This Week @ Coys: Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Spyder
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Coys
GIALLO. In Italian, giallo means yellow.
In Inglese, it refers to a dark but sultry genre of mystery novels. You know, the kind that mix murder and sex.
Coys (né Coys of Kensington) is the greater London based auctioneer exemplar that has – by listing this giallo over black, 1970 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Spyder – tickled us with our own thrilling Italian daydream.
It’s right to call the Spyder’s lustrous paint giallo.
The pigment, like the car’s beautiful body, is so dynamic, us English speakers might call it “sun”. It’s as if Maserati’s paint shop mixed Sicilian blood orange juice with limoncello; giving an otherwise flat hue a veritable fire!
Naturally, everything in the 70s had either an orange or brown cast; the Ghibli hardtop looked particularly striking, if period, in cocoa brown.
Coys, in classically understated Britishese, describes the effect the Ghiblis had on the public imagination.
“Introduced to an enthusiastic public at the Turin Show of 1966, the Ghibli broke with the recent Maserati tradition for conservative designs, instead displaying dramatic, purposeful lines, drawn by none other than Giorgietto Giugiaro whilst still at Ghia’s design studio. Under the bonnet was Maserati’s magnificent all alloy 4.7 litre four camshaft V8 engine, derived from the company’s sports racing car power plants and mated to a five speed gearbox. Claimed top speed was a not inconsiderable 174mph!”
What a hair-raising thought.
One hundred and seventy four miles per hour in a topless exotic… forty years old…painted in blinding orange-yellow… long bonnet surging toward an unknown horizon…così fantastico e profondo!
About the Author: Gunnar Heinrich is publisher of Automobiles De Luxe online and is executive producer of the Automobiles De Luxe Television series on PBS member station CPTV.
