Sixty years after the original Ghibli made its jaw-dropping debut at the Turin Motor Show on November 3, 1966, Maserati is celebrating the milestone by flexing a crown jewel straight from its own bloodline.
The star of the show is a magnificent 1970 Ghibli SS Coupé (chassis AM115/491948), preserved directly by the Maserati family and officially certified by Maserati Classiche. Penned by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro while at Ghia, the Ghibli’s razor-thin, fastback silhouette, replete with pop-up headlights and named after a blistering North African wind, set the gold standard for Italian grand tourers.
Underneath its absurdly long hood sits a dry-sump 4.9-liter V8 outputting 335 HP through quad carburetors and a five-speed ZF manual transmission. Giugiaro got his dream low-slung profile, allowing this grand tourer to blast up to 280 km/h (174 mph) while original drivers pretended their 1970s neck muscles were totally fine.
Built on November 25, 1970, for the Italian market, this specific 2+2 coupé left the factory in subtle Oro Longchamps before eventually donning a brilliant Giallo Fly coat, all while retaining its original black leather interior.
Under Cristiano Bolzoni, head of Maserati Classiche (now folded into BottegaFuoriserie in Modena since 2021), the heritage department meticulously cross-referenced archives to grant the car official Certification of Authenticity. To mark the occasion, the Maserati Owners Club Italia staged a pilgrimage to Modena alongside heavyweights like Umberto Panini’s Ghibli Spyder, a bulletproof Quattroporte III previously used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a rare Royale, and the final Quattroporte III delivered in Italy.
November 3 also marks 50 years since the 1976 debut of the Quattroporte III, plus 30 years since Guido Cappellini’s 1996 powerboat world record in a Maserati-powered Primatist hull (which birthed the ultra-rare 1997 Ghibli II Primatist edition, limited to 36 units).
Today, while the Ghibli name echoes into history and passes the torch to the all-new GranTurismo in gas and electric flavors, this family-owned 1970 Ghibli SS stands as a noisy, carb-fed reminder of what happens when passion triumphs over spreadsheets.