ***
Performance & Brakes
To understand completely the magnitude of Maserati's achievement with the Ghibli Cup's 1996ce V6 twin-turbo engine, you need to look within the engine bays of cars as esoteric as the Bugatti EB110 GT and Jaguar XJ220. Both these true blue supercars use relatively small-capacity, highly tuned turbocharged engines that develop exceptional specific outputs of 157/155bhp per litre respectively. But the Ghibli eclipses both of them with a quite astonishing 165bhp per litre.
What makes this fact all the more poignant is the unusually fine table manners Maserati's engineers have managed to instill in their engine. At crank speeds below 200Orpm it is true that the V6 is not especially happy, grinding and graunching in protest if the throttle is opened too wide too soon, but beyond this it's as well behaved as any other production turbo engine. And compared with the 2.8-litre V6 used in the Ghibli GT, lag is reduced slightly, the power seeping in more smoothly from 250Orpm and piling on in ever stronger chunks up to the 700Orpm cut-out.
There is no doubt that the 2.0-Iitre V6 loses out on some of the deep-chested flexibility of the torquier 2.8, particularly in the high gears at low revs. In essence, by choosing the 2.0-Iitre engine you sacrifice some torque (down to 280lb ft from 317) and unleash a further 50bhp instead. But the gains in engine smoothness and boost progression, not to mention outright acceleration above 4500-500Orpm when the V6 really starts to sing, are well worth it overall, we feel. Not to mention the extra aural delights that the 2.0-litre lump provides, both at idle (when it burbles menacingly) and at high revs, when there's a subtle but distinct howl that its bigger-capacity equivalent couldn't hope to replicate.
The raw numbers make fairly impressive reading, too. Although it struggles to put its ferocious 330bhp down neatly off the line, the Ghibli Cup matches the 2.8 GT blow for blow from 0-60mph with a time of 5.6see. But from 30-70mph it screams away, with a punishing time of 4.8see compared with 5.2sec. And it takes just 3.4sec to hit 100mph, signing off the standing kilometre at 133mph and 25see dead, again fractionally ahead of the GT. Undoubtedly the Cup's extra gear ratio gives it a leg up as far as sprinting is concerned, but given that the change quality is neither as accurate nor as light as we'd have liked, the advantage is not as great as it seems. No, the lion's share of the Cup's fiercer pace is down to that fantastic 2.0-litre engine.
Considering the Brembo-developed brakes have a 1424kg kerb weight to haul down from high speeds, the strength and progression with which they operate is beyond serious criticism.
Blistering mid-range punch; shame about turbo lag and poor gearshift ****
Market & Finance
Banish thoughts of vertically depreciating Maserati Biturbos. Meridien, the Hampshire-based importer who distributes UK Maseratis, claims it has the residual values of today's model line-up well under control. It freely admits early models were a disaster, a state of affairs it blames on poor build quality, oversupply and high list prices, but nowadays sensible pricing, professional marketing and a much improved product line-up is bringing depreciation under control. The distributor claims most early, well maintained, average mileage Ghiblis will make about £30,000. An 18,000-mile 92K Spyder, by the way, made £25,000 recently, as much as it made two years ago when Meridien last sold it.
Is it spinning us a yarn? We don't think so. The Ghibli has the price, quality, ability and character to pass as an alternative to the BMW M3, a model Meridien says it frequently sees in part-exchange (that and Porsche 911s, Honda NSXs, even Ferraris). And the ever-deepening association with- Ferrari can only help matters. Then there's the determination to match supply and demand by ordering only sold cars from the factory. It says the previous distributors went badly wrong by flooding the market and thinking they could make a quick buck. Meridien says there are about 170 used Ghiblis in the UK and plans to sell no more than 70 new ones each year.
One drawback with Ghibli ownership is the lack of dealer support. There are four in the UK (Perth, Manchester, Romford and Bournemouth) and six service outlets. But apparently many customers prefer Meridien itself to collect their car and service it.
Still a brave choice but benefiting from more professional marketing now***
The Autocar Verdict
The Maserati Ghibli Cup is heralded as something of a faith restorer around here. Although it's not without its faults, it nevertheless possesses sufficient old-fashioned soul and character to make even the most cynical non-believers sit up and pay attention. Its 2.0 litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine is undoubtedly its strongest asset. The fact that this unit boasts the highest specific output of any contemporary production road car engine is eclipsed only by the knowledge that it is also tractable and well behaved. And when the right occasion presents itself, there can be few sub £50,000 coupes that offer as much bang for your buck as this one, especially since the experience is underlaid by one of the most charismatic leather trim soundtracks available in any car on sale in 1997. But unlike so many recent Maseratis before it, the Ghibli Cup's act is not a one-hit wonder.
The chassis plays an unusually strong supporting role to the engine by indulging the keen driver with a level of involvement that is all too rare these days. The steering is worthy of the highest praise, and accompanying this are a fine level of grip and a much-improved ride by Maserati standards. Even the brakes are up there among the best. As you'd expect from a car wearing the trident on its flanks, however, the Ghibli's many undeniable strengths are accompanied by a number of irritations that somewhat spoil the overall picture. Of these, the driving position is easily the worst. Quite why Maserati still can't design a decent driving environment for any of its cars remains beyond us, but in this instance it proves especially frustrating because the rest of the car is, comparatively, so good. The other aspect that lets it down, though not by as big a margin as in the past, is the quality. Any brand new car that rattled and squeaked as much as this one would drive an owner to distraction, but when the price tag is this high there is no excuse.
Despite recent improvements to the quality of its cars, Maserati still has a way to go to match the best. But when the fundamentals are this desirable, this correct, such glitches are no longer disastrous.
MODEL TESTED: Cup
LIST PRICE: approx £46,000 when last sold
TOP SPEED 153 mph
30 - 7O MPH: 4.8 sec
0 - 6O MPH: 5.6 sec
60 - O MPH: 2.6 sec
MPG: 27.6
For: blistering performance, understated looks, rarity
Against: awful driving position, gear change, a bit pricey
Do not take this Maserati Ghibli Cup lightly. If we tell you it is one of the most engaging sub £50,000 coupes currently listed within the price data at the back of this magazine, you will understand some of the story. But to realise the full significance of this car, you'll need to lift the bonnet and take a good look at the engine within. Because there you'll find the most highly tuned road car engine in production - a quad-camshaft 2.0-Iitre V6 that produces a scarcely credible 330bhp alongside 280lb ft at 400Orpm. It's the first new engine seen in a Maserati in the UK for two decades.
Priced at under £50k, the Ghibli Cup has few obvious rivals beyond the one you can read about elsewhere in these pages, but as an understated alternative to more ubiquitous mainstreamers like the Porsche 911, it is foolishly ignored.
Design & Engineering
Five months from now, Maserati will unveil a curvaceous all-new Giugiaro- designed two-plus-two coupe at the Frankfurt motor show. So this "Cup" version of the Ghibli (which will soldier on alongside the new coupe for a while) is probably the final evolution of Maserati's long-in-the-tooth Biturbo series. It also happens to be the most powerful. Toting a 330bhp version of the beautiful- looking 1996cc 90deg V6, it has 165bhp per litre - the highest specific output of any production car on sale.
Boosted by a pair of intercooled IHI turbochargers, it drives the rear wheels through a six-speed Getrag gearbox. To handle the extra performance, the Cup also gets the racer's four-pot Brembo brakes and shorter, stiffer springs for its (optional) four-way adjustable suspension. Aesthetically, the modern Ghibli has never matched its 1966 name-sake. Nevertheless, in Cup guise it takes a step in the right direction. The brutal flanks suit racing red, and the split-rim Speedline alloys, aluminium fuel filter, minimal badging and big-bore exhausts provide plenty of attitude.
The cabin is improved, too, with a tough- looking combination of black leather, grey Aleantara and carbon-fibre complemented by drilled aluminium pedals and a superb Momo Corse steering wheel. But the ergonomics remain badly flawed, and despite recent strides to improve quality at Maserati, there are too many squeaks and rattles for a £46,000 super-coupe. The final evolution of rear-drive Biturbo is best yet.
Charming - but looks, quality and cabin are no match for inspired powertrain ***
Performance & Brakes
To understand completely the magnitude of Maserati's achievement with the Ghibli Cup's 1996ce V6 twin-turbo engine, you need to look within the engine bays of cars as esoteric as the Bugatti EB110 GT and Jaguar XJ220. Both these true blue supercars use relatively small-capacity, highly tuned turbocharged engines that develop exceptional specific outputs of 157/155bhp per litre respectively. But the Ghibli eclipses both of them with a quite astonishing 165bhp per litre.
What makes this fact all the more poignant is the unusually fine table manners Maserati's engineers have managed to instill in their engine. At crank speeds below 200Orpm it is true that the V6 is not especially happy, grinding and graunching in protest if the throttle is opened too wide too soon, but beyond this it's as well behaved as any other production turbo engine. And compared with the 2.8-litre V6 used in the Ghibli GT, lag is reduced slightly, the power seeping in more smoothly from 250Orpm and piling on in ever stronger chunks up to the 700Orpm cut-out.
There is no doubt that the 2.0-Iitre V6 loses out on some of the deep-chested flexibility of the torquier 2.8, particularly in the high gears at low revs. In essence, by choosing the 2.0-Iitre engine you sacrifice some torque (down to 280lb ft from 317) and unleash a further 50bhp instead. But the gains in engine smoothness and boost progression, not to mention outright acceleration above 4500-500Orpm when the V6 really starts to sing, are well worth it overall, we feel. Not to mention the extra aural delights that the 2.0-litre lump provides, both at idle (when it burbles menacingly) and at high revs, when there's a subtle but distinct howl that its bigger-capacity equivalent couldn't hope to replicate.
The raw numbers make fairly impressive reading, too. Although it struggles to put its ferocious 330bhp down neatly off the line, the Ghibli Cup matches the 2.8 GT blow for blow from 0-60mph with a time of 5.6see. But from 30-70mph it screams away, with a punishing time of 4.8see compared with 5.2sec. And it takes just 3.4sec to hit 100mph, signing off the standing kilometre at 133mph and 25see dead, again fractionally ahead of the GT. Undoubtedly the Cup's extra gear ratio gives it a leg up as far as sprinting is concerned, but given that the change quality is neither as accurate nor as light as we'd have liked, the advantage is not as great as it seems. No, the lion's share of the Cup's fiercer pace is down to that fantastic 2.0-litre engine.
Considering the Brembo-developed brakes have a 1424kg kerb weight to haul down from high speeds, the strength and progression with which they operate is beyond serious criticism.
Blistering mid-range punch; shame about turbo lag and poor gearshift ****
Market & Finance
Banish thoughts of vertically depreciating Maserati Biturbos. Meridien, the Hampshire-based importer who distributes UK Maseratis, claims it has the residual values of today's model line-up well under control. It freely admits early models were a disaster, a state of affairs it blames on poor build quality, oversupply and high list prices, but nowadays sensible pricing, professional marketing and a much improved product line-up is bringing depreciation under control. The distributor claims most early, well maintained, average mileage Ghiblis will make about £30,000. An 18,000-mile 92K Spyder, by the way, made £25,000 recently, as much as it made two years ago when Meridien last sold it.
Is it spinning us a yarn? We don't think so. The Ghibli has the price, quality, ability and character to pass as an alternative to the BMW M3, a model Meridien says it frequently sees in part-exchange (that and Porsche 911s, Honda NSXs, even Ferraris). And the ever-deepening association with- Ferrari can only help matters. Then there's the determination to match supply and demand by ordering only sold cars from the factory. It says the previous distributors went badly wrong by flooding the market and thinking they could make a quick buck. Meridien says there are about 170 used Ghiblis in the UK and plans to sell no more than 70 new ones each year.
One drawback with Ghibli ownership is the lack of dealer support. There are four in the UK (Perth, Manchester, Romford and Bournemouth) and six service outlets. But apparently many customers prefer Meridien itself to collect their car and service it.
Still a brave choice but benefiting from more professional marketing now***
The Autocar Verdict
The Maserati Ghibli Cup is heralded as something of a faith restorer around here. Although it's not without its faults, it nevertheless possesses sufficient old-fashioned soul and character to make even the most cynical non-believers sit up and pay attention. Its 2.0 litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine is undoubtedly its strongest asset. The fact that this unit boasts the highest specific output of any contemporary production road car engine is eclipsed only by the knowledge that it is also tractable and well behaved. And when the right occasion presents itself, there can be few sub £50,000 coupes that offer as much bang for your buck as this one, especially since the experience is underlaid by one of the most charismatic leather trim soundtracks available in any car on sale in 1997. But unlike so many recent Maseratis before it, the Ghibli Cup's act is not a one-hit wonder.
The chassis plays an unusually strong supporting role to the engine by indulging the keen driver with a level of involvement that is all too rare these days. The steering is worthy of the highest praise, and accompanying this are a fine level of grip and a much-improved ride by Maserati standards. Even the brakes are up there among the best. As you'd expect from a car wearing the trident on its flanks, however, the Ghibli's many undeniable strengths are accompanied by a number of irritations that somewhat spoil the overall picture. Of these, the driving position is easily the worst. Quite why Maserati still can't design a decent driving environment for any of its cars remains beyond us, but in this instance it proves especially frustrating because the rest of the car is, comparatively, so good. The other aspect that lets it down, though not by as big a margin as in the past, is the quality. Any brand new car that rattled and squeaked as much as this one would drive an owner to distraction, but when the price tag is this high there is no excuse.
Despite recent improvements to the quality of its cars, Maserati still has a way to go to match the best. But when the fundamentals are this desirable, this correct, such glitches are no longer disastrous.