Lotus nut turned Maserati nut; Hello!

[Randy]

Quick hello to the forum. I'm a new member having just bought myself the Ghibli GT that I've been hankering after for a long time. My usual steed is a Lotus and this is the first Maserati I've owned and so far (for the first couple of days at least!) I'm loving it.

Before buying the car I read the forum extensively which was really helpful so thanks to all those people who helped!

The car I've bought is very late Ghibli GT in dark green. Its only 40K miles and has been recently re-sprayed and the engine runs like a dream. The interior is looking a little shabby though and I'm planning on a few other choice improvements to bring the car up to the right spec and standard and I'll be sure to keep people here updated.

My day job is running a garage business in Henley and much of my spare time is taken up building very fast Lotus' so I'm well equipped to get my teeth into this little project and I'm really looking forward to it.

 

[philw696]

Welcome and congratulations. I also are in the motor trade as a motor engineer / Mot tester bewarned Italian cars are addictive but boy have they brought us some work to the Garage. Enjoy and keep us posted. Phil.

 

[mjheathcote]

Hi Randy, quite a few of us are lotus and ex lotus owners.
Taking a guess, Seloc, Chris, Hofmanns...

 

[Andyk]

Hi Randy and a big warm welcome to the forum...Another x Lotus owner and Selocer here to.....Love the Ghibli and it looks great in the green...Don't forget to post some pictures.

 

[Randy]

Blimey, really didn't think my reputation would precede me! I've not taken any good pics of the outside yet but here is *that* engine bay!

 

[2b1ask1]

Very nice and a great choice

 

[Andyk]

Very, very clean engine...I like....

 

[Randy]

It certainly goes well too. For the first time in a very long time I went for a drive after work for the sake of going for a drive

 

[Ewan]

Hi Randy and congrats on the purchase.

If I may ask (and feel free to reply privately), from whom did you buy it, and what year is it? Is it manual or auto, and what colour interior? I'm in the process of negotiating on a very late Ghibli GT in dark green (it may well be the very last UK car), so would love to hear a bit more about yours and see some pics.

I used my Ghibli Cup for the first time in weeks today. Brilliant.

 

[Grinzzz]

Hi Chris, and welcome. Youre boys worked your magic on my elise once upon a time.

I hope you look after this better than a certain poor lil lotus!

 

[Andyk]

Chris, are you the chap that raced the Europa in the Lotus Cup......?

 

[Dan!]

Plenty of Lotus nuts make the transition to/addition of Masarati

/Fellow SELOCer here and good friends of Lisa and John whose Europa you've worked on and developed

 

[Randy]

Hi Chris, and welcome. Youre boys worked your magic on my elise once upon a time.

I hope you look after this better than a certain poor lil lotus!
View attachment 17020

Fond memories, that was a terrific little car. Shortly after that I patched her up and ran her at Spa with three race wins including a 90min race where we lapped the entire field of 64 cars. I subsequently sold her but bought the (pretty much intact) chassis back after it was crashed at Oulton.

 

[Randy]

Hi Randy and congrats on the purchase.

If I may ask (and feel free to reply privately), from whom did you buy it, and what year is it? Is it manual or auto, and what colour interior? I'm in the process of negotiating on a very late Ghibli GT in dark green (it may well be the very last UK car), so would love to hear a bit more about yours and see some pics.

I used my Ghibli Cup for the first time in weeks today. Brilliant.

I fear I might have bought that car! Its a very late car in green which was sold via Justin Banks, I'll get some pics up soon.

 

[Randy]

Chris, are you the chap that raced the Europa in the Lotus Cup......?

Yes, that's me and still racing the Europa although she is being patched back together at the moment after being taken out by a nutter in a Ferrari at Silverstone.

 

[Randy]

Plenty of Lotus nuts make the transition to/addition of Masarati

/Fellow SELOCer here and good friends of Lisa and John whose Europa you've worked on and developed

Wow, small world. Lisa's car is a gem and Lisa still stands as one of the best/fastest drivers of all my customers!!

 

[Andyk]

Yes, that's me and still racing the Europa although she is being patched back together at the moment after being taken out by a nutter in a Ferrari at Silverstone.

Bet thats a fun wa to spend the weekend Chris......POst some pictures up of her is action if you get time or have any...Would love to see her.

 

[Dan!]

Wow, small world. Lisa's car is a gem and Lisa still stands as one of the best/fastest drivers of all my customers!!

I'm sure she'll be delighted to hear that, and I'd certainly agree having seen her disappear into the distance on many an occasion!

 

[Randy]

I was intending on cleaning her and taking some photos yesterday but in true Maserati style the RH door handle came off inside so I spent the time fixing that instead! So here is a picture of her looking grubby instead!



So far the ownership experience has been really good. Pleasingly, I sorted the problem with the car pulling right (starting another thread on that) and now she drives remarkably well. Having never actually driven a Ghibli before purchase I was a little worried it would be rubbish and a case of 'never meet your heros'. In reality I'm so pleased I met this hero because I love the car to drive, its stable, composed, balanced and fantastically controllable oversteer on demand. My job list is already quite extensive; I need to fix the air con, loads of work on the interior making the leather nice and fixing up the trim and rubber seals and that's before the big one of swapping to manual box. Once the basics are done my plan is to fit a Syvecs ECU, maybe some bigger Turbos, do a nice exhaust and build a suspension package with Nitron. If there is an obviousl weak link its in the rigidity of the chassis which is a long way behind modern standard and will restrict the amount of spring rate I can run but, that said, I want this car to remain compliant so it isn't the end of the world.

Its wet outside now so I'm looking for an excuse to go for a burn and take in some lurid oversteer

 

[CatmanV2]

I still really *really* fancy one of them

Looks super, Randy

C