My Dad tragically died aged just 41, in September 1975. His pal Joe from Pittsburgh, had ordered the Ghibli new, it was completed in September 1967 and we believe that Jo flew out to collect the car from the factory.
In early 74, my Dad saw the Ghibli up on blocks in one of Joes warehouses. It had only covered 13,000 miles. It was love @ first sight , so a deal was struck.
It was shipped over to England. It needed some tlc due to sitting unused for some years. It was put on an N plate and people used to think it was new ( it looked new ) plus a Ghibli back then was a very rare sight, we only ever saw a red 4.9SS that a Greek garage owner had, opposite the Rainbow theatre and a silver Spyder was regularly parked up in Upper street Islington )
My Dad had just dropped his Ghibli off for clutch repair, when he suffered a heart attack. He was rushed to Nth Middlesex Hospital and died @ around 5.30 am on September 9th 1975. The car was sold to a pal and his father. They sold it in 76 via a Peter Finochi ( are you out there Peter ? ) to an American buyer. In 1990 the Maserati club told me that it was thought to be in Carmel CA. The trail then went cold, until circa 2007, when I was told that it was in Germany owned by a Doctor.
The trail went cold again, but every few weeks I would look for Ghiblis that were for sale. And then a few days before Xmas last year Bingo, there it was on Car and Classic. The seller ( a trader in Austria ) had listed its Vin number in the advert heading.
Sadly it was re painted yellow some ten years ago along with some poor body repair work. He wants £200,000 which is £ double what the car is worth. I still have all of the cars early papers, inc it's factory build sheet.