The Maserati Ghibli Trofeo is an anachronism. This happens sometimes with cars or platforms that have survived well into their fourth act, as the Ghibli has. Maserati’s mid-sizer has been on the market on for nearly a decade now, and seems poised to continue for at least a couple more years while the 107-year-old automaker attempts yet another transformation.
Maserati has had many owners and managers over the years, including French Automaker Citroën, Argentine car impresario Alejandro de Tomaso, Fiat, Ferrari and most recently Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and its successor, Stellantis. Each one has had different goals for the Trident brand, and with U.S. sales down 60% from 2017 to 2020, another change in direction will arrive next year starting with the MC20 sports car and ground-up replacements for its sedan and SUV siblings.
In the meantime, the old Masers remain, including the circa-2013 Ghibli. Created as a higher-end alternative to the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, both of those cars get full-on makeovers, with Tuetonic punctuality, every six or seven years while the Ghibli hasn’t changed much.
But this kind of extended lifetime is not always a bad thing, as it allows an automaker to refine the product offering in new ways—like streamlining the Ghibli’s hunky aerodynamic design, or adding in a new, crisp, easy-to-use (and easier to Apple CarPlay with) 10.1-inch touchscreen display in the center console.
It also allows it to attempt to gin up consumer interest in inventive ways, like by stuffing a 580 horsepower, twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V-8 into the engine bay. One glimpse at the red crinkle finish of the engine’s intake manifolds and valve covers makes its Ferrari parentage immediately known. It’s this ingredient that makes the $115,795 Ghibli Trofeo truly special.
Brash, Balanced and Loaded for Bear
This implant changes the character of the Ghibli in interesting ways. First, it slashes the car’s 0-60 acceleration time by nearly a full second, with the rush to a mile-a-minute now occurring in around 3.7 ticks. Second, it raises the top speed to a stratospheric, and purported, 203 mph, the fastest of any vehicle in its class.
Third, it provides the sedan with a hard-charging exhaust note—especially in Sport or Race modes—that threatens the restrictive parameters of luxury sedan but never veers into obstreperousness.
Though Maserati offers all-wheel-drive as an option on lesser, twin-turbo V-6-powered Ghiblis—as well as on its sibling, the Ferrari V-8-powered Levante Trofeo SUV—it does not do so for the Trofeo. This means that, unlike nearly every other high-performance sedan, including recent converts like the BMW M3 and M5, it propels itself solely through its rear wheels.
This has its disadvantages. Even with meaty, 285-series Pirelli P-Zero tires and a limited slip differential out back, the Ghibli often has some difficulty getting all of that power to the road consistently (hence the significant variance from the M5’s sub-three-second 0-60 time.) Of course, this kind of tail wagging can also be fun, as can the ability to needlessly smoke the tires from a standstill.
Fortunately, the Ghibli’s handling behavior is, generally, eminently predictable, in the vein of a high-powered sports sedan of yore, like a DotCom-era M5 or a mid-aughties Mercedes-AMG E 55. Yes, it makes crazy power that can rip gravel at incautious starts, but it makes a driver pay attention to, well, driving, which is kind of the point. It is also incredibly balanced once underway. The electrically-assisted steering is lithe, if ever so slightly recalcitrant in its actions and communication.
The upgraded vented disc brakes (with optional $400 gloss black calipers housed behind the oversized 21-inch silver wheels, another $400 option) were plenty grippy and hauled the nearly 4,700-pound sedan down from very extra-legal speeds with alacrity, and avoided the tetchiness often found in sedans of this ilk. The ZF 8-speed transmission is flawless, as it is in every single other car in this category.
Trofeo Life
On a couple of highway-heavy day trips, punctuated at their end by blasts through the countryside, the suburbs and the city, the Trofeo really showed its strengths. It’s an absolute delight on the interstate, providing rich comfort and immediate passing power. After the offramp, it shines especially bright on the backroads during the “last mile” (well, last twenty miles) of these kinds of outings.
Some of this is due to the engine and the chassis, which imbue the car with a playfulness that seems to have been engineered out of former stalwarts like the M5 in the overwhelming quest for optimal track-ready acceleration and handling.
The rest is down to the Maserati’s simple logic: put together the best components a brand can muster, and surround them with easy-to-use switchgear, easy-to-read analog gauges, and easy-to-get-comfortable-in quilted seats. Then make everything look classy and premium without a bunch of distracting technological gewgaws many people will never use. You won’t find a lap recorder but you will find plenty of fun.
It doesn’t hurt that the Ghibli is one of the most compelling and originally-styled sedans on the market. With sneering eyes, a selachian snout, mesomorphic thighs, and just the right amount of ornamentation, its telegraphs an aggressive attitude without needing, or wanting, to shout.
With a longer wheelbase than its competitors but a shorter overall length, its taut bodywork resembles an Olympic athlete in a Lycra bodysuit, bulging in all the right places. (It also provides decent rear legroom.) It makes its closest competitor, the Alfa Romeo Guilia Quadrifoglio, look staid; it makes Jaguar’s only sedan, the XF, look positively boring.
Irrational Exuberance
Standout quibbles are few. The seat and steering wheel heater controls are in the touchscreen; they should be hard buttons and less futzily accessed, as they are in the back seat (with the $700 climate package). A Ford Explorer can be had with massaging seats; a six-figure sport sedan like the Trofeo should have them standard, or at least available.
The wireless charging slot, while brilliantly spring loaded to allow easy access and closure, doesn’t lock a phone into proper position, causing it to jounce around on and off the magic charging point, especially in spirited driving (and this car is made for spirited driving.)
The paint color options also lack both richness and luridness for a car many buyers will want to be seen in. There are six shades, five of which are variations on white and gray. Where’s the black-green or burnt copper or mocha sienna? Alfa Romeo notably offers vivid hues like Ocra gold and Verde Montreal green on the Giulia Quadrifoglio.
Like a brilliant colleague who isn’t afraid to get drunk and don a garbage bag dress and perform Shakespearian soliloquies in the clucking voice of a chicken, the Trofeo is happy to remind a driver that driving quickly, or even driving a quick car slowly, is meant to be joyous, and an occasion.
If it can survive long enough, the Ghibli feels destined to be an appreciating classic. It’ll likely be remembered as a car that jubilantly bucked the trends at the end of the era of internal combustion, and focused on engagement and exuberance.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Automobiles News Click Here
