Modena says goodbye to V8 power with special edition of moribund saloon
STEPHEN DOBIE
TESTED 15.12.23, LIVIGNO, ITALY ON SALE NOW
We can expect a lot more cars like the Ghibli 334 Ultima across the next decade: special editions that wave goodbye to powertrains being mercilessly guillotined by the robust electrification strategies most European car makers had to lay down. Which is the unabridged way to say you’re looking at one of the last V8-engined Maseratis.
The last Ghibli too, at least for the foreseeable. It’s a whole decade since the badge appeared for a third time to launch Maserati’s first genuine crack at the mainstream. Prices started below £50,000 and there was even a diesel, but the car didn’t truly fulfil either of its briefs, being a less exciting flavour of Maserati that still trailed its rivals at the sensible stuff. Still, I will never complain about esoteric alternatives being injected into strait-laced sectors – and it at least elevated the brand’s sales figures out of obscurity and prepared us for the advent of trident-badged SUVs.
It took until the saloon’s sunset years for more than six cylinders to find their way into the engine bay, though – the Ghibli Trofeo acquiring a rather special twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V8 that’s essentially a cross-plane-cranked, wet-sumped and shorter-stroked version of Ferrari’s F154 unit, as used in various heavy-hitters including the 488 Pista. It’s not hiding beneath a party-pooping plastic cover, either: Maserati has given full billing to its eye-catching crackle-finish.
The ‘334’ in the model name has nothing to do with the engine, oddly, but rather its top speed in kilometres per hour – one single unit over a Bentley Flying Spur Speed and enough to crown it the world’s fastest four-door, at least outside the stable doors of Brabus.
Its princely 207mph peak is 5mph up on standard and achieved chiefly through a new tyre compound, a subtle carbonfibre rear spoiler and around 20kg of weight savings (albeit not officially homologated). Its new 21in wheels are lighter, while some of the active safety systems have gone AWOL and the glovebox is now manual rather than electric. I imagine buyers will cope.
The Ghibli Ultima comes painted in Blu Royale, a nod to a hue applied to Maserati’s first V8 model (the 5000 GT of 1959), while inside there’s terracotta-coloured leather and the requisite commemorative plaques and stitching to denote your one-of-103 special (that production run being another r
