It feels like I've been neglecting the Ghibli of late, since I've not spent much time or effort on it recently. So in an attempt to make amends, I've spent most of the weekend giving the car a good clean an a thorough polish and to prove it I took some pictures!
While in the process, I had several neighbours and passers by comment on the car and pass on positive comments regarding the car and the condition, which is always nice to hear and a real charm of owning the car. Two of the passers by commented that the car is a collectors item and a rare classic... so there you have it! It's official... you can't argue with the word on the street!
Anyway, apologies for being so quiet... despite there having been plenty of stuff going on in my life recently, non of it has really revolved around the car, other than the Spax lowering springs that I ordered from the UK have arrived, which I'll get Jorrit to fit next time I take the car to Nordwijkerhout (probably in a month or so).
I know I haven't posted anything new on the exhaust yet, or on the Maserati Club International event in Assen, but I'm getting 'round to them.
In the meantime, I've been back to the dyno and to prove it I made a very short video.
The dyno results are below, with the bold lines the new results overlaying the previous results.
As you can see, I've dropped the boost pressure a little which results in a lower peak torque and less agressive ramp up. However, as a result I now have a longer flat section from 4000 rpm to about 5,500 rpm.
Overall performance can be determined by calculating the area beneath the curves... in mathematical terms, if you integrate the curve you'll calculate the actual work done. So although the new curve is not as peaky, across the rev range it's more effective, which should translate as being quicker on the road.
I think there's still some scope to tweak the inlet pressure a little, but it won't yield any big improvements. There's something fundamental preventing me from getting more power out of this engine and I can't quite put my finger on it. Fuelling is not the issue... if anything it's running too rich at the top end, but the chip tuner prefers this since it's much less likely that the engine is going to fail. But it shows that the current injectors are more than up to the job.
So if there's enough fuel, is there enough air? Air supply to the compressors is not the issue, since last time I was at the tuners I did a run with no air filters and there was hardly any difference (so I think the air filters I have fitted are more than good enough). So, maybe I'm getting a significant amount of pressure leak between the compressors and the inlet manifold? To check this I'll need to place a pressure gauge near to the outlet of the compressor and compare this with the pressure at the plenum chamber. It could be that the turbos are having to work very hard to maintain 1.20 bar, which is effecting their efficiency.
Another simple thing to try is to connect the stock boost solenoid... although it won't be controlling the inlet pressure, it's absense may be alerting the ECU and knocking it into safe mode. I don't think the Ghibli ECU has an error check circuit for this like modern cars, but I don't know, so it's worth checking it.
If it's not air supply then it has to come down to timing. I certainly think this is what is preventing me going above 1.20 bar, but I think I should be getting better performance at 1.20 bar, so I'm not going to go down this route yet. I think I should be able to get 360 hp out of this engine at 1.20 bar, so I need to find out what's preventing this before looking at changing out the distribution system.
So... the sooner I install the PLX data logger the better I think.
The Maserati brand appears to be drumming up some excitement among the press. I've just been on a business trip overseas and paid my usual visit to the newsagent at the airport to pick up some reading material for the long plane journey. It was a pleasant surprise to find not one, but two car magazines featuring Maserati, both of which mentioning the Maserati Ghibli!
The first I picked up was Classic Car magazine, which had a two page feature on the Ghibli (both the new and the old version!). The second was Car magazine, which had a page rating all the Maserati cars to date as "Good, Bad or Ugly". I'm happy to say that the Ghibli was assessed by both magazines as a great car! Although I'm happy to see that others are starting to appreciate this car, I'm also keen to keep it a secret! However, such good publicity can only be positive with respect to pricing.
I received an email recently from a Ghibli owner in France who had sold his MY93 car and was looking to purchase another Ghibli here in the Netherlands. He informed me that Ghibli's are relatively uncommon in France and as a result, the trend in prices had bottomed out and were now on the up.
This is probably spurred on by the recent introduction of the new Maserati GranTurismo and the ongoing success of the Quatroporte raising the profile and perceived value of the Maserati brand. The result is that more people are becoming aware of the Maserati brand and are now considering Maserati as a viable option. Unable to afford the high prices of the new cars, people start to look at second hand purchases, increasing market demand and hiking up prices.
So I just had a quick look on AutoTrader's Dutch website and indeed, although you can pick up an older Ghibli for a pretty low price (this red MY93 Ghibli (with interesting graphite coloured wheels that have obviously been painted) can be picked up for about €11,000), general prices seem to have remained at least stationary since last year and for more recent versions of the car they do indeed seem to be increasing (this dark blue MY99 Ghibli is listed at €22,000)!
It would therefore appear that now is a good time to purchase a Ghibli and that the car is set to become a classic!
I received an email from Enrico this week with pictures of Zagato's concept Maserati GS with the following text:
"Fashionable Italian custom car builder Zagato, which is based in Milan, is to unveil a dazzling two-seater at the Concours d'Elegance Villa d'Este.
The Maserati GS by Zagato is set to be a real showstopper.
It is based on the Maserati GranSport Spyder but is about 25cm shorter.
According to Zagato the GS has "excellent handling and stability on curves, with extraordinary torsional rigidity".
The car is striking with its all-aluminum bodywork and prominent logos: the trident on the bonnet and the Z on the wing.
Zagato said the vehicle was commissioned by Italian entrepreneur Paolo Boffi. The company said it proposed a vehicle "that evoked the historical Maserati A6 G Zagato of 1954."
I read in a magazine article the other week an interview with Maserati's chief designer, who hinted that Maserati were going to releas a third car in their line up which would be of a more sporting nature, to complement the GranTourismo and the executive Quatroporte. Could this be it?
It's certainly a stunning looking car, with a nice blend of creases and curves, but it doesn't sit well with the current family styling shared by the Pininfarina designed GranTourismo and Quatroporte. My guess is that the third car will come from Pininfarina, since they seem to have forged a bit of a relationship with Maserati of late, with the two current cars and also with last year's concept Birdcage 75th.
My wife was browsing through the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and spotted a short report on Maserati, reporting that they sold thirty-two cars at the motorshow this year, twenty-nine of the new GranTurismos and three Quatroportes.
Looks like the future's looking rosy for Maserati!
Well, I managed to get onto the Maserati stand at the Amsterdam AutoRAI... rather easily in the end. I asked if I could enter the stand and was told it was by invitation only. So I told them that I'd been invited the Geneva show but couldn't make it and they let me straight on!
I'm glad I did... since the GranTurismo is far nicer in the flesh than it looks on the pictures! Maserati have come a long way in build quality and the car looked and felt very solid and well put together. The car is a little larger than I anticipated, much wider than my Ghibli and certainly a lot longer. I think the majority of this extra length is at the front of the car, with that very long bonnet. The front wheels are set very far forward, leaving very little overhang at the front of the car.
Inside, there's undoubtedly more space than in the Ghibli, but not as much as you'd be led to believe from press articles. Since I'm pretty tall at 1.99m, I had to have the seat all the way back, which only left 15cm of so behind the driver's seat and the rear paseenger seat. Still, that's 15cm more than in my Ghibli, where the drivers seat is right up against the rear passenger seat!
When I first saw pictures of the new Maserati, I was a little uncertain as to whether I liked it. I left the AutoRAI with good impressions of the car though and if I had the money I'd certainly be considering getting one. It's a class above a Porsche 911 and offers much more value... it's an exclusive brand and won't fail to turn heads when driving down the street. I'd love to have heard the engine... will maybe have to pay a visit to the dealer just for that I think.
Anyway, as promised, here's some exclusive pictures of the car!
Appologies for not writing for so long! Things have been a bit hectic and I was away on holiday for a couple of weeks.
The bad news is that I missed the Geneva motor show and the unveiling of the new GranTurismo last month. The good news is that it looks like I'm off to the AutoRAI in Amsterdam this weekend, so I'll take my camera along and see if I can get some good pictures of the new car to post here. Assuming that Maserati will let me on their stand that is... I've written to them asking for access, but I've not heard anything back yet. So I'm hoping that if I take my keys along with me that they'll see that I'm an owner and let me in!
I have managed to drive the Ghibli since my last posting. It's running well, but there's a couple of things that I need to get sorted over the next month or two. First of all... the bumpers still need replacing. Might just give Jorrit a call and ask him to sort it all out, including rolling out a couple of dents.
Also, the pin that sits in the hinge mechanism of the door on the passenger side of the car has fallen out, which means that the door makes a lound crack/bang noise when it is opened. It's not causing any damage, but it worries me so I need to get that sorted.
And I stil need to get some new bolts for my front wheels. The current ones are a bit too short and are on the limit with only a couple of threads (the minimum amount) holding the wheels to the hub. Assuming that the local wheel dealers are open on Friday (since it's Easter holidays), I'll try and get this sorted then.
In the meantime, one of my friends did make it to the Geneva show and managed to get a few pictures of the new car, which I've attached below (thanks Martin).
He also got a picture of what is probably my favourite car at the moment, the Alfa 8C (although he seemed more intent on photographing the ladies on the stands rather than the cars).
I actually saw the concept of this car unveiled at the Frankfurt motorshow a couple of years ago (a deep red colour) and fell in love with it then... I have a picture of it somewhere that I'll have to try and dig out.
I received an email the other day from Maserati inviting me to the Geneva motorshow. The email indicated that Maserati will be revealing a new car at the show. I also received these two pictures from a friend of mine illustrating a Maserati concept car.
Could this be the new car? Unfortunately I will be on holiday in March so won't be able to visit the show to find out... will keep my eye on the press though!
I had some problems with my Ghibli's alarm system on Friday night. I parked the car outside my office and popped inside to pick up a couple of things. When I returned to the car, it wouldn't open with the remote control, so I could only gain access with the key.
This on its own wouldn't have been a problem, but since the alarm system wouldn't recognise my remote, it wouldn't disarm the immobiliser. So I couldn't start the car!
I ended up having to leave the car parked in the street overnight while I figured out how to bypass the alarm system. Turned out this wasn't too difficult... as long as you have the original manual that came with the alarm where the magic number is written that de-activates the alarm. Since I recently moved, I had to search around the house for the manual, but once I found it then it was pretty straightforward to disarm the system.
So, I got the car going again on Saturday (I think the problem was caused by the battery level getting low, since once the car was started up again and driven for a couple of kilometers the alarm worked fine again) and drove it 'round to Auto Forza to have the new brake system installed (more on that later).
While at Auto Forza, I noticed some new damage to the car.
I was really annoyed. I left the car out in the street (and not a particularly busy or crowded street) for one night and am rewarded by a dent and scratch to the front left wing of the car. It looks like the damage was caused by a cyclist catching their pedal on the side of the car. I can only assume that they were drunk to have been so clumsy.
So, that's something new to get sorted on the car... it should be realatively simple to get the dent rolled out, but the scratch may be a little more difficult to remove. Will take the car the to body shop and get them to have a look at it when I get the bumbers repaired... if the weather stays as it is then that will be sooner rather than later!
