Forza Motorsport 6: Studio Ghibli

No, not what it seems but the Ghibli I'm referring now is Maserati's 4-door saloon, the Ghibli. Italian's take on BMW's 3-Series, Mercedes' C-Class, and Audi's A4.

As you recall, you may have drove this car in Forza Horizon 2 as a special machine that was part from the Fast & Furious car pack as Deckard Shaw's Ghibli from Furious 7. Now, I'm driving a totally normal Ghibli model, in the high-end S model with four-wheel drive and a 3.0L V6 engine that produces 404HP of power, mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox.

Upon driving the Ghibli S Q4, I have doubts that this car is as grippy as any other four-wheel drive cars get because by normal, most of the power goes to the front wheels, but I was wrong because Maserati has been very keen on tackling its four-wheel drive powertrain very seriously since the Quattroporte and as a result, it behaves like a rear-wheel drive car by default but when necessary, it can transfer half of the power to the front. As a result, I have a luxury four-door saloon that has the sophistication of a luxury German saloon but with the feel of an Italian sports car. How fun is that. Sounds like the Italian flair really get the job done for the Ghibli, although I don't find its twin-turbo V6 engine to be more exciting even when it injects a lot of power on it. Sure, the turbocharging's all nice and easy but when it comes to excitement, it never really makes the grade for it.

In general, the Ghibli S maybe born from the company that makes grand tourers like the GranTurismo but for having fun...let's demonstrate it when I drive this car round Monza.

Then, I'm going to look for another Ghibli to make a point and looks like I found one...

What you're looking at is a limited-edition Ghibli Cup, a road-legal version of the car that was once used in Maserati's one-make race series in the mid-90's. With its 2.0L twin turbo engine producing 330PS of power, the Ghibli Cup has the strongest power output per litre compared to the Bugatti EB110 and Jaguar XJ220. Sounds cool but let's find out how does the old Ghibli and the new Ghibli face themselves off...

And now the results...

Ghibli Cup - 2:26.647
Ghibli S - 2:23.443

So, what can I say, for a four-door saloon with a four-wheel drive, the Ghibli S Q4 sure knows how to tackle a track with precision but despite its fast result, it's all serious business for the Ghibli as I'm sure why would anyone didn't mind about the hidden potential beneath Italy's 3-Series fighter. It maybe fast enough to handle a corner but for excitement, you'd better off with the old Ghibli Cup instead because with such reputation, no other motorsport-bred Maserati comes close than the legend.

However, if you wanted a saloon that balances luxury and performance, consider the Ghibli a job well done for you.

Maserati Ghibli

2014 Maserati Ghibli

Hmmm...Ever wonder why there is another sedan in the Maserati lineup? Maserati makes sports cars and that's it until the four-door Quattroporte crashed the party, the same thing happened to Aston Martin with their Rapide and Porsche with their Panamera. Sure, there are four-door sedans wearing supercar badges but for Maserati, there's plenty for that came from so in case you're wondering...why? Why did Maserati added another four door saloon which is shorter than the Quattroporte?

It's called the Ghibli (no, not Studio Ghibli. Just Ghibli) and what this is is the Italian supercar maker's take on the baby luxury saloons such as the Audi A4, BMW 3-Series, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. That's right. This Italian luxury saloon has its rivals on its crosshairs or tridents perhaps but there's some bizarre oddities lurking around the new Ghibli even though it was labeled as a Quattroporte for the posh yuppies.

2014 Maserati Ghibli interior

2014 Maserati Ghibli interior

Normally, the exterior design looks more like a Quattroporte that has been zapped by the small ray but naturally, the new Ghibli, which is Italian for "I'm gonna take down those German rivals in my class", showcases its prolific characteristics suitable for anyone who's having their seminal work done and move on to another. It maybe smaller, shorter, lighter, more dynamic, less expensive and more economical than the flagship Quattroporte but amazingly, the new Ghibli serves as the next evolution for Maserati as this saloon serves more profit for Maserati as by 2015, they'll be making 50,000 Maseratis, most of them will be Ghiblis while some are GranTurismo and Quattroporte but never mind about the GranTurismo. Some say there's going to be a replacement in the works right now but we'll remain mum about this.

On the interior, that's also an oddity because even though it looks Maserati, there are some stuff sourced from Chrysler such as the engine start/stop button. That's from Chrysler, you known. Then, when you turned on the satellite navigation, yep! That's also sourced from Chrysler and I'm starting to get some connectivity problems out there.

2014 Maserati Ghibli

While the Quattroporte comes with a big V8 engine, the Ghibli tries to be smaller as this baby Maserati saloon is fitted with different V6 engines. For the first time, the Ghibli is the first Maserati to be fitted with a diesel engine. That's sound strange because there hasn't been a supercar maker using a diesel engine but for Maserati, they do have now but only this Italian carmaker can do that, well Porsche did with their diesel-powered Cayenne SUV and the Panamera saloon. Anyway, the diesel-powered model is powered by one of the most powerful single-turbo 3.0L engine on the market, developing 275PS of power, a 0-100kph time of 6.3 seconds, and top speed of 250kph. They even had a cheaper 250PS version but it's only for the Italian market. What makes this Ghibli diesel economical is because of the combined fuel economy of 16.9kmpl and 158 grams of CO2/km emissions. 

Well, the diesel engine maybe a bit of a hush right now but when you compare these to the diesel-powered Germans in its class, it will surely give them a run for its money, theoretically. Now what about the petrol versions? As of now, the most sportiest of them all is the Ghibli S version featuring a high-performance 3.0L V6 engine capable of doing a 0-100kph time of 5 seconds and top speed of 285kph. Couple that with the available four-wheel drive system and it will drop .2 seconds in its 0-100kph but because it's heavy, top speed is now 284kph, one less than the FR version of the Ghibli S.

Also new to Maserati is that all Ghibli models come with the Active Speed Limited function standard. You can activate it or deactivate it at the touch of the button and when its own, the driver will now judge which appropriate speed limit for the car. For the first time, it's the driver's decision, not the maker, to decide the limited top speed for the Ghibli and sounds too good to be true. If the driver sets it to 250kph limited top speed, then fine! 250kph limited top speed for the Ghibli but just to let you know, the normal Ghibli with the normal 3.0L V6 engine has a top speed of 263kph, Ghibli S is 285, Ghibli S Q4 is 284, and Ghibli Diesel is 250 so changing the speed limit of the Ghibli can be somewhat more of a class act so best to be careful with that feature though.

Most Ghiblis do fitted with the Quattroporte-derived 8-speed automatic transmission which delivers in every parameter, from comfort to fast gear shifting, and from minimised fuel consumption to low NVH. It has five settings ranging from Auto Normal, Auto Sport, Manual Normal, Manual Sport and the extreme weather I.C.E mode and the driver can choose which mode is suitable on several driving conditions. Of course some modes are fine if used correctly but some can be a bit more annoying especially the Auto Normal mode which in this mode, this transmission forgot that this is the gear-shifting mechanism, not some kind of stuff that has been idled for too long. You may feel like you are as stressed as watching too much late night television before 2:00AM but it's not over yet.

Judging by the way it handles, the Ghibli does have some characters on the corners but on the normal roads, you'll get the same feeling as you expect from remembering the most painful moments like the awful moment that your sisters think that you're a fraud at watching TV shows. You may think you did watch that show but you're not. Quite a bitter personal experience I got here but this is what you expect when you're driving one on the normal roads. (sigh)

But still, the new Maserati Ghibli is still one of the good driver's car of the year and it has the A4, C-Class, and the 3-Series locked-on. So much for the baby Quattroporte but if this sells like hotcakes, I'm so in to that baby Maserati. Remember it may have the marque of the supercar even with four doors but when you want to take a spin on the Ghibli, you are about as interesting as a man selling falsified documents to the black market. If you saw one of these in your next door neighborhood, you are getting too jealous about your neighbor driving one of those and you just can't resist the temptation. Very well then, guess I'm short of time about this but if you're interested on the Ghibli, contact your nearest Maserati dealer for more info. Cheers!

Photo: Maserati