All language subtitles for Supercar.Superbuild.S01E06.Maserati.Ghibli.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track4_[eng]

(engine revs)
(upbeat music)

(tires screech)

- [Narrator] For over 100 years,

Maserati has specialized in
handcrafted, high performance,

luxurious four-seat machines,

and they've done it while
operating in the shadow

of the most iconic Italian
car makers in the world.

(engine revs)

- Maserati's known for being
the kid brother to Ferrari.

- [Narrator] Now the time has come

for the brand to make a name for itself.

- We went back to look on how we should,

we took inspiration for doing
the Maserati of the future.

- [Narrator] Their goal, to
combine Italian sex appeal

with supercar performance
inside of a four-door machine

and then shrink the supercar.

- Maserati needs to look
amazing and grab your attention.

Otherwise, it doesn't
have a reason to exist.

- [Narrator] It's a bold move designed

to open up new markets and
increase product tenfold.

- It's a little bit ambitious,

but it's also a little
Italian in its drama.

- [Narrator] The future of
Maserati hangs in the balance,

and it's called the Ghibli.

(dramatic suspenseful music)
(engine revs)

(soaring dramatic music)

In the world of supercars,

there is perhaps no more
competitive location

than northern Italy.

It is home to Ferrari,
Lamborghini, Pagani, and Maserati.

Just as the country has
faced ups and downs,

so, too, has its automotive industry.

- Maserati went through
a lot of hard times

in the 60s and 70s and 80s,

and the cars are basically
cobbled together.

- [Narrator] In 1993, after years of fits

and starts and poorly produced machines,

Italian auto conglomerate Fiat
purchases the Maserati brand.

They placed the company
under the direction

of their most famous mark, Ferrari.

- Ferrari took over, basically gutted it,

and changed the way that
they put together cars.

- [Narrator] It's a luxury
one-two punch for the wealthy,

Ferrari for supercars and
Maserati for super saloons.

- Maserati was the car you drive every day

and then get in your
Ferraris on the weekend.

- [Narrator] After decades
of living in the shadows,

Maserati is ready to
call attention to itself.

- We started to think how
to turn over the Maserati,

and we went back to look how we should,

we took inspiration for doing
the Maserati of the future.

- [Narrator] For years,

the company has had success
with their flagship model,

a luxury saloon called the Quattroporte.

(engine revs)

But in order to expand,

it's clear the brand needs
to do something unexpected.

- The big problem is that
Maserati just hasn't had the cars.

I mean, they've had a really big sedan

that was beautiful and
stunning but getting old.

- And we have meeting.

The project team gets together

and lines up the future of the brand.

What will be the car that we
have to have in the portfolio?

- The challenge here for Maserati, simple.

Maserati needs to sell more cars.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] For the past decade,

Maserati has sold just
over 6,000 cars per year.

(electronic beeps trill)

The company takes their flagship supercar

and shrinks it into a smaller,
more affordable package.

- Maserati needs a car that sells more,

and a midsize sedan is
the right place to be.

It's never quite so easy as saying,

you know, "Honey, I
shrunk the Quattroporte."

(engine revs)

- [Narrator] The smaller
model is coined the Ghibli,

tracing back to Maserati's glory days.

- Ghibli is a important
historic name for Maserati,

and the Ghibli was a coupe
that was the competitor

to such cars as the Miura from Lamborghini

or the Daytona from Ferrari and was one

of the most performing and
exclusive two-seater coupe

of that period.
- Paired with the launch

of a revamped Quattroporte,

the Ghibli is a key element in
the brand's expansion plans.

- The two projects were six
months, one from the other.

We had the chance to
think about the two cars

as two ambassadors of the Maserati design.

- [Narrator] Starting at 52,000 euros,

the Ghibli enters territory loaded

with steep international competition.

(traffic whooshes)

Any misstep or spell
disaster for the brand.

- Once you move under $100,000,

you start to compete with
cars like the BMW 5 Series,

the Mercedes-Benz
E-Class, and the Audi A6,

and those cars sell in serious numbers,

and that's what Maserati's going for.

- [Narrator] The Ghibli's
goal is to open up new markets

and increase sales to 50,000 units.

- The Ghibli enters the brand in an area

has never been present
before with the ambition

to raise the number of Maserati

from less than 10,000 to more than 50,000.

So it's a big bet.

(mid-tempo sleek upbeat music)

- [Narrator] That big bet starts

at the Fiat Design
Center in Torino, Italy,

a cutting-edge facility

that the public normally
never gets to see.

It's here where 200 men and
women with an average age

of just 37 determine
the future of the brand.

The process starts with a collage.

Image boards help designers
define the brand's ideals.

Since 2011, the man with the
final say is Lorenzo Ramacotti,

the head of design for
every single Fiat brand,

including Ferrari and Maserati.

- Designing a car is a
very complex activity,

but if the foundation are good,

it's much more easy to get
to a satisfactory result,

and, in this case,

we had a very good foundation
from the mechanical layout.

(engine revs)

- [Narrator] Ramacotti decides that,

in order to differentiate
the two machines,

his design team must focus
the Quattroporte on elegance

while building the Ghibli around speed.

(engines rev)

- We decide to go with the Ghibli more

in the sporty direction.

(engine revs)

- [Narrator] The process takes months,

full of long days

(soft ethereal music)

and long nights.

As the pressure continues to mount

for the brand to increase Maserati sales,

designers get to work
shrinking their flagship.

Cutting the saloon down begins

inside the Fiat virtual reality room.

- Hi, good morning.
Hi, guys. Good morning.

- Ciao.
- How are you doing?

- Ciao.
- Where the team literally

goes over the machine point by point.

To give the Ghibli a sporty feel,

designers shrink the machine's wheel base,

the distance between the
front and rear wheels.

The team cuts the machine
down by 173 millimeters,

which is nearly the
height of a wine glass.

- There's always a big
problem making a sporty sedan

because, if you make it too sporty,

the backseat doesn't work and
there's a compromise there.

You're never gonna have a sedan
that looks like a supercar

from every angle and still be usable.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] To double
check the basic proportions,

designers move to a more
traditional form of streamlining.

They tape the body by hand to ensure

that each line is perfect.

- The idea is to go a little bit back

to the sporty cars of Maserati of the 60s.

You can do obviously with
the engine suspension

and other things,

but to transfer this feeling
with the design is not easy.

- [Narrator] While the
most striking change

is the Ghibli's size, the team
knows that it's the interior

that will sell the car to a luxury crowd.

- We took inspiration from
everything from nature,

from architecture in
order to be different.

- [Narrator] They use a full-size model

of the interior cockpit
called a design buck

to plan the inside of the cabin.

(contemplative music)

- One of the inspiration
was the helmet of a warrior.

For example, you can see these
elements looks like the mask.

- [Narrator] No matter
the machine's proportions,

it still requires an
Italian touch of style.

On the other side of the studio,

that look and feel comes to life,

thanks to image boards that
define potential customers.

- We can have different kind
of people driving the car.

(engine rumbles)

This is, for instance,

a person that's like doing lots of sports

and that has a very outdoor lifestyle,

a sense of freedom and the
challenge and all this.

We try to look at the details
of all the accessories

that they could be wearing.

We try then to find materials
that could be matching

and not just in then the colors,

atmosphere, but also in the attitude.

- [Narrator] The result is
an Italian interior tailored

for a mass market audience.

- 'Cause it's very important
to us to see the matching

of the colors if something
could work together

because sometimes it worse in your mind,

but then when you see it
in reality, it doesn't.

- [Narrator] While shrinking
the car is one challenge,

achieving supercar performance

on a mid-size saloon budget is another.

Engineers figure out how to do it

inside of the Maserati
Corsa facility located just

outside of Modena, Italy.

- There are mens both
on the design you see

and on the design you don't see

for reaching supercar performance.

- [Narrator] Right away,

engineers know outright
efficiency is essential.

- The supercar have a super performance.

They also have a super request
in the sense that you have

to have a very good
aerodynamic performance

in terms of drag resistance.

(engine revs)
(dramatic pounding music)

- [Narrator] To compete with supercars

at a fraction of the price,

designers work endlessly
in the wind tunnel

to find the lowest drag
coefficient possible.

Drag represents the amount
of resistance an object faces

as it travels through the air.

The lower the drag, the
easier it is for the car

to cut through the wind,
and the faster it goes.

(engine revs)

- If the car is a lot of drag,

you spend a lot of money to run it,

and the speed is not so high.

(engine revs)
(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, engineers
work to keep weight down

with affordable materials.
- What you can see,

and this is in this car that
goes a little beyond design,

is the the fight for weight reduction.

- [Narrator] The team
engineers the majority

of the machine out of aluminium,

including the hood, doors,
boot lid, and fenders.

(dramatic intense electronic music)

But saving weight goes
more than skin deep.

- And this was also to
treat the performance

through the reduction of weight.

- [Narrator] Reducing
weight has been a hallmark

of Italian supercars for decades.

Maserati has a unique
knowledge with the material

because it is the oldest automotive mark

in La Terra dei Motori,

otherwise known as Italy's Motor Valley.

(contemplative electronic music)

The company was founded
in 1914 by seven brothers.

Six were car enthusiasts.
One was an artist.

For the next 12 years,

the brothers modify cars
in a quest for speed,

but, in 1926, they branch out
and build their very first car

from the ground up, the Type 26.

It wins its very first
race, the Targa Florio,

one of the most dangerous
races in the world.

The Type 26 was the very first Maserati

to feature a trident on the grill.

- Seven brothers work in the company

except one that was an artist,

and the brother asked
him to design the logo

for their new company,

and he took inspiration from the trident

that is in the hands
of a statue in Bologna.

- [Narrator] A logo inspired
by the Neptune statue

in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore
and featured prominently

on the Maserati factory in Modena, Italy.

The area is hallowed
ground for supercar fans,

but the Maserati factory in Modena

was built when the city
was still farmland.

- This is the birthplace
of the modern supercar,

and Maserati is among those brands.

- [Narrator] Today,
Modena is a bustling city.

There's no place left
for the brand to expand.

(soft music)

Maserati has embarked on a new chapter

with a fresh take on the
luxury saloon market,

but they've outgrown the
company's historic home

in Modena, Italy.

To build the Ghibli,
they need a new factory.

(engine revs)
(uplifting music)

so the team zeroes in on another
Italian automotive center.

- Turin is a kind of
counterpart for Detroit

because it's really a motor city.

It's been living around
car manufacturing plants

for almost one century.

(engine revs)
(tires screech)

- You have your Silicon
Valley in California

for computer software, et cetera.

Here is a area where most
of the sportive engine

are born is northern Italy.

- [Narrator] In order to have any chance

of returning to the forefront
of Italian motoring,

Maserati must push for exponential growth.

- In order to survive, Maserati
needs to sell more cars.

- [Narrator] However,

dramatic expansion is not
without its challenges.

- To produce a car with
this kind of volume,

we need to have a complete new plan.

- So it was absolutely
impossible to foresee an increase

in production from 10,000 to 50,000.

So there was the need for
a plant where the two cars,

the Quattroporte and the Ghibli,

that share many components
in technical terms,

could be produced together
on the same flexible line.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The solution
is to move production

from Modena to Grugliasco, Turin.

The facility had been shut for three years

before Maserati's corporate parent, Fiat,

spends one billion euros
to bring it back to life.

- This was a plant that
produced car starting from 1963.

Then in 2006, they
stopped to produce, and,

for five years, the plant was closed.

And in 2011, we bought this plant,

and now we are producing new Maserati.

- They had already a paint shop

that was possible to convert, and finally,

we took the decision to
rehaul completely the plant.

- We removed all the equipments
in less than one year.

- [Narrator] The new Grugliasco
plant has the capacity

to build up to 200 units
per day using three shifts.

- Here we have body
wide. We have paint shop.

We have assembly shop.

All the plant is dedicated

to produce Ghibli and Quattroporte.

(engine revs)

You think that, two years ago,

this was a closed plant
with nothing, and now,

we are producing 140 car per day

with more than 2,000 people
involved in the production.

Is clearly a very, very good thing.

(machinery whirs)

- [Narrator] The Grugliasco factory

is a new home for an old brand,

but they start building the
Ghibli in a very traditional way

by manufacturing the frame inside

of the state-of-the-art body shop

where the first step is
building subassemblies

for the front and rear
portions of the chassis.

(machinery beeps and whirs)

Once completed, each subassembly heads

to the main welding line
where Ghibli bodies come

to life one spark at a time.

(dramatic electronic music)
(machinery whirs)

There are more than 1,000
welds in each machine,

and each world uses enough electricity

to power a house for a week.

(sparks hiss)

(sparks hiss)

(sparks hiss)

(tool buzzes)
(sparks hiss)

All of the complicated
aluminium engineering pays off.

The Ghibli weighs 50 kilograms
less than its big brother,

the Quattroporte.

Less weight helps acceleration.

(engine revs)
(tires screech)

The fastest Ghibli does
zero to 100 kilometers

per hour in just 4.8 seconds,

a heady time for a family saloon.

(dramatic music)

But speed alone isn't
enough when you're trying

to sell to new markets.

The Ghibli must also look the part.

It's the Italian styling

that adds the required supercar glamour.

- We are always on the blade

because it is not something
that is so extreme.

It's classic but not static.

Maserati want to put these
kind of dynamic proportion

on the sedan, and this
is the big difference.

- It's just a different kind of experience

from the German stuff.

There's a little bit more
art in there than science.

- [Narrator] Bringing the look and feel

of a sexy Italian supercar to the realm

of everyday drivers is
not as easy as it seems.

It introduces the engineering team

to a new kind of challenge.

- One of the challenges for Maserati

in transitioning from
supercar to a supercar sedan

is that they have to think
about more conventional things

like putting a child seat in the back

or keeping people safe.
- To be competitive

in the mid-size luxury saloon market,

engineers and designers need to focus just

as much on safety as high performance.

That safety is tested here
inside a crash test facility.

To meet modern crash standards,

the Ghibli chassis is
built around a safety cell.

(engine revs)

(crash booms and echoes)

(tape rewinds)

(crash thuds)
(glass shatters)

The airbags are fully
deployed in 50 milliseconds,

1/3 of the time it takes
for an average car crash

and literally the time
it takes to blink an eye.

The safety cell is
built with a combination

of different steel and
aluminium alloys in order

to channel the energy most
effectively during a crash.

That's important because
the forces acting on a car

during a crash can exceed 550 Kilonewtons.

That's over 30 times the
weight of the Ghibli itself

and 500 times the force of gravity.

(engine revs)
(dramatic electronic music)

With the machine safety
requirements solved,

the team turns its attention

to more traditional Italian concerns.

- This car, there was not
inside of the Maserati world.

There is a combination of proportions

and of design language.

- The elements are the
same elements we use

to build the Maserati image but are played

in a much more aggressive and strong way.

(engine revs)

- [Narrator] Ghibli looks like
a classic Italian supercar.

(dramatic music)

Maserati has shrunken
their supercar in order

to design and engineer
a new mid-size saloon.

To bring it to market, they've
had to rebuild a factory,

but the Ghibli still needs
a cutting-edge power plant

in order to compete on the world stage.

Paolo Martinelli,

a former Ferrari Formula
1 engine designer,

is the man tasked with bringing not one

but two new Maserati power plants to life.

(engines rev)

- The main goal is to realize an engine

with absolutely top performances

in the range of volume
that was a step ahead.

- [Narrator] The brand
builds two V-6 engines,

a fuel-efficient diesel,

and a petrol-based variant
built with performance in mind.

(engine revs)

It's no surprise where
that engine comes from.

- Maserati engine is
manufactured 100% in Maranello.

- [Narrator] Maranello,
Italy is the home of Ferrari

and where all Maserati engines
have been built since 2002.

Martinelli decides it's the best place

to build the new naturally
aspirated V-6 engine,

a three-liter power plant

that cranks out a potent 404 horsepower.

- It brings a lot of the
racing heritage of Maserati,

racing heritage of Ferrari into this car.

- [Narrator] Showcasing
the brand's racing heritage

was Maserati's most important goal.

(engine revs)
(soaring instrumental music)

The new Ghibli, however,

is entering a market where fuel economy

is just as important as
outright performance.

(engine revs)
(machinery whirs)

For the first time in the mark's history,

they introduced a diesel engine.

- Yeah, putting a diesel in it

is a totally different approach,

but they need that
engine to sell in Europe.

- [Narrator] The
twin-turbocharged three-liter V-6

is built at the VM Motori
Plant in Cento, Italy.

- I mean, they don't hand build
these cars the same way they

built Maseratis in the 1960s,

but it's the same people
with the same kind

of passion for the cars, and
if you ever go to, you know,

an Italian car factory,
these people are passionate.

(dramatic electronic music)

- [Narrator] Both engines
have supercar sensibilities.

The question is whether or not the brand

can build enough for mass production.

- The challenge is to realize a project

for a sportive engine
but in a bigger volume.

- They made it very public
that, within five years,

they wanted to sell 50,000 cars worldwide.

Now Maserati's a company that's struggled

to sell 5,000 cars in a good year.

10 times their volume is
a very ambitious goal,

but a car like this, if it takes off,

if it starts selling well will
be a crucial part of that.

(engine revs)
(soft contemplative music)

- [Narrator] Engineers test
both engines repeatedly

in a climate-controlled environment

that replicates the warmest

and coldest places on the planet.

- [Lorenzo] Of course, there are data

that we normally collect the
computational fuel dynamic.

- [Narrator] The room ranges

from minus 40 degrees centigrade

all the way to 50 degrees centigrade.

They tune the signature
Maserati sound as well.

(engine revs)

(engine revs)

- Maserati, I think, is a
nice car in terms of styling

and in term of performances
and with the feeling

and the sound, for
instance, of the Maserati.

(engine rumbles)

The characteristic is, when
you push the gas pedal,

(engine revs)

your exhaust system is able to inform you

that you're driving a Maserati.

(engine rumbles)
(contemplative music)

- [Narrator] While the team continues

to refine the two engines,

at the Grugliasco factory in
a cutting-edge paint shop,

bare Ghibli bodies get
ready for some color.

First, the aluminium body is prepped.

Body gaps are measured by hand

to ensure perfect panel alignment.

(machinery whirs)

(tools buzzes)

- Look, Italian is all about sex appeal.

A lot of it doesn't really matter

what is underneath the car.

It's that appeal when
you first look at it,

and the Ghibli certainly looks different.

- [Narrator] Once the body
work passes quality control,

the bare metal is ready to be dipped

in an electrochemical
bath that prevents rust.

(spray hisses)

- Here the car is coming
from seven different bath

to prepare the body for
the very first paint.

(spray hisses)

We gave a negative charge to the body

and a positive one to the to the bath.

With this electric charge,

the paint can stick very,
very strong to the body.

After this 10 to 12-minute bath,

the car is ready for a second wash

and to open treatment to
dry the the paint coat.

- [Narrator] Now it's time for some paint.

(soft ethereal music)
(paint hisses)

The Ghibli is available in 13 colors,

each of which is applied by a combination

of artisan painters and high-tech robots.

The robots spin paint at
45,000 revolutions a minute,

and they're extremely precise.

The margin for error in the paint shop

is plus or minus half a
millionth of a centimeter.

That's a little wider than a human hair.

At the last station, each
body gets a clear coat.

- Robots do make some
things more efficient,

but it's not a way that you
would think of everything

is being done by robots,
and they're checking them,

and they're really working on them,

and then they're moving on to the next.

It's a much slower process.

(machinery creaks)

- [Narrator] Finally, each
body is polished by hand

(polishing machine buzzes)

until there's a mirror-like finish.

(electronic music)

Now the newly painted body
is ready to head to the line.

(machinery whirs)

- So the first station
of our assembly shop.

We have Quattroporte and Ghibli.

We produce both in the same line.

There is a Ghibli that's
arrived from paint shop.

- Here, the car drop down from the chain.

In the first three session,
we assembly the cables.

(cables clatter)

- [Narrator] While both
vehicles share one line,

the emphasis on individual
quality and care is paramount.

(upbeat electronic music)

- For us, it was important to have a plan

that is according with
the history of Maseratis.

Of course, the assembly is mandatory

for a kind of car like this, a supercar.

(engines rev)

The most important thing that we use,

a lot of very skilled
workers have the ability

to ensure the very good
quality that we need.

- [Narrator] While building
the factory took almost a year,

it takes even longer to train
a new workforce to operate it.

- 300,000 hours of training
because we need to have people

that know very well our production method.

(upbeat electronic music)

- [Narrator] A production method

that's based on the
brand's historic roots.

- It's just that whole kind of feeling

of old-world craftsmanship.

- [Narrator] A tradition that continues

on the dashboard subassembly line

where they install a steering
column, wiring harness.

(drill buzzes)

Then it's time for the instrument panel,

which features a high-tech
touch control screen

and Bowers & Wilkins audio system.

Once complete, the dashboard
is sent to the line.

It's one of 3,000 parts
that must be coordinated

within the factory.

Then it's time for the interior,

which features an advanced
wifi system intended

to lure a much younger demographic.

Each system is installed by hand,

a historic Maserati building
trait that's hard to continue

as the brand tries to increase volume.

- I've never tried to build on this scale,

so yet they also need to make
sure the quality stays high,

and that's a little bit hard to do

when you've got to do so many cars

and you've gotta be turning
them over so much more quickly.

- [Narrator] Each body is transported

across the factory by a
series of yellow hooks.

- These yellow hooks allows us

to have always a perfect
position for the workers.

(contemplative music)
(machinery whirs)

- [Narrator] The hooks can
rotate nearly 90 degrees.

- We can also rotate the car to work

on the bottom part of the body

and the pipes of the brake system.

With this chain, we can also
transport all the bodies

along the chassis line
and also send the car

to the last station of the final line.

- [Narrator] Maserati
inherited the C hook technology

from Ferrari, and, on the
other side of the factory,

engines arrive from Maranello.

Each engine's treated with care

as it's escorted to the line.

- We're in the first station
of the powertrain area,

and we put the engine
together with the gearbox.

- So we receive this engine from Ferrari.

This kind of engine and
this kind of gearbox

is one of the reason of
the success of this car.

(engines rev)

- You could build anything
in Maranello and say,

"Hey, Ferrari built it,"
and it would be amazing.

It's the Ferrari engine.
They are the engine gods.

So if they're building this V-6,

why wouldn't you tell the world?

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] They connect it

to a ZF eight-speed
automatic transmission.

(tool buzzes)

Once preassembled,

the engine is sent to the drivetrain line.

- We are in the center
of the powertrain area.

Here, we put together the
front and rear suspension,

the engine, and the gear shaft.

- [Narrator] Workers
attach the exhaust pipes.

The front suspension is bolted on.

Then radiators are installed.

(chains clink)

The half-built drivetrain
is then transferred

to another line where
craftsmen install the back half

of the unique Maserati exhaust system.

(upbeat music)
(machinery whirs and clanks)

Workers install the drive shaft,

(drills whir)

fuel cell.

Once the drivetrain is built up,

it's ready to meet the body.

- We're in the middle of chassis line.

This is the (speaks in
foreign language) station.

Here, we put together the body

and all the powertrain components.

- [Narrator] The drivetrain
joins the body of the car

and is held together by just 18 bolts,

bolts that the brand is
counting on for global growth.

- This is probably the entry
level Italian exotic car.

Otherwise you're spending six figures,

and this car's under six figures,

and there just aren't any other players

in that segment from Italy.
- Maserati's plans are clear.

(contemplative music)

For decades, the trident has
stood for Italian luxury,

a culture constantly evolved.

Symbols alone don't get the job done.

Maserati's answer is to
gamble on the Ghibli.

- And you want to do a car
that can stand a long time

without getting dated or getting old.

We want to make kind of instant classic.

(engine rumbles)

- [Narrator] Inside
the Grugliasco factory,

that instant classic is taking
shape one bumper at a time.

(bright upbeat music)
(wrapping groans)

- We'll assemble the front
area bumpers and the wheels.

- [Narrator] With the body work finished,

it's time for some hot wheels.

(engine revs)
(tires screech)

(tool buzzes)

Then the luxury seats

and doors.

The Ghibli is almost ready for prime time.

But before it can leave the
factory, it has to hit the road.

(engine revs)

- We are in front of
the rolling test bench.

We test 100% of our car to our top speed

of 140 kilometers per hour.

This test is to verify
the perfect adjustment

of the engine shaft.

- [Narrator] Once the Ghibli
has put the pedal to the metal,

it's time for a bump in the road,

a 50-kilometer-long pothole,

(machinery rumbles)

followed by a lengthy
shower to look for leaks.

(water sprays)

- We're in front of the water test.

We clean the car after the road test

in the first part of the tunnel,

and the second part of this machine

is to test the waterproof
ceiling of the car.

- [Narrator] A few more final checks

and the machine is
ready for the real world

where its first task will be

to broaden the brand's
appeal and lead their growth.

- Maserati is not super well known.

You hear the name Maserati, and
it evokes something Italian,

something expensive, but not
necessarily a four-door sedan.

- Maserati exists in this
strange kind of place

where everyone associates it with Ferrari,

and the biggest challenge for
Maserati is getting people

to realize that it's not a
ridiculously expensive car.

- [Narrator] Starting at 52,000 euros,

the machine thrusts the
mark into new territory

that's radically different than Ferrari,

its corporate parent.
- BMWs and Mercedes and Audis

are just kind of everywhere these days.

If you wanna stand out and
have something different,

you can have a Maserati.

That's a big difference.

- [Narrator] That big difference
has led to a very big bet,

all in the hopes of growing tenfold.

- Maserati wants to sell a lot of cars

because you need to sell a lot of cars

to keep your profits up and
run a successful business.

(soaring instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Maserati hopes
to go from 5,000 units a year

to 50,000.
- They need to weigh the pros

and cons of moving down market.

There's definitely more of a con,

especially if they're
chasing 50,000 sales.

- [Narrator] To chase sales,

the brand is banking on
its Italian heritage.

- Cars have kind of picked up traits

of their home countries.

Italian cars have always
had this passionate

and very beautiful and elegant to look at.

(engine revs)
(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] That Italian
passion culminates

inside of the engine bay

where the Ferrari-built twin-turbo V-6

(engine revs)

generates 404 horsepower.

The engine reaches 90%
of its 550 Newton meters

of torque at just 4,500 RPM.

- If you keep your foot in it,

it'll surprise you at how
quickly it accelerates.

Once you rev it past
four grand or five grand,

the thing just comes alive,

which is a really Italian
thing is a high revving engine.

(engines rev)
(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Put your foot
down and the Ghibli screams

from zero to 60 in just under 4.8 seconds.

(contemplative music)

(engine revs)

- It's an emotional experience
'cause you're waiting for it,

waiting for it, and then boom, it hits.

- It's very clear when
you get in the the Ghibli

that somebody paid attention
to the way that engine sounds

and the way the sound responds

to what the transmission's doing.

- [Narrator] Keep your
foot down long enough

and the Ghibli will reach a top speed

of 284 kilometers an hour.

(engines rev)

- Ghibli's a quietly fast
car. It sneaks up on you.

You don't realize just
how quickly you're going.

You watch that needle
on the speedometer go.

How did I get here? It
pulls and pulls and pulls.

- [Narrator] Lightweight
construction paired

with 50-50 weight distribution

help give the Ghibli a
sporty feel on the track.

(engine revs)

- One of the the great things
about Italian cars in general,

and Maserati does this very well,

is that they keep this emotional
connection in the vehicle.

(upbeat music)

You can get in some cars and
it's a piece of machinery.

It gets you from point A to
point B and does it just fine,

does it perfectly reliable,

but there's nothing
particularly exciting about it.

You don't walk in your
garage every day and smile.

- [Narrator] After years of planning,

the Ghibli is ready to add
a touch of Italian flare

to the mid-size saloon market.

Whether Maserati's bold
gamble to expand pays off

is now up to customers around the world.

- Supercars are built to a standard.

They're not built to a price.

When you start building
a car like this that has

to compete in the 50 to $100,000 segment,

you have to start building
things to a price,

and you have to start cutting corners,

and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

It's just a bigger challenge.

(machinery whirs)
(engine revs)

- The car has a soul to
it. It wants to be driven.

It rewards you.

Wen you go around a
corner and you push it,

you get this great sound.

(engine revs)

- The draw of this car is
unquestionably the way it looks

and the emotions it evokes.

It looks, it sounds, it smells, it feels,

and that's what the Ghibli's about.

If you don't want any of that in your car,

there are plenty of other options.

If you want something different,

something that makes you
feel special every day,

that's why you bought the Maserati.

(engine revs)