Equipment
4.7-liter engine, quadruple Weber carbs, Campagnolo wheels, dual mirrors, wood-rim steering wheel, power windows, AM/FM radio, Veglia dash clock.
Condition
#3 Good
Runs and drives well. Flaws not noticeable to passersby. Most common condition.
Numerous paint chips and light cracks in the nose and headlight covers as well as microblisters along the rockers, small blisters on the trunk and cracks on the tail. Aged wheels. Very good chrome. Imperfect door fit. Mellowed but sound and complete interior. Bottom lip is dented a bit. This is a 20 foot car that only reveals shortcomings up close. There were only 128 Ghibli Spiders built, but this one is even more special as the prototype introduced on the Ghia stand at the Turin Auto Show in 1968. Differences between it and the production version include a longer tail, lack of an external filler cap and different badging. It was repainted in 1975 and then put away in 1986 before being discovered and refurbished recently. Given that it's almost completely original and that it's the very first of the coveted Ghibli Spiders, this car's shortcomings are easy to look past and it's actually quite impressive.
Market commentary
RM's presale estimate proved a bit ambitious in this case, but this car still had plenty of interest and brought well above what even a #1 car would bring and almost twice what a regular production example in this condition would. Its new owner gets meaningful bragging rights including the correct application of the often misused adjective 'unique'. It is realistically expensive and the transaction is almost totally unrelated to the result for any other Ghibli Spider.