Are you a weather person? The expression which I know is used in at least some languages (although I’m not sure English is one of them) refers to someone whose mood stands in strong correlation to the weather. My wife would tell you that I’m definitely part of this group, meaning I’m happy when the sun shines and get grumpy if it rains for more than a day or so, which unfortunately is often the case in Switzerland.

That’s also to say that the end of October up until early December is my least favored part of the year. Before that, it’s usually still pretty summer-like, and from mid-December onwards, the skiing season starts, which is an obvious change for the better. But during those weeks from mid-October until mid-December, where others see leaves in beautiful colors, I only see shorter and colder days, morning fog, and the world generally being in various shades of grey. Which of course makes this week’s street find all the more remarkable: not only totally unexpected, but at this time of year, also in a color that really stood out on a street full of silver, grey and black cars!

This wonderful example of the original Maserati Ghibli, that a happy owner had no doubt put a lot of money into, quite obviously has nothing to do with the four-door sedan Maserati sells under the same name since around 10 years, and which isn’t shooting the lights out in any respect. The original Ghibli very much does, with its typical long and wide 70’s body, from the pop-up headlights, over the immense bonnet, all the way back to the quite abrupt hatchback-like end.

Giorgetto Giugiaro (featured numerous times on this blog, notably here, here and here) created the car while working for Bertone in the 60’s, and afterwards, referred to it as his best creation. It’s easy to see why! The Ghibli was first shown in Turin in 1966 and went into production two years later. In 1970 Giugiaro drew a convertible that would complement it. However, you only need to look at the lines of the coupé to realize that removing the roof can never produce a car that is as pretty. Buyers seem to agree, as only 125 convertibles were ever built.

There would have been plenty of room for a 12-cylinder under the bonnet and had the Ghibli come from Ferrari or Lamborghini, that’s no doubt what you would have found. Maserati however has far less of a 12-cylinder tradition than the others, and the Ghibli was powered by a 4.7 litre V8, derived from the earlier racing car 450S, and here producing around 320 hp. The car was certainly large at almost 5 metres length and around 2 metres width, but it weighted in at under 1700 kg, so in that sense, power was plentiful.

Unfortunately, timing-wise, the Ghibli was a bit like Andy Roddick. If you’re into tennis, you may remember him as a very talented US player who at his peak certainly had the game to become world no 1, had it not been for the small fact that he played at the same time as the trio Federer, Djokovic and Nadal. As we know timing is everything, and in that respect, when the Roddick-Ghibli went on sale in 1968, it did so in direct competition with a certain Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, and also the Lamborghini Miura. Not only that – it was more expensive than both of those, although both of them had an additional four cylinders under the bonnet.

The Ghibli’s price and competition certainly contributed to the car not becoming as successful as Maserati had hoped, and in 1973, the beauty was discontinued after only 1249 cars (including the spider) had been built. This means it’s a very rare car today, and finding one in the condition of “my” car is certainly even rarer. As it stood there, it’s probably worth around EUR 250-300.000, which means that you’ll get two and a half Ghiblis for one Daytona. That to me is the only real competitor, as the Miura is a far more uncompromising proposition.

Be that as it may, the Ghibli certainly lighted up the otherwise very grey day of this weather person . Looking at a tree full of yellow leaves just afterwards, I even thought about how that color really matched the new leather interior of the beauty I had just seen. Maybe there is some beauty to autumn, after all…