Rare Maserati Ghibli Primatist crops up on sale in Russia

A 24-year-old Maserati Ghibli Primatist coupe is looking for a new owner in Novosibirsk, Russia. It is the only second-generation Primatist model on sale in that country right now, if not Russia’s only Primatist in existence.

The coupe has 52,000 km (32,300 miles) under its belt and sports an OEM Ultramarine Blue paintjob with a dual-tone leather interior and light-hued wood accents. The description states that it had long served as a museum exhibit in Novosibirsk and Moscow, and cannot be made street-worthy due to legal limitations of some kind.

The asking price is 3 million Rubles, or approximately $41,235 USD. Given the current supply chain disruption and exorbitant dealership premiums on most new cars, you could just about buy a Toyota Camry in Russia for that kind of money.

A two-liter turbocharged engine churns out 306 PS (302 hp / 225 kW), but pop open the hood, and you will see it’s actually a V6, rather than the usual inline-four mill. A six-speed manual transmission conveys the momentum to the rear axle, enabling a sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 255 km/h (158 miles per hour).

The first-gen Maserati Ghibli came out in 1967–1973 and the second one in 1992–1998. The Primatist Special Edition emerged in a batch of just 60 units to celebrate a motorboat speed record set by a Maserati Ghibli-engined boat on Lake Lugano in the fall of 1996. The boat managed to maintain an average speed of nearly 217 km/h (135 miles per hour) throughout a kilometer-long stretch of water.